Announcing Cohort 4 - Young Leaders
We’re excited to introduce the 12 Changemakers selected for Walking Softer’s fourth cohort of Young Leaders. This year’s cohort is advancing solutions across climate education, environmental justice, composting, biomaterials, clean technology, water access, and land reform.
September 2, 2026
We’re excited to introduce the 12 Changemakers selected for Walking Softer’s fourth cohort of Young Leaders. This year’s cohort is advancing solutions across climate education, environmental justice, composting, biomaterials, clean technology, water access, and land reform.
Over the next several months, they’ll receive $50,000 in non-dilutive funding, executive coaching, an all-expenses-paid leadership retreat, and a final showcase during San Francisco Climate Week. We’re excited to support them as they grow their ideas and deepen their impact.
Bailey Hutchison - TruCulture Community Farm & Market
Bailey Hutchison is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of TruCulture Community Farm & Market, a Black Afro-Indigenous community farm/food enterprise advancing food sovereignty, cultural preservation, ecological stewardship, and economic opportunity across the Gulf South. As a fourth-generation grower, herbalist, ethnobotanist, and community leader born and raised in New Orleans’ historic Seventh Ward, Bailey’s work is rooted in restoring relationships between people, land, food, and culture through regenerative agriculture and community-centered education.
Bailey holds a Bachelor of Science in Natural Resource Ecology and Management from Louisiana State University. Her training includes immersive study at One Family Farm in Trinidad and Tobago, where she deepened her knowledge of tropical agroecology, regenerative agrarian techniques, and diasporic foodways. She is also an alumna of the Braiding Seeds Fellowship, Soul Fire Farm, the Young Farmers PLACE Fellowship, Propeller Impact Accelerator, and other nationally recognized leadership programs focused on regenerative agriculture, food justice, and equitable food systems.
As the visionary behind TruCulture Community, Bailey has led the organization from a grassroots initiative into a growing regional enterprise that includes a six-acre regenerative farm in Mississippi, a mobile farmers market and teaching kitchen serving New Orleans, and an expanding educational retreat and living classroom.
About TruCulture Community Farm & Market:
TruCulture is a community farm and marketplace that bridges the deep cultural connections between the South and Caribbean Islands, extending across the Black
Diaspora. Operating between New Orleans, Louisiana, and Hattiesburg, Mississippi, our mission is to preserve, celebrate, and activate Black diasporic and Indigenous cultural practices, land stewardship methods, foodways, agrarian techniques, life skills, healing, and art-making as tools for liberation. We are dedicated to revitalizing
these traditions, creating spaces for culture sharing, and fostering community building and educational programming. Through our work, we aim to connect larger communities to ancestral practices, showing how culture can be lived and celebrated in everyday life.
Diamond Spratling - Girl Plus Environment
Diamond Spratling, MPH is an award-winning Climate DisruptHER, children’s book author, and global keynote speaker. With over a decade in the climate justice
movement, she is redefining what it means (and looks like) to be a climate activist. Diamond is the proud founder and executive director of Girl Plus Environment, the
national nonprofit that has raised nearly $1 million dollars to ensure Black and Brown women and femmes are leading climate and environmental policies, decisions, and innovative solutions. She is also the author of Sage Sails the World, a children’s climate book series following 7-year-old Sage and her dog Benji as they explore Earth’s wonders, uncover climate challenges, and inspire young readers to become environmental stewards. A Detroit native and two-time TEDx speaker, Diamond is a globally recognized voice in climate justice, delivering talks for Hasbro, Columbia, United Nations, the National Academies of Sciences, EarthX, Microsoft, the World Resources Institute, MIT, and more.
Her leadership continues to shape the climate sector, with appointments to the City of Atlanta Climate Resiliency Advisory Board. She was also named a 2024 Tom’s of Maine Incubator Awardee, NRDC 1Hotels Fellow, and a Future Leader Climate Fellow by the Aspen Institute. Her work has been featured in Forbes, CBS, NPR, Essence Magazine, Afro Tech, Inc. Magazine, Black Enterprise, The Bitter Southerner, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and other leading publications, cementing her influence as a leader shaping the future of climate justice.
About Girl Plus Environment:
Girl Plus Environment (GPE) is a national environmental justice nonprofit mobilizing young Black and Brown femmes to lead equitable climate solutions across the South and beyond. We work to close the power gap in environmental decision-making by ensuring those most impacted by pollution, energy burden, climate disasters, and environmental health inequities have the knowledge, leadership pathways, and collective power to shape policies and systems that affect their lives.
