Amara Ifeji is a National Geographic Society’s Young Explorer and internationally awarded leader in climate and environmental justice. Ifeji’s academic research explores the nexus of environment, conflict, and gender studies to illuminate women’s experiences in her Indigenous Igbo community and across the African diaspora. As a policy practitioner, she leverages grassroots advocacy and participatory justice to advance local, state, and federal research-driven policy solutions. Such efforts include mobilizing a youth-led legislative campaign that spearheaded Maine’s more than $2 million climate education program and serving on the Maine Climate Council as the governor-appointed youth representative. Ifeji has a BA with honors in political science from Northeastern University, and is pursuing an MSc in nature, society, and environmental governance at the University of Oxford, where she is a Marshall Scholar.