As Founder and inaugural Student Director of the Climate Hub, Grace has contributed her leadership, expertise and passion, as well as providing tireless support for our community. While she stepped back from her role as Student Director in early 2021, her commitment to justice, as well as her compassion, hope, love of storytelling, and community-building continue to shape our work.
Grace founded the Climate Hub in 2018 and became its inaugural Student Director. Drawing from her research on climate narratives and years of speaking to and organizing with thousands of young folks around climate justice, Grace created the vision for a Climate Hub centered on justice, joyful community, hope, systems-change, civic engagement, and storytelling. Over the course of 2017 and 2018, Grace spent hundreds of hours showing up in offices all over campus to promote the idea, creating the groundswell of support for the Climate Hub that would ultimately see it become the initiative it is today. As Student Director, Grace kept the Hub true to its student-driven mission while providing a constant supply of ideas and leadership as the organization continues to grow.
Grace is also a Pierre Elliot Trudeau Foundation scholar and a Killam doctoral scholar. She is getting her PhD in law at UBC, studying how to use law to protect climate change science from manufactured doubt. She holds a B.A. from Rice University, a J.D. cum laude from Harvard Law School, and an LL.M from the University of British Columbia. Grace has written and published three novels in a hopeful climate fantasy series, the Ava of the Gaia trilogy. She also created and hosts Planet Potluck, a podcast exploring stories of hope, joy, and community in the climate movement. She’s never met a dance party she didn’t want to join.
Grace stepped back from her role as Student Director at the start of 2021. We are grateful for her founding vision and organizing, as well as her years of leadership and advocacy as the Hub’s first Student Director.
See more about Grace’s research, writing, and storytelling at: www.gracenosek.com