(L-r) Recipients of the James Irvine Foundation Leadership Awards: Skye Patrick, Stacy L. Smith, Helen Iris Torres, Nayamin Martinez, Cutcha Risling Baldy, Kaitlin Reed and Shantay R. Davies-Balch. (The James Irvine Foundation)

Amidst top-down federal changes, community leaders are addressing some of California’s pressing issues. This year, the James Irvine Foundation awarded $350,000 leadership grants to seven women from six nonprofits, empowering grassroots initiatives ranging from tackling environmental pollution to advancing Indigenous food sovereignty.

In a media briefing on February 20, hosted by Ethnic Media Services, some recipients of this years’ James Irvine Foundation Leadership Awards gathered to discuss how their organization helped tackle some of California’s most pressing issues. 

Speakers

  • Nayamin Martinez, Executive Director, Central California Environmental Justice Network
  • Cutcha Risling Baldy, PhD, Co-Director, Rou Dalagurr Food Sovereignty Lab & Traditional Ecological Knowledges Institute
  • Helen Iris Torres, CEO, Hispanas Organized for Political Equity (HOPE)
  • Cindy Downing, Program Officer, The James Irvine Foundation

“In this time where it seems that everybody else is making decisions that we don’t have a voice in, the only way we’re going to have agency is if we organize ourselves,” said Nayamin Martinez. “If we just remain silent, they’ll run over us.”

Based in Fresno, the CCEJN supports Central Valley communities disproportionately affected by air and water pollution, pesticide exposure, and extreme heat. Martinez’s efforts include distributing free air and water filters and achieving significant policy wins, such as California’s first statewide pesticide notification system and restrictions on oil drilling near populated areas. 

“One of the things we’re proudest of is giving a voice to farm workers,” she noted. “IIn collaboration with the state Assembly Labor and Employment Committee, we hosted the very first farm worker hearing in Sacramento last February. From that came an audit commission for Cal/OSHA that enforced regulations to better protect farm workers.”

Through a state-led Sustainable Pest Management Work Group, Martinez also helped draft a plan to reduce California’s pesticide use by 80% over the next 20 years. However, within weeks of the new presidential administration, CCEJN faced challenges.

“The fear of raids and deportations is causing people not to show up to work. Right now it’s the peak season for citrus, and some farmers in the industry here don’t have enough workers,” Martinez explained. “We are recipients of an EPA grant that’s frozen, and local food banks that were receiving money from the Department of Food and Agriculture to provide food in struggling communities have also gotten their funds frozen.”

“We’re focusing much more on educating our community about knowing their rights,” she added. “We can’t help people focus on cleaning the air or water, if they’re afraid that they or their children won’t be here in the next month or year … It’s in all of our best interest to defend these agricultural jobs, because if we don’t, we won’t have billions of dollars in income.” 

California generated around $57.7 billion in agricultural revenue in 2022, making it the largest agricultural producer in the U.S. Between one-third to one-half of U.S. farm workers are based in California, with an estimated 75% undocumented.

Addressing food and climate resilience requires embracing Indigenous knowledge, said Dr. Cutcha Risling Baldy. “In Western conceptions of conservation or preservation, humans are often considered outside of nature,” she explained. “In our knowledge, humans are part of nature, and we need to think about how the ecosystem works together so that everyone can breathe, drink the water and have the food they need.”

“Indigenous peoples know that’s possible because we lived in that world before colonization,” Baldy said. “Lately, my elders have been reminding me how we’ve been navigating a federal government that has been trying to control and erase us from the very start, in agreeing to treaties and then breaking them.”

At the Food Sovereignty Lab, Baldy mentors students in projects promoting Indigenous sovereignty in ecology, food, and even culture, having brought back the local Hoopa Flower Dance, a coming-of-age ceremony for girls. She enlisted over 200 community volunteers to build and maintain an on-campus Indigenous Garden with medicinal plants and herbs; launched a mental health and wellness initiative to curb youth substance abuse; and helped students deliver 125 food boxes with regional food and recipe cards to Indigenous people in need.

“Sometimes it feels like we’re all alone in the things that we want to do, but we need to start by telling a story about the future that we want to see,” Baldy said. “That’s how we begin building it together, by claiming for yourself: ‘I believe that we can have a world where everyone lives well together.’”

Current political and economic challenges faced by organizations like these are not unfamiliar. Helen Iris Torres explains, “it’s a moment of reflection to say: ‘Why are we still here?’ I truly believe that we repeat history because we haven’t learned our lesson.”

In 2022, Latinas made up 20% of California’s population and 40% of Californian women; yet, they face the nation’s widest wage gap, earning 39.5 cents for every dollar made by white, non-Hispanic men.

Since becoming executive director of the Los Angeles-based statewide civic advocacy organization in 2000, Torres has trained over 60,000 Latinas and built an alumni network in which 61% serve on government boards or commissions, 41% hold executive roles, and 16% are holding or pursuing elected office.

“Either we can keep bearing witness to the injustice of the world, or we can do something about it,” she said. “My passion stems from seeing my mother, who brought me and my sister from Puerto Rico to Detroit as a monolingual Spanish speaker to raise us alone … I had a very serious heart disease growing up, and she had to navigate a public education and health care system that, frankly, discriminated against her for being a single mother.”

“The governmental changes we’re facing now, too, will pass, but only if we ensure our place at the decision-making table,” she added. “If you’re not invited to that table, set up your own; that’s where we need to be right now.”

Nominations for the 2026 James Irvine Foundation Leadership Awards are now open, with a simplified process this year. The deadline for an initial nomination involving three candidate-related questions is March 12, and the deadline for a more detailed submission from accepted candidates is April 30.

“These are leaders who are confronting California’s most critical challenges by building up a better future for our state,” said Cindy Downing. “We may feel much like the times are quite daunting, but here is what happens when folks step up with a bold vision.”

 

Images provided by EMS.