Girl Plus Environment LinkedIn
Girl Plus Environment Instagram
Dylan Zajac - Computers 4 People
Dylan Zajac is the Founder and Executive Director of Computers4People (C4P), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit he started at age 15 after seeing how many families in his community
lacked a computer at home for school, job applications, and everyday life. What began as a local effort has grown into a national organization: C4P partners with corporations and government agencies, including Wayfair, AT&T, The Carlyle Group, Vista Equity Partners, and Prudential, to collect retired technology, securely wipe and refurbish it, and redistribute it free of charge to individuals and families who need it most.
To date, C4P has donated over 8,000 computers, connected thousands of families to affordable internet, and diverted hundreds of thousands of pounds of e-waste from
landfills through its circular economy model.
Dylan graduated from Babson College in 2025 with a degree in Entrepreneurship. He has been recognized as a Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree (2024), a 776 Fellow, a Sigma
Squared Fellow, an Aspen Ideas Fellow, and a member of Prod Cohort 3.0. His work has been featured on The Kelly Clarkson Show, Entrepreneur.com, ABC, PBS, and NBC,
among others. He is based in Hoboken, NJ, where C4P is headquartered.
About Computers 4 People:
Computers 4 People is a nonprofit closing the digital divide by turning corporate e-waste into opportunity. Partnering with businesses and ITAD providers, C4P collects, securely erases, refurbishes, and redistributes computers to students, job seekers, and families who lack reliable access to technology. To date, C4P has donated over 8,000 computers and diverted hundreds of thousands of pounds of e-waste from landfills.
Elias Aceves - Plurinational Land Reform in CA Working Group
Elias Aceves is first and foremost, a child of the Mexican immigrant working class. His professional pursuits have always been shaped by this point of view, carrying him on a trajectory of studying political philosophy and alternative development in Latin America at Stanford from 2019-2024.
The organization he founded & leads today, the Plurinational Land Reform in CA Working Group (Pluri), emerged from these interests. Over the past 3 years of organizing the group, it now has grown nodes across LA, SD, Bay Area: coordinating hundreds of people through student cooperatives, tenant unions, and neighborhood
associations with collectives of small farmers & farmworkers. Outside of his executive work for Pluri, he also works part-time with Alianza Nacional de Campesinas as a fund development associate, often weaving Pluri’s work with the various needs assessed across California’s farmworker organizations found within this national network.
About Plurinational Land Reform in CA Working Group:
The Plurinational Land Reform in CA Working Group (“Pluri”) is a grassroots collective of young organizers, researchers, and students building campesin@ viability across California. We seek to counter the domination of industrial agriculture across California's food system and its monopoly control over markets, land, and inputs, which pushes small, diversified campesin@s toward monoculture or out of farming entirely. We challenge this by building the collective infrastructure that makes agroecological production economically viable - recognizing that small farmers with secure access to land and dignified incomes are those most capable of sustaining agroecological practices over generations to protect the Earth.
Plurinational Land Reform in CA Working Group Instagram
Plurinational Land Reform in CA Working Group Website
Hailey Campbell - Care About Climate
Hailey Campbell is a climate policy advisor, negotiations trainer, and educator. As Executive Director of Care About Climate, she leads capacity-building initiatives that
equip young people, primarily young women, with the skills and confidence to engage meaningfully in climate policy. A seasoned voice in the UNFCCC process, Hailey
is a recognized expert in gender-responsive climate action, equity-driven climate commitments, and community empowerment, translating the complexity of high-level
negotiations into tools that empower the next generation to lead.
Hailey’s broader leadership includes serving as a UNICEF Senior Fellow on climate education and establishing LCOYUSA, an annual event that convenes emerging young
leaders across the US to develop skills for driving national and global climate policy. Her work bridges ground-level advocacy with global diplomacy, building a stronger,
more inclusive foundation for future climate governance.
About Care About Climate:
Care About Climate is a young and women-led organization that is building the infrastructure, training, and policy pathways that take young people from
their communities to the tables where climate decisions are made. Through a combination of grassroots movement-building, policy education, and direct
advocacy, Care About Climate ensures that young voices aren't just heard in climate governance, they're structurally embedded in it.
