OUR TEAM
Email: cmoynihan@crpe-ej.org
Interim Executive Director
Email: fsalahud-dinfloyd@crpe-ej.org
Faheemah Salahud-Din Floyd is the Development Director for CRPE. She joined the team in February 2023. A Bakersfield native, Faheemah has organized in Kern County and abroad for the past twenty-four years of her life. Her work is rooted at the intersection of race, class, gender identity, and environmental justice.
Outside of her role with CRPE Faheemah works within local coalition spaces as an educator, advocate, and organizer. She teaches within the Black community on a variety of topics that span from spirituality to healing. She is the author of three books and is currently writing a young adult novel.
In her free time, Faheemah loves reading books, working with roots, writing, spending time with her family, and burning racist institutions to the ground.
Development Director
Phone: 661-720-9140 x304
Email: gaguirre@crpe-ej.org
Gustavo Aguirre (he/him) has over 33 years of organizing experience, getting his start with the United Farm Workers Union (UFW). Aguirre was born in Guanajuato, Mexico and immigrated to California at the age of 19, where he worked under a United Farm Workers’ union contract as a lemon harvester for 16 years. During his tenure at the company he served as a steward and as the leader of the UFW worker committee working on their contract negotiations and administration at his ranch. Aguirre volunteered for many union boycotts and political campaigns including the last federal immigration reform law of 1986 that provided amnesty to undocumented residents. Aguirre helped mobilize farm workers to walk precincts for local and national candidates and pro-union legislators.
Aguirre started working full time with the UFW in 1996 as an organizer. He was quickly was appointed Regional Director in charge of UFW operations in Southern California. In June 2003, he moved to Delano to serve as the Regional Director of the San Joaquin Valley. At the UFW Convention in 2000, Aguirre was elected National Vice President, serving in that position until May 2006. Aguirre had the opportunity to be part of the top UFW leadership team including President Arturo Rodriguez and co-founder Dolores Huerta.
After 25 plus years of involvement with UFW, in June 2006 Aguirre joined the Center on Race, Poverty & the Environment, as the lead coordinator of a joint campaign with Californians for Pesticide Reform on pesticide protection zones around schools. Aguirre was an instrumental part of this campaign, helping to persuade Tulare, Kern, Stanislaus and Madera counties to approve new pesticide buffer zones around schools.
Aguirre has played a key role in CRPE’s efforts to develop community leaders and build community power in the San Joaquin Valley. Aguirre has been particularly active in the South Kern Communities of Arvin and Greenfield. He has worked with communities on a wide range of issues from superfund site clean-ups to air quality to pesticides to county permitting and revocation processes.
Aguirre sits as chairperson on the Steering Committee for the California Endowment’s Building Healthy Communities initiative in South Kern. He was on the Board of Directors of Lideres Campesinas from 2009 to 2012 and has helped several organizations undertake strategic and campaign planning processes, such as Californians for Pesticide Reform, Central California Environmental Justice Network, El Quinto Sol de America, Committee for a Better Arvin, Greenfield Walking Group, and Committee for a Better Shafter.
Assistant Director
Email: nospina@crpe-ej.org
Natalia Ospina (she/ella) joined CRPE as its Legal Director in February 2024, bringing years of experience in environmental justice issues and community lawyering. Before joining CRPE, Natalia worked as an attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and the California Rural Legal Assistance (CRLA). At NRDC she provided legal and technical support to frontline and environmental justice clients and partners across the U.S. in their fights to address disproportionate environmental impacts and build healthy and thriving communities. During her time at CRLA, Natalia represented farmworkers in the Central Coast in their fights to address wage theft, employment discrimination, sexual harassment, retaliation, and pesticide exposure. Throughout her legal career, Natalia has learned that community power-building must be at the center of all successful legal strategies and is dedicated to centering community organizing in CRPE’s legal advocacy.
Natalia was born in Colombia and grew up in Union County, New Jersey—both places that have deeply shaped her perspectives on racial and environmental justice work, grassroots organizing, and decolonization. She is a graduate of Lewis & Clark Law School and Wellesley College (B.A., Environmental Studies). Outside of CRPE, Natalia is a proud Chiweenie mama and enjoys making art, hiking and reading speculative fiction.
