Chapter Leaders

Midwest

📍 Chicago, IL

Ben Bagdikian Fellow at Mother Jones

Siri Chilukuri is a Chicago-based reporter who writes about climate change, politics, labor, and housing. She’s previously worked at Grist, City Bureau, and Floodlight. She is the co-founder and co-director of LGBTQ+ Affinity Group of the Asian American Journalists Association and the Vice President of AAJA Chicago.

Why did you want to become a chapter leader? “I wanted to be a chapter leader so that I could bring Midwest climate journalists of color together to socialize, build relationships, and talk about how we can collaborate and support one another.”

@schilukuri1

Southern California

📍 Los Angeles, CA

Amber X. Chen (she/her) is a journalist from Los Angeles, covering environmental justice. Her writing has appeared in The Guardian, Teen Vogue, Atmos Magazine and the Los Angeles Times, among other publications.

Why did you want to become a chapter leader? “As a young environmental journalist, Uproot has been an incredibly valuable source of community for me and I wanted to give back to that.”

@amberonradio

Northern California

📍 San Francisco, CA

Ezra David Romero (he/him) covers the absence and excess of water in the Bay Area — think sea level rise, flooding and drought. For nearly a decade he’s covered how warming temperatures are altering the lives of Californians. He’s reported on farmers worried their pistachio trees aren’t getting enough sleep, families desperate for water, scientists studying dying giant sequoias, and alongside firefighters containing wildfires. His work has appeared on local stations across California and nationally on public radio shows like Morning Edition, Here and Now, All Things Considered and Science Friday.

Why did you want to become a chapter leader? I wanted to hold space for other climate journalists of color in California. 

Twitter/X: @ezraromero

DMV

📍 Washington, DC

Jennifer is currently an air pollution and climate reporter on Bloomberg Law’s environment desk in Washington, DC. She focuses on environmental justice, regulation, and litigation. She has bylines in Scientific American, Nature, Science Magazine, and PBS Newshour, and built the climate law and litigation beat at E&E News before transitioning to Bloomberg. She is also DC chapter leader for the Arab and Middle Eastern Journalists Association and an active member of the Bloomberg INDG Guild.

Why did you want to become a chapter leader? The Uproot Network is doing an incredible job at filling gaps in newsroom representation for environmental journalists of color, while simultaneously uplifting our work and accomplishments on a national scale. I wanted to be more involved with the Uproot mission on a local level, and create spaces to be in community with Uprooters cross the DMV.

Twitter/X: @JenHijaz

Pacific Northwest

📍 Portland, OR

B. ‘Toastie’ Oaster (they/them) is an award-winning journalist and a staff writer for High Country News writing from the Pacific Northwest. They cover Indigenous affairs and are a citizen of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma.

Why did you want to become a chapter leader? “By connecting with other BIPOC journalists in the Pacific Northwest, we can all support and strengthen each other.”

@toastie@journa.host

Southeast

📍 Atlanta, GA (but currently based in Boston for grad school!)

Born and raised in Hong Kong, Alex (he/him) is the Founder and Editor in Chief of The Xylom, a student-led newsroom exploring the communities influencing and shaped by science. He also recently led a team to translate the KSJ Science Editing Handbook into Chinese (Traditional and Simplified). Alex is pursuing a Master’s degree in Science Writing from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; he holds a bachelor’s degree in Environmental Engineering from Georgia Tech.

Why did you want to become a chapter leader? “I wanted to be a chapter leader because I hope to connect more young environmental journalists of color, especially in the American South!”

@alexip718

New York & New Jersey

📍 New York City, NY

Jordan Gass-Pooré (she/her) is an award-winning podcast producer and investigative journalist. Presently, Jordan is the creator and host of “Hazard NJ,” a limited-series podcast produced by NJ Spotlight News/NJ PBS about the impacts of climate change on hazardous Superfund sites in New Jersey. She’s also the creator and co-host of “Hazard NYC,” a multimedia project produced by the nonprofit news outlet THE CITY that highlights the different ways climate change and extreme weather will impact New York City’s four federal Superfund sites.

Why did you want to become a chapter leader? “I wanted to be a chapter leader to form community and collaborate with Uprooters in New Jersey and New York.”