Hitesh Manglani - Supercarb, Inc.
Hitesh Manglani was born into a multigenerational textile family in India, where he developed a deep connection to the textile industry from an early age. Today, he is a
researcher at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the founder of Supercarb, the advanced-materials company behind Seaweed Tech™.
Over the past 15 years, Hitesh has worked across nuclear energy, automotive, robotics, food technology, and textiles. He earned a Mechanical Engineering degree from the National Institute of Technology Allahabad and later a master’s in Textile Sciences from North Carolina State University. His career has included roles with India’s Department of Atomic Energy, KTM AG, a South Carolina textile mill, and a Series B food-tech startup, where he led the development and commercialization of a novel protein-based fiber.
In 2023, Hitesh founded Supercarb to develop plastic-free performance fibers from seaweed and agricultural waste. Supercarb has received support from Activate, Cyclotron Road, the U.S. Department of Energy, the California Energy Commission, and the National Science Foundation, and is backed by Collab Fund, Safar Partners,
Betterway Ventures, and Pachamama Ventures. In 2026, Supercarb launched its first commercial product, bringing Seaweed Tech™ to customers.
About Supercarb, Inc.:
Supercarb produces plastic-free, performance fibers from waste streams (seaweed, citrus, apples, potatoes) that are inherently flame-retardant, antibacterial, and
moisture-wicking, with no phosphorus, silver, or PFAS coatings. That unlocks $13B in savings on chemical and wastewater treatment for brands.
Juan Sebastian Garcia-Medina - Khaya Biosciences
Dr. Sebastian Garcia-Medina was born and raised in Bogotá, Colombia, and left home a week after turning seventeen to build a life in science in the United States. He earned a bachelor’s in Human Biology from the University of Wisconsin–Green Bay and dual master’s degrees at Case Western Reserve University before completing his PhD in physiology and genomics at Weill Cornell Medicine, where he studied human immune and genomic adaptation in astronaut cohorts including NASA’s Twins Study and the all-civilian Inspiration4 mission.
He is the founder of Khaya Biosciences, which grew from his passion experiments turning industrial waste into high-purity nanocellulose through fermentation. The company is built on one conviction: that waste is not a flaw but an asset, and that borrowing the ecosystem’s logic of circularity can turn discarded streams into high-
value biomaterials and reshape how we manufacture everything from medical products to the materials of daily life.
Outside the lab, Sebastian is an avid motorcyclist, amateur diver and rock climber.
About Khaya Biosciences:
Khaya Biosciences turns food and beverage waste into high-value biomaterial products, growing bacterial nanocellulose wound dressings through fermentation on discarded streams like whey and spent yeast. Our goal is to build the first domestic, waste-derived source of these dressings, cutting both environmental waste
and the cost of effective wound care so that sustainability and healthcare access advance together.
Kevin Kung - Takachar
Kevin Kung is the co-founder and Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Takachar. Priorto his start-up, he built Takachar’s core technology as part of his doctoral research
in the field of biofuels and renewable energy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) with the support from Tata Trusts, J-WAFS, Legatum Fellowship, among others. Kevin had a decade of experience conducting engineering design in resource-constrained settings, including borehole restoration in Uganda, interlocking
stabilized construction materials in Ghana, and renewable energy systems in Kenya and India.
Kevin also co-founded a company (Safi Organics) in Kenya that produces carbon-negative, high-yield fertilizer from crop residues, improving farmers’ harvest yields
by 30 percent. He helped grow the company to 30 full-time employees, 15,000 customers, and financial breakeven.
About Takachar:
Takachar is a climate technology company that develops small-scale, low-cost, portable systems to transform crop and forest residues on-site into higher-value bioproducts, including biochar-based fertilizers, biofuels and chemicals. Its decentralized, IoT-enabled technology helps rural communities create value from biomass that might otherwise be openly burned or contribute to wildfire risk. By reducing air pollution, supporting rural livelihoods, and connecting underserved communities to bioeconomy and carbon markets, Takachar aims to build greater climate resilience and economic opportunity.
Lauren Click - Let's Go Compost
Lauren Click is the Founder and Executive Director of Let’s Go Compost, a U.S.-based nonprofit expanding affordable, accessible composting through public institutions.
Since founding the organization, she has grown the program to more than hundreds of partner sites across all 50 U.S. states, equipping communities with the tools, curriculum, and support needed to build long-term composting infrastructure from the ground up.
