Grassroots Advisory Council
The MFN Grassroots Advisory Council consists of Regional Representatives who serve as the point person for their region, help facilitate activities and programs at the regional level and build capacity and lend their perspectives to guide MFN’s organizational strategy.
Regional Representatives
Kelli Koontz-Wilson
Coalition for Healthy Ports Coordinator
New York/New Jersey Region
Kelli Koontz-Wilson is a native and resident of Newark, New Jersey. She has coordinated Drug and Alcohol Prevention Programs for the Leaguers, Inc., the National Council for Drug and Alcohol Dependence, as well as the Jersey City Communities that Care Coalition.
Her passion has been to engage the community to use the Arts to promote anti-drug campaigns using a Peer Leadership model. Her ATOD (Alcohol, Tobacco and Other Drugs) work with the Coalition also involved assisting volunteers to improve their communities utilizing an Environmental Strategies model.
Learn More About Kelli
Kelli is ecstatic to work for Clean Water Action as the Coordinator for Healthy Ports. She feels that there is no cause more vital than the environment, and no organization more passionate and dedicated than Clean Water Action.
mark! Lopez
East Yard Communitites for Environmental Justice
mark! Lopez comes from a family with a long history of activism. He was raised in the Madres del Este de Los Angeles Santa Isabel (Mothers of East LA Santa Isabel – MELASI), an organization co-founded by his grandparents, Juana Beatriz Gutierrez and Ricardo Gutierrez. This set his trajectory as a community activist.
Learn More About mark!
mark! engaged in a wide array of student activism at UC Santa Cruz where he earned his B.A. in Environmental Studies, and taught university courses at UC Santa Cruz, Cal State Northridge, and UCLA Extension. mark! earned his M.A. from the Chican@ Studies Department at Cal State Northridge, where he completed his Masters thesis titled “The Fire: Decolonizing “Environmental Justice.”
mark! joined East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice as a member three years before joining the staff. After serving as Lead Organizer for East Yard Communities and Co-Director with EYCEJ Co-Founder Angelo Logan, mark! served as the Executive Director for over 6 years. He is now serving as Eastside Community Organizer & Special Projects Coordinator. He organizes in the area where he was born, raised and continues to live. mark! is the 2017 North American Recipient of the Goldman Environmental Prize.
Dr. Mildred McClain
Harambee House Inc.
Southeast Region
Mildred represents the Southeast Regional Network that includes Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina and Florida. Mildred is executive director of Harambee House Inc./Citizens for Environmental Justice in Savannah, Georgia. Dr. McClain has been a human rights activist and teacher for over 40 years. She serves on EPA’s National Environmental Justice Advisory Council.
Juan Parras
Texas Environmental Justice Advocacy Services
Juan represents the Houston/Gulf region of the Moving Forward Network. Juan has been organizing community voices for years, beginning as a social worker with the Harris County Welfare Office and later with City of Houston Section 8 Housing Department, where he organized workers at both offices. Juan eventually was elevated to be an International Union Representative for AFSCME as an International Union Representative until 1993 where his efforts reestablished MLK day and impeached Governor Evan Mecham of Arizona.
Learn More About Juan
In 1995, Juan and his wife Ana Parras formed Unidos Contra Environmental Racism, which was later renamed T.e.j.a.s (Texas Environmental Justice Advocacy Services). Juan was an original member of the National Environmental Justice Advisory Council (NEJAC), and has served on many other boards and is the recipient of several awards. He is currently an Environmental Justice Ambassador for the Gulf of Mexico Alliance.
With over 40 years of organizing and work from social services to labor to environmental justice, Juan Parras can attest to the empowering force behind marrying issues of intersectionality in environmental work for marginalized communities.
Ramsey Sprague
Mobile Environmental Justice Action Coalition
Ramsey represents the Southeast Regional Network that includes Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina and Florida. Ramsey is the President of the Mobile Environmental Justice Action Coalition.
Taylor (Tee) Thomas
East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice
Southern California Region
Taylor represents the Southern California region of the Moving Forward Network. She has supported organizing for quality and affordable education, and worked with folks experiencing homelessness. Taylor is the Co-Director for East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice and lives in Long Beach. Taylor aims to combine art, sustainability, compassion and social justice into a movement of love.
Vanessa Thomas
Ironbound Community Corporation
Vanessa is an Environmental Justice Organizer with Ironbound Community Corporation, where she assists in efforts and campaigns to advance local, regional, and state Environmental Justice through education, organizing, and policy advocacy. Vanessa serves on the Resilient Northeastern NJ Steering Committee and as the RNJ Community Advisory Council Lead, and is on the Passaic River Community Advisory Group.
For general inquiries to the Moving Forward Network, please email info@movingforwardnetwork.com.