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By Aideé Granados Aideé Granados, 2021 Roddenberry Fellow and founder of Rosa Es Rojo, Inc, writes about her experience as a young child that has shaped her outlook on life and dedication to educating Hispanic women on wellness and cancer prevention.   “Money for bread?” Timidly and rapidly, the children of The Shore repeated this…

Adrienne Evans Executive Director for United Vision for Idaho 2020 Roddenberry Fellow As we approach the upcoming election, we have to ask ourselves, how in the world does forty-some percent of the population continue to support an administration that is literally responsible for killing them? The Republican Party of today is entirely focused on a…

Andy Blevins 2020 Roddenberry Fellow Long-term, episodic dramas do not often showcase the impact that traumatic experiences can have on a person’s life, despite most characters enduring life-altering crises in every show. At the turn of the century, many Americans used their television time as a means of escape from the mundane, and even traumatic,…

Crystal Huang People Power Solar Cooperative 2020 Fellow In the wake of one of the most devastating wildfire seasons in California’s history, Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) and other California utilities carried out widespread “Public Safety Power Shutoffs” (PSPS) across urban and rural areas  The PSPS program, which purported to protect against wildfires during especially…

Jose Magaña-Salgado #ACA4DACA 2020 Roddenberry Fellow August 18, 2020 As someone running a consulting firm with multiple clients and competing deadlines, every hour in my day counts. I often find myself brainstorming how to increase productivity to attain a helpful and happy work-life balance. Below, I share my productivity hacks to help you spend less…

  Jelani Anglin Good Call Co-founder & CEO August 4, 2020. . . . Hundreds of ​arrested protesters ​gained ​access to lawyers ​immediately​. The thousands of Black New Yorkers arrested each year ​do too! Widespread protests and the large numbers of protesters ​recently arrested​ have brought to glaring light an issue faced by millions of…

Meet a Fellow: Sonya Passi  November 3, 2019 Meet Sonya, a 2019 Roddenberry Fellow    Sonya is the founder of FreeFrom, a national organization on a mission to create pathways to financial security and long-term safety with and for survivors of intimate partner violence, so that they have the opportunity to live free from abuse.…

  Ebele Ifedigbo The Hood Incubator   Where is home currently? Oakland, CA What is your hometown? Buffalo, NY   Tell us about your project, The Hood Incubator! The Hood Incubator works to build economic power for Black communities through the legal cannabis industry   What advice would you give your younger self? I would tell…

Meet a Roddenberry Fellow Ebele Ifedigbo | October 15, 2019   Meet Ebele, a 2019 Roddenberry Fellow Ebele is the founding co-executive director of The Hood Incubator, a national organization leveraging the historic rise of the legal marijuana industry to build economic and political power for Black communities harmed by the drug war. The Hood…

You can’t see what you don’t look at. DeMar Pitman | September 20, 2019   As I sit and reflect on my past experience as an educator, I am reminded of the immense power that schools have in shaping the way our children view themselves and the world they live in.   Once our kids…

Meet a Roddenberry Fellow: DeMar Pitman September 11, 2019 Meet DeMar, a 2019 Roddenberry Fellow   DeMar Pitman is an educator, activist, and self-taught technologist who believes strongly in the power of technology to shrink long-standing equity and achievement gaps. He is the founder and executive director of Discriminology, a non-profit focused on leveraging technology…

Undocumented students and families in our schools deserve to be supported, protected and uplifted Vanessa Luna | September 6, 2019   It’s back to school season and I can’t help but think about my time in the classroom as a former 6th-grade DACAmented teacher in Los Angeles and NYC. I clearly remember the innate desperation…

Meet a Fellow: Vanessa Luna September 5, 2019   Meet Vanessa, a 2019 Roddenberry Fellow   Vanessa Luna is the Co-Founder and Chief Program Officer of ImmSchools. She immigrated to the United States at the age of 10 from Lima, Peru. Growing up undocumented and as a former DACAmented teacher, she has experienced first hand…

Meet Hannah, a 2019 Roddenberry Fellow August 29, 2019   Meet Hannah, a 2019 Roddenberry Fellow Hannah is a Pakistani-American Muslim and the co-founder & CEO of Transfernation, a logistics company focused on building tech-based, integrated food rescue systems for cities. She co-founded Transfernation during her sophomore year at New York University.    Transfernation is…

For Those Us At The Shoreline: Liner Notes for An Undone Revolution Frank Leon Roberts | August 23, 2019    What would happen if we learned to finally trust the visionary leadership of black women and black queer folk? What would’ve happened had we all actually trusted Harriet (when she tried to lead us to…

Meet a Fellow: Frank Leon Roberts August 14, 2019    Meet Frank, a 2019 Roddenberry Fellow   Frank Leon Roberts is an activist, professor, political organizer and founder of The Baldwin Hansberry Project. The proud son of two formerly incarcerated parents, he is currently on the faculty at New York University, where his course on…

Hip Hop & Health: Lyrics and Lessons Ivelyse Andino | August 14, 2019   Hip Hop & Health: Lyrics and Lessons   “It’s funny how money change a situation Miscommunication leads to complication My emancipation don’t fit your equation I was on the humble, you on every station” Lauryn Hill. Lyrics to “Lost Ones” The…

Meet a Fellow: Ivelyse Andino August 8, 2019    Meet Ivelyse, a 2019 Roddenberry Fellow  Ivelyse Andino is an Afro-Latina health equity innovator born and raised in The Bronx and the founder and CEO of Radical Health. While she routinely trained oncologists on new drugs, she found herself unprepared when her mother was diagnosed with…

