OUR PEOPLE
Our team is made up of rigorously mission-focused, outcomes-driven, detail-oriented thinkers and doers who share the following qualities: deep intellectual curiosity, a passion for climate and economic policy, a love of relationship-building, and a commitment to building grassroots power for a more just economy and society.
BPRC Team
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Prior to leading the Building Power Resource Center, Yong Jung (she/her) served as the National Field Director for the Green New Deal Network. She built a network of dozens of state-wide coalitions to develop and champion climate policies at all levels of government, including the Inflation Reduction Act. In the last 14 years, Yong Jung mobilized tens of thousands of young people for climate action, co-founded a national political organization, led electoral campaigns from the municipal to presidential levels, and worked on historic legislative fights. Yong Jung brings policy expertise, strategic campaigning and coalition building skills, and facilitation savvy to all of her work. She has a Master in Public Administration from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and graduated magna cum laude with honors in political science from Bryn Mawr College.
Yong Jung Cho
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Sonal (she/her) is an environmental and energy justice advocate and public health expert. Previously, she served as the Director of Policy at WE ACT for Environmental Justice, leading the New York policy team and advancing the organization’s policy agenda at the local, state, and national levels. Sonal spearheaded several successful policy campaigns, including New York State's Cumulative Impacts law and New York City’s All-Electric New Buildings Act. She is renowned for her work in advancing environmental and energy justice through policy and program implementation, particularly at the intersection of public health, air quality, and healthy housing. Sonal is a member of the New York State Climate Justice Working Group and the New York City Sustainability Advisory Board. She is also a Climate and Community Project Fellow and a board member for the Northeast Energy Efficiency Partnerships. Sonal holds an MPH in Population and Family Health, with a concentration in Climate and Health, from Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health.
Sonal Jessel
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Chelsea (she/her) is an accomplished campaign strategist, organizer, facilitator, and researcher with over a decade of experience in the climate justice movement. Previously, Chelsea led Sierra Club’s federal organizing program, where she spearheaded dozens of congressional and federal advocacy campaigns, including the successful campaign to pass and implement the Inflation Reduction Act. As an executive leader of the Progressive Workers’ Union, she fought for and enforced groundbreaking contracts and led intersectional labor, environmental, and racial justice campaigns. Chelsea received a B.A. in Environmental Studies with a concentration in environmental justice at Yale University, and is currently working towards her M.S. in Environmental Policy and Sustainability Management at The New School. She lives on the land of the Lenape people in Brooklyn, NY.
Chelsea Watson
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Shannen (she/her) is a public policy and advocacy strategist from Mexico, MO, home to her family's fourth-generation farm. She previously served as a Policy Advisor in the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) Program Office. In this role, she led stakeholder engagement initiatives across the IRA's clean energy tax credits and worked with state and local governments around the country to raise awareness of the opportunities unlocked by the IRA and Direct Pay.
While completing her Master in Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School, her research focused on accelerating equitable IRA implementation and clean energy development in under-resourced communities.
She has worked on electoral campaigns at the federal and local levels, as well as led national advocacy efforts for federal legislation to support family farmers and sustainable farming practices. A former BPRC Senior Fellow, Shannen currently lives in New York, NY, with her dog, June Bug.
Shannen Maxwell
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Zoë is an experienced advocate and researcher passionate about developing and winning Green New Deal-style climate policies. Over the past decade, she has organized for climate justice at the state, national, and international level, including as a co-founder of Sunrise Bay Area, the Political & Partnerships Manager at Sunrise Movement, and a campaigner at Amazon Watch.
After successfully organizing to pass the Inflation Reduction Act, Zoë returned to graduate school to deepen her understanding of climate policy implementation. During the program, she collaborated with local governments, community-based organizations, and utilities to design and implement neighborhood-scale building decarbonization projects in California and Massachusetts.
Zoë holds a Masters in City Planning from MIT’s Department of Urban Studies & Planning and a Bachelor of Arts with high honors in Political Science from Swarthmore College.
Zoë Cina-Sklar
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Sinéad (she/her) has a decade of experience in the social justice nonprofit and philanthropic sector, with an emphasis on mobilizing resources to organizations building progressive BIPOC-led cultural, narrative, and civic power. A generalist with experience working across multiple issue areas, she previously worked as a national grantmaker at the Surdna and Nathan Cummings Foundations; held fellowships at BPRC, Make the Road New York, and NYU Wagner; and played field-building roles by serving on the boards of several pooled funds, professional associations, and nonprofits.
