Wawa Gatheru

Wanjiku “Wawa” Gatheru is a climate storyteller passionate about making the climate movement relevant and accessible to everyone. Harnessing her background as a Rhodes Scholar and youth climate activist, Gatheru works to bring climate justice to the mainstream. Her goal is to be an effective communicator that helps inspire a generation of “unlikely” environmentalists.

Gatheru is the founder and Executive Director of Black Girl Environmentalist (BGE), the only national organization dedicated to addressing the pipeline and pathway issue for Black girls, women, and gender expansive individuals in the climate sector. Under her leadership, BGE has grown as a trusted, national organization that has worked with 80 corporate and non-profit partners and hosted 120+ events across 12 HUB cities. In the summer of 2024, BGE launched the Hazel M. Johnson Fellowship Program -- the first climate pipeline program created for and by GenZ of color. With a membership of over 2,000, Forbes has called Black Girl Environmentalist “one of the largest Black youth-led organizations in the country”.

Gatheru is also a popular climate content creator, boasting a following of 100,000+ across social media platforms. Her content focuses on debunking climate nihilism, highlighting the unique contributions of Black environmental leaders, and equipping her audience with action items to get involved in climate action.

A frequent public speaker and writer, Gatheru uses her platform to communicate climate and environmental justice to people of all ages and backgrounds. She believes that everyone can be an environmentalist and has given keynotes to a diverse set of audiences, from Harvard University to Warner Music to AASHE’s Global Conference on Sustainability to various United Nations Activations and the New York Times Climate Forward.

For her work, Gatheru has been recognized as a Glamour College Woman of the Year, a L’Oreal Paris Woman of Worth, a Climate Creator to Watch by the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and has been named to several notable lists -- including Forbes 30 under 30, the Independent’s Climate 100, Ebony Power 100, Grist 50 Fixers, and AFROTECH Future 50. She has also been featured on NPR, The Weather Channel, NBC, Black Enterprise, and more. She was featured on the January 2023 digital cover of Vogue magazine alongside Billie Eilish and seven other climate activists.

A first generation American of Kenyan descent, Gatheru is the first Black person in history to receive the Rhodes, Truman and Udall Scholarships. As a Rhodes Scholar at the University of Oxford, she received a MSc in Environmental Governance.