Meet Gautam, a 2019 Roddenberry Fellow  Gautam Jagannath is a leading innovator and founding director of Social Justice Collaborative. Gautam was certified by the State Bar of California as an Immigration & Nationality Law expert.  SJC provides deportation defense and related legal services to low-income immigrants, mostly refugees, in the San Francisco Bay Area and…

Young people want to talk. Are we ready to listen? Cristina Leos July 25, 2019   “It is very hard to just talk one on one about stuff with my parents. When I am alone with them I get very tense and always scared. I can’t wait for the day I can.”    Through our…

Meet a Roddenberry Fellow Cristina Leos  July 22, 2019     Meet Cristina, a 2019 Roddenberry Fellow   Cristina Leos is the co-founder of Real Talk, a mobile app that connects teens with authentic stories and trusted resources on sensitive health topics, like sexual health and mental health. Her expertise centers around using behavioral science…

Meet A Roddenberry Fellow Andrew Grant-Thomas  July 19, 2019   Meet Andrew, a 2019 Roddenberry Fellow    Andrew is the co-founder of EmbraceRace, a national nonprofit that supports parents, teachers, and other adults to raise children who are thoughtful, informed and brave about race. They are working to help nurture a generation of children with…

Meet A Roddenberry Fellow Alia Salem July 12, 2019 Meet Alia, a 2019 Roddenberry Fellow Alia Salem is the Founder and President of FACE (Facing Abuse in Community Environments). Her professional background is in organizational development, community organizing, and communications with a particular focus on the intersections of institutionalized racism and the push towards an…

A Green New Deal is Happening Now, at a Local Level Jessica Tovar    I have been working to address the problem of environmental racism and fighting pollution in communities of color, the PG&E Hunters Point power plant in San Francisco and the tar sands expansion of Bay Area refineries.  The big question has always…

Meet A Roddenberry Fellow Jessica Guadalupe Tovar June 25, 2019 Meet Jessica, a 2019 Roddenberry Fellow   Jessica Guadalupe Tovar is an organizer for the Local Clean Energy Alliance, based in the San Francisco Bay Area. The Local Clean Energy Alliance is the Bay Area’s foremost membership organization working at the local, state, and national…

Heejae Lim Founder, TalkingPoints   Where is home currently? San Francisco What is your Hometown? Seoul/London   Tell us more about your project, TalkingPoints!  TalkingPoints’ mission is to drive student success in low-income communities by using accessible technology to unlock the potential of family engagement in children’s education. Our multilingual engagement platform connects family members…

Meet A Roddenberry Fellow Heejae Lim June 20, 2019   Meet Heejae, a 2019 Roddenberry Fellow Heejae is the founder of TalkingPoints, a non-profit with a mission to drive student success—especially in underserved, diverse immigrant communities—by using accessible technology to unlock the potential of family engagement in children’s education. Heejae founded TalkingPoints based on her…

On violence, memory, God, and Karma Evan Weissman | June 15, 2019   As “spiritual but not religious” becomes more and more prevalent I think our communities are in desperate need of some more Rites of Passage into adulthood. I’ll trash-talk the negative aspects of religion with the best of them but if my bar…

Meet A Roddenberry Fellow Evan Weissman June 11, 2019   Meet Evan, a 2019 Roddenberry Fellow Evan is the founding executive director of Warm Cookies of the Revolution, a Civic Health Club that blends innovative arts and culture with crucial civic issues. Evan teaches nonviolence at The Colorado College. He was a Kellogg Foundation Leadership…

2020 Roddenberry Fellowship Webinar | June 7, 2019 This is a recording from the June 6, 2019 webinar about the Fellowship and the 2020 selection process. The second half of the webinar will includes a live chat for participants to ask questions. If you have further questions about the Fellowship or application process please send…

Communication is a Privilege for Prisoners  Amani Sawari  | June 7, 2019   When I open a letter from someone on the inside a sense of gratitude washes over me. I can’t help but think about the cost of the journal that they tore the sheet of paper from in order to share their thoughts…

Meet A Roddenberry Fellow Amani Sawari June 4, 2019   Meet Amani, a 2019 Roddenberry Fellow Amani is a writer and founder of the site sawarimi.org. She was also selected as Jailhouse Lawyers Speak’s spokesperson for the 2018 National Prison Strike. Her advocacy for prisoners’ human rights has stemmed from her understanding of the negative…

The Promise to Protect: a new environmental justice movement grows Judith LeBlanc | May 30, 2019   Science is catching up with traditional Indigenous knowledge. The United Nations released a report, which documented that over a thousand animals and plant species are endangered due to human activity. From an Indigenous frame of reference, all things…

Meet A Roddenberry Fellow Judith LeBlanc May 28, 2019   Meet Judith, a 2019 Roddenberry Fellow Judith is a member of the Caddo Tribe of Oklahoma and the director of the Native Organizers Alliance (NOA), a national Native training and organizing network. Together Judith and NOA have built relationships with tribes, traditional societies and grassroots…

Advances of an energy uprising in Puerto Rico Arturo Massol-Deyá | May 16, 2019 It’s 4:36 AM, time to make coffee. I look briefly at the news in darkness before leaving from San Juan, to the other side of the island where I teach at the University of Puerto Rico Mayagüez Campus. The weekend’s work,…

Roddenberry Fellowship 2020   Great! We’re thrilled you’re considering a Fellowship application because that probably means you’re doing badass work to make our country better. (If you’re not — this may not be the right program for you…)   2020 Fellowship Criteria Broadly speaking, the Fellowship is designed to support talented and passionate individuals who…