Legal Director
Phone: 661-720-9140 ext 312
Email: jflores@crpe-ej.org
Twitter: @JuanFloresEJ
Juan Flores was born in Colima, Mexico and raised in Mexicali, Mexico. With his parents, Juan immigrated to Delano, California. Juan is the proud son of parents who are farm workers in the Central Valley, he is the second of three children. At the age of 14, Juan worked as a farm laborer in the grape fields during the summer months of vacation from Delano High School. Juan has also worked at a dairy where he saw firsthand the dangers of working in a non-regulated dairy.
Prior to joining CRPE Juan was a Family Advocate in Delano, CA. where he advocated for low income families to obtain free childcare for their children. Juan has always had the “heart” of an organizer and it is demonstrated with all of the work he has done when not “working.” Juan possesses an A.S degree in Medical Assisting. Juan is also an active member of COFEM (Consejo para los Federaciones Mexicanas). Juan is the secretary of Club Unidos por Cuauthemoc Colima. When not working, Juan enjoys spending time with his family and friends in Delano. He is also a huge soccer fan.
Organizing Director
Phone: 661-720-9140
Email: rvalencia@crpe-ej.org
Refugio brings extensive experience in organizing, community building and education, particularly for the rights of farm workers and immigrants in the San Joaquin Valley. At CRPE, he has worked on campaigns to reduce dairy pollution, regulate pesticides and facilitated the creation of community gardens amongst other work. He has also worked for the United Farm Workers of America (UFW) and the Central Coast Alliance for a Sustainable Economy (CAUSE). At CAUSE he organized, canvassed, facilitated and educated Oxnard residents on environmental justice issues and rights. While at the UFW he also worked on a variety of initiatives including empowering farmworkers to exercise their right to vote, immigrant rights campaigns, coordinating and participating in peaceful demonstrations and boycotts. Refugio is originally from Copandaro, Michoacan Mexico. He has a passion to contribute to the improvement and well-being of society.
Community Organizer
Email: mramirez@crpe-ej.org
Community Organizer
Phone: 661-720-9140
Email: bsantoyo@crpe-ej.org
Byanka Santoyo works as a Community Organizer focusing on CRPE’s pesticide work. She was born and raised in Arvin, California. Being raised in Arvin, she and her family directly experienced how the agricultural industry impacts small communities of color and the injustices farm workers face in and out of the agricultural fields. Her own parents were exposed with pesticide drift while working in the fields. As a young child, she recognized the wrongs that were done to her parents. Byanka always knew she wanted to study in the health field in college. As soon as she was enrolled in classes, she discovered she wanted to do something that would help her community work towards the environmental injustice they face daily. She started her environmental justice work by working with the Committee for a Better Arvin in 2012. She helped elevate the voice for Arvin and surrounding environmental justice communities. Her daughter inspires and motivates her to focus on the pesticide exposure schools surrounded with agricultural fields face. Byanka knows that pesticide exposure affects a child’s growing development negatively. Byanka says notification of any pesticide is important for schools where children learn and play.
Community Organizer
Email: dmireles@crpe-ej.org
Diana Mireles was born in San Luis Potosi, Mexico. Diana was a farm worker for 10 years, worked as a receptionist at a Family Resource Center, from there Diana worked at Building Healthy Communities a 10-year community project as program assistant, in which she was deeply involved residents where she had the opportunity to learn firsthand their personal and community needs. Diana has been a Comite Progreso de Lamont member for the last 12 years and currently serves as the president of the committee, with the committee having been able to leverage many million of community investments including sidewalks, parks, air quality improvements, streets flooding issues and other EJ issues. As community organizer, Diana wants to continue helping communities be empowered and heard. As community organizer with CRPE her goal is to support and guide disadvantaged communities to have a better quality of life for them and future generations.
Community Organizer
Email: dress@crpe-ej.org
Daniel Ress, a graduate of the University of Colorado Law School, joined CRPE as a staff attorney during the summer of 2020. With their legal skills and passion for social and environmental justice, they have been a phenomenal addition to our staff.
