Meet Karissa, our new Community Outreach Coordinator
Hello Friends!
My name is Karissa (pronounced Kuh-ree-suh) and I am a lifelong resident of Clark County.
For years, I have been involved in various climate and environmental activism efforts, starting with the Don Orange Campaign for Port Commissioner who was running against the proposed oil terminal for the Port of Vancouver. I have volunteered with the Sunrise Movement and was a Chat Desk Volunteer for the Bernie Sanders 2020 campaign. I have a young daughter and my life revolves around raising her, as well as doing what I can to secure a livable future for us.
I’ve learned that there is much focus in the climate movement on energy policy, which is important, but often not enough attention paid to land use issues! At some point, I discovered that Friends of Clark County has been combatting poor land use policy in Clark County for years. As I finished up my degree at Washington State University this summer, I had a wonderful time writing my Final Brief and Presentation for my course in Environmental Assessment on Friends of Clark County’s successful appeal to the Growth Management Hearings Board over the Chelatchie Bluff Surface Mining Overlay (SMO).
Lately, I’ve been engaged in the issue of food security, which brought me to launch the Vancouver Free Fridge Project a couple of years ago. We need to protect and rapidly expand sustainable agriculture in our county as a climate resiliency measure, but I’m worried local government is ignoring this issue and is headed in the opposite direction. I have been doing work as a citizen journalist on these topics via a local podcast, and I continue to learn about Friends of Clark County’s long history of protecting our agricultural land and nature spaces in the research I do for my reporting.
That’s enough about me! I am so proud to be doing work in an official capacity for Friends of Clark County with people I truly admire, and hope to be able to provide some of the energy boost we need to advocate effectively for our beautiful home. Let’s do this!