bemusing musings

Juliana Margaret Williams is an organizer working to engage the public in building socially, economically and environmentally sustainable society.  She is currently pursuing a Master of Public Policy at the University of Maryland.  Previously, she worked as a Fellow at The Breakthrough Institute in Oakland, CA, and as the Great Plains Organizer for the Sierra Student Coalition in Des Moines, IA.  She helped develop a regional network of students and organizations working to leverage the Midwest’s unique resources towards national, regional and state victories.  She currently writes at Solve Climate, WattHead and It’s Getting Hot In Here.

Juliana served as President of the Campus Greens and founded the Whitman Campus Climate Challenge at Whitman College, where she graduated in 2007 with a degree in geology. At Whitman, she led successful campaigns to make it the first college or university in Washington State to purchase renewable energy in 2004, establish a green fee in 2005 and create a donation fund to support sustainability initiatives in 2006.  In February 2007, Juliana co-directed the Northwest Climate Justice Summit, which led to the creation of the Cascade Climate Network later that year.

Juliana has been an active member of the Sierra Student Coalition since 2004, serving on the nation Conservation Committee, chairing the Personnel Committee and playing a lead role in the 2007 March to ReEnergize Iowa. Through the Sierra Student Coalition, she attended the United Nations climate negotiations in Montreal in 2005, where she connected with the international youth climate movement. She was a founding contributor to It’s Getting Hot In Here, the blog of the youth climate movement.

She conducted research in Mongolia with the Keck Geology Consortium and was recognized with the Thomas Cronin Award and Dr. Alfred Ripley Leeds Award from Whitman College; Dr. Joseph Barbosa Award from the Sierra Club; and the Adam Werbach Award from the Sierra Student Coalition.

In addition to organizing, she is an avid ultimate player, string bassist and obsessively nurtures her plants.