During law school, they interned for the Environmental Defense Fund in Boulder, Colorado, as part of EDF’s U.S. Clean Air team. Through CU’s Environmental Law Clinic, Dan partnered with a non-profit and local high school students to generate a no-oil-and-gas-leasing alternative Resource Management Plan for federal land in Colorado. Working with CU’s Sustainable Community Development Clinic, Dan supported mobile home owners in their struggles with park owners. Then, working with these communities, Dan helped craft and pass legislation to protect park residents. Additionally, Dan testified in favor of a law facilitating legal name and gender changes in Colorado before taking advantage of the new law to obtain government identification that matches their non-binary gender.
Before law school, Dan graduated from Kenyon College with a degree in psychology. They were an educator for nine years, including as a U.S. Peace Corps volunteer in the Philippines, a special education teacher, and a Head Start center coordinator. Informed by their experiences with vulnerable communities, they embarked on a career in environmental law, through which they could address the threat of climate change in a way that keeps these communities centered.
In their spare time, Dan enjoys reading and writing fiction and poetry, playing and writing music, and exploring both outside in nature and internally through meditation and spiritual practice.
Senior Attorney
Email: kkarimi@crpe-ej.org
Kayla is a Staff Attorney with the Center on Race, Poverty & the Environment and joined the team in January 2023. She was born and raised in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles County and obtained both her Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and Juris Doctorate from UCLA (go Bruins!).
Early in her college years, Kayla discovered the numerous environmental harms California communities faced and the importance of sustainable and equitable law and policy. This propelled Kayla to pursue a career in environmental law. Kayla specialized in environmental law in law school and was published in UCLA Law's Journal of Environmental Law and Policy for her paper entitled "Stopping Livestock's Contribution to Climate Change." Kayla has personally engaged with California communities, volunteering for the Sustainable Works Program, educating the local community on environmental issues and how to live more sustainably as well as community advocacy in the legal field.
In her free time, Kayla enjoys reading, rock climbing, and long walks with her rescue dog, Cashew.
Staff Attorney
Email: gorozco@crpe-ej.org
Grecia Orozco (she/they) was inspired to join the environmental justice movement after growing up in a Los Angeles community that was overburdened by air pollution. She recently graduated from UC Davis School of Law in the Spring of 2022.
In law school, Grecia was involved in UC Davis Law’s Water Justice Clinic and advocated for disadvantaged communities in need of healthy drinking water. She advocated for students during the pandemic and co-authored an article for the UC Davis Law Review on the inequities exacerbated upon law school students of color. She also served on UC Davis’ Moot Court Honors Board and competed in the Jeffrey G. Miller National Environmental Moot Court Competition and the Weschler National Criminal Moot Court Competition. Throughout these experiences, she has committed to a career that values community-centered lawyering and is grateful to work alongside CRPE’s communities to push for equitable and distributive environmental justice.
In their spare time, Grecia enjoys archery, walking her dogs, trying new recipes, and playing a variety of board and tabletop games.
Staff Attorney
Email: svalenzuela@crpe-ej.org
Stephanie joined CRPE in January of 2023 and hopes to use CRPE’s communication channels as a powerful tool to support organizing for environmental justice in Kern County. They were born and raised in Bakersfield, and through the pandemic became a dropout from the University of California, Santa Cruz’s legal studies department; they hope to return to complete that bachelor’s degree someday. In Santa Cruz, they spent time interning at the Romero Institute, writing pieces like “In Plain Sight: How the Opioid Crisis has Ravaged Indian Country,” among others.
Their grassroots organizing efforts began in early 2020, when graduate students went on a wildcat strike to obtain a cost of living adjustment. Since many people at UCSC are food insecure, Stephanie and others took part in successful endeavors to temporarily open the dining halls to everyone, regardless of their ability to pay for food; this action was replicated at other UCs. Upon returning home to Bakersfield, they joined the newly formed Kern County chapter of the Sunrise Movement and later joined In the Field, a local collective that distributes food and supplies to houseless community members.
In their free time, Stephanie peruses Kern County for culinary (vegetarian) gems, is an avid concertgoer, and loves to relax by watching TV and movies with her dogs and cats.
Communications Coordinator