Carmelita is an experienced leader in energy justice, managing expert teams and coalitions that promote the improvement of access to clean and affordable energy, equitable decision making processes, and the inclusion of members of impacted and vulnerable communities in the country’s green economy. She is a community-rooted strategist and a legal advocate with deep policy and regulatory experience. Over the years, Carmelita has helped secure key affordability and protection measures and successes in integrating housing and economic development policies with energy to deliver a holistic solution to addressing the racial disparities in climate change policies. She is a champion of clean energy policies that have direct, economic benefits to low-income and environmental justice communities while supporting just and equitable decarbonization of our natural and built environment. Carmelita most recently served as Senior Director of Climate Equity for The Greenlining Institute, where she has worked since 2013.  She was born in the Philippines and immigrated to the unceded land of the Ramaytush Ohlone people in the San Francisco Bay Area and holds a J.D. degree from UC Hastings College of the Law.