Lauren’s work focuses on food waste reduction, soil health, environmental education, and circular economy solutions that can be replicated at scale. She collaborates with
educators, government agencies, nonprofits, and industry partners to develop practical models that make composting achievable for communities of all sizes.
Her work has been recognized through honors including the U.S. Composting Council’s Young Professional of the Year Award, the World Food Forum and Food and
Agriculture Organization of the United Nations AgX North America Award, inaugural Stanley 1913 Creators Fund Awardee, and beVisioneers: Mercedes-Benz Fellow. Lauren
has served on multiple national committees advancing composting infrastructure, circularity, and sustainable community development.
About Let's Go Compost:
Let's Go Compost is a U.S.-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to making composting affordable and accessible through scalable, evidence-based education. The organization creates bottom-up demand for composting infrastructure through K–12 schools, libraries, and other public institutions, equipping educators and community leaders with composting systems, technical guidance, standards-aligned curriculum, and impact measurement tools. This community-centered model accelerates composting adoption, increases organics diversion, improves environmental literacy and soil health, and expands participation from public institutions into households
and local communities, strengthening regional circular economy infrastructure.
Margaret Lumley - Roca Water Inc.
Margaret is a second-time founder working at the intersection of water, climate, and agriculture. She got her start in electrochemistry at a battery lab at UCSB, then earned a PhD in materials chemistry from UW-Madison, where her research focused on the water-energy nexus. She built her first company, ChloBis Water, through an NSF SBIR Phase I award focused on electrochemical water desalination.
At Roca Water, she has raised over $5M in grant funding and investment and leads go-to-market strategy through extensive customer discovery. She is a Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree in Science and an Activate Fellow.
About Roca Water Inc.:
Roca Water captures nitrogen from wastewater and recovers it as high-purity fertilizer. Excess nitrogen from wastewater fuels harmful algal blooms that collapse fisheries, shut down water supplies, and create dead zones. Roca has designed an electrochemical system to capture that nitrogen before it leaves the plant. Our vision is to close the nitrogen loop, recycling nitrogen to protect coastal waters, reduce emissions, and build a resilient fertilizer supply chain.
Marshall Masayesva - MasaCo LLC
My name is Marshall Masayesva, and I am from the village of Hotevilla on the Hopi Reservation. I have been working in the nonprofit sector for the last 10 years and recently made the leap to the for-profit realm. I firmly believe that there is space for both sectors to work together to create effective solutions to the issues we face on the Reservation.
My love for natural building and off grid systems comes from my upbringing on the Hopi Reservation. My parents used what ever was available to them including stone,
mud, and wood, to build a home for myself and my siblings. This was necessary due to the practicality, affordability, and accessibility of these resources rather than a sense of idealism. With these new endeavors, I hope to build systems of support within the community and relearn the skills of working with our hands and earth.
About MasaCo LLC:
"Consultation, Construction, and Co-Creation." MasaCo LLC provides natural building and off-grid construction consultation services as well as the sale of rough sawn lumber/Whole logs.
Sabrina Chapa - Ties To La Tierra
Sabrina is a Coahuiltecan born and raised in South Texas and the Gulf Coast (Corpus Christi), is related to the Yanawana, and is the founder of Ties To La Tierra (TIES). TIES is an Indigenous-led ecological justice and Indigenous Futures organization and has been a formal organization since 2024. Sabrina has a Master of Science in Environmental Policy and Sustainability Management from the Milano School of Public Engagement and a Bachelor of Science in Geography and Environmental Resources from Texas State University with Honors.
She is a certified fishing instructor with Texas Parks and Wildlife, has a certificate in Indigenous Collaborations from Arizona State University, and is a Movement Rights
Emerging Leader. She will be a Certified Texas Master Naturalist in December of 2026. Sabrina is passionate about transformative systems and collective healing from historical harms. She values accountability, matriarchal ways of life, and traditional ancestral teachings of Yanawana and Tap Tai (Mother Earth). She is an avid fisher, hunter, farmer, forager, steward, and intertribal community member.
About Ties To La Tierra:
Ties To La Tierra (TIES) is an Indigenous-led ecological justice and Indigenous Futures organization. TIES serves intertribal communities in the Springs to Bays region of Texas with workforce development, land and water stewardship, and traditional food systems while strengthening tribal consent practices and healing pathways in transformative partnerships.
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