Alexa Ross
Alexa Ross is a former member of the Maypop Collective for Climate and Economic Justice, which advocates for a just transition away from a fossil-fuel economy of exploitation and greed to community-centered, clean-energy economies that take care of people and ecosystems.[1]
In 2017 Alexa Ross was a full-time organizer with Philly Thrive, an environmental justice organization she co-founded with Dinah Dewald, Zein Nakhoda, and others that campaigns for the Right to Breathe. The work of cultivating a multi-racial basebuilding social movement organization for the past two years has given Alexa the opportunity to follow her instinct for locally-rooted, relationship-powered organizing as a key strategy for addressing the climate crisis. Alexa is also a Re-evaluation Co-Counseling teacher as a means for healing the damage the oppressive society has caused individuals that derails efforts to end structural oppression. Though a part of her heart will always be with her family & the ecosystems of Nebraska, Alexa currently lives in the same house Maypop got their start in in 2013.[2]
Philly Thrive
Since 2015, Alexa Ross and Carol White have joined together with other local residents to build Philly Thrive, a grassroots organization focused on winning back the Right to Breathe from the largest oil refinery on the east coast. Ms Carol has been a community leader in South Philadelphia for decades, and she's grown as a staunch advocate for environmental justice watching family members & neighbors pass away from the refinery's pollution spewing in her backyard. Alexa has been organizing for climate justice for nine years, getting her start campaigning for fossil fuel divestment at Swarthmore College and growing politically as a member of the Maypop Collective. The two met when Alexa knocked on Ms Carol's door, and since have been cultivating a multiracial, cross-class organization contesting politically for a just transition from fossil fuels in Philadelphia.[3]
Maypop Collective
Maypop Collective members May 2014.
Will Lawrence, Zein Nakhoda, Dinah Dewald, Alexa Ross, Hannah Jones, Sachie Hopkins Hayakawa.