Sinéad hold an MPA in Public & Nonprofit Management & Policy with a specialization in Advocacy & Political Action from NYU Wagner, as well as a BA in Art History from Northwestern University. Born and raised in Las Vegas, NV, Sinéad has multi-generational Xicanx roots in NM and is proudly celebrating 11 years in New York City. Personally and professionally, she remains steadfastly committed to the collective work of imagining and implementing a more just and equitable world.
Sinéad López
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Bill (he/him) spent 23 years founding, growing, and eventually running the New York Working Families Party. He helped elect hundreds of candidates at the local and statewide level and passed dozens of bills in New York, including groundbreaking legislation requiring paid sick days in New York City, as well as the state’s Climate Leadership Community Protection Act. Since then, Bill has been working on projects that support a just transition.
Bill Lipton
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Shrayas (he/him) is supporting BPRC with equitable, neighborhood-scale decarbonization in California.
Shrayas is a good jobs and clean energy campaigner with nearly 20 years of experience in organizing, advocacy, and technical assistance inside and outside of government. Most recently, he was the labor and workforce advisor at the Department of Energy's Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy (EERE) where he established programs to advance quality, accessible job creation across clean energy sectors. Shrayas helped lead the State of California's High Road agenda before then, managing production of a state action plan to unite California's bold climate and shared prosperity agendas and creating an interagency technical assistance program to operationalize action plan recommendations. Prior to entering government service, Shrayas was a policy advocate and field organizer helping secure historic levels of funding for climate equity programs in California and adoption of energy-efficient building codes in New Mexico.
Shrayas Jatkar
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Jill Collins (she/her) is an urban planner and engineer advancing climate resilience and sustainability through planning and policy, data-driven analysis and visualization, built environment design, and community engagement. She currently works as a Resilience Consultant at Arup, where she supports public, private, and nonprofit clients in developing holistic resilience solutions that prepare them for future climate conditions.
Jill’s work has spanned statewide coastal resilience planning, city decarbonization roadmaps, and housing resilience design guidelines. She is passionate about ensuring communities are meaningfully engaged in the planning process and helping cities develop solutions that promote public health, support workforce development, and build long-term resilience.
Jill holds a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Health Engineering from Tufts University. Originally from Evanston, IL, she now lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.
Jill Collins
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James Freeman (they/them) was born and raised in Baltimore, MD. Their focus is on finding strategies to transform our energy systems with urgency to meet the climate crisis while ensuring the transition does not entrench existing inequities.
James previously worked as a Policy Advisor to a Los Angeles County Supervisor, developing environmental and energy policy for the County’s ten million residents. Their legislative work spanned building decarbonization, just transition pathways, clean power procurement, climate resilience, energy justice, and implementation of Los Angeles County’s first countywide Sustainability Plan.
They recently received their Master of Environmental Management degree from Yale School of the Environment, where they studied the intersections of energy justice, affordable housing, and climate adaptation. Their projects ranged from developing a proposal for infill affordable housing built to Passive House standards in New Haven to assisting Indigenous-led renewable energy project development on Tribal lands. They hope to continue to support community-led sustainable development to create vibrant, resilient, and affordable communities.
In their free time, James likes to walk and run in Rock Creek Park, read fantasy and sci-fi, be in queer community, and try in vain to improve their cooking.
James Freeman
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Rasha is a climate and public policy professional committed to advancing equitable decarbonization through community-centered solutions. She holds a Master of Public Administration in Development Practice from Columbia University's School of International & Public Affairs, where she focused on climate policy, urban sustainability, and equitable development.
Prior to joining BPRC, Rasha worked on building decarbonization and climate strategy projects with the New York State Energy Research & Development Authority (NYSERDA), the United Nations System Staff College, and other public- and private-sector partners. Her work has spanned neighborhood-scale decarbonization, climate policy implementation, supply chain emissions, and capacity building, with a focus on translating research into actionable strategies that expand access and deliver benefits for residents and communities.
Drawing on experience in education, partnerships, and program management, Rasha is passionate about building durable climate programs that strengthen community power, expand public capacity, and support a just energy transition.
Rasha Shahul
Our Alumni
BPRC is grateful to the former fellows and advisors in our alumni network who previously lent their talents and expertise to help build the organization and advance the team’s mission.
Alvaro Sánchez, Senior Advisor
Theo Daniels, 2025 Fellow
Josefina Hajek-Herrera, 2025 Fellow
Eric Holmberg, 2025 Fellow