For Immediate Release: Camila Amaya Tapped To Serve as Executive Director
Effectively immediately, on September 1st, 2021, former Climate Education Director Camila Amaya will serve as Youth Climate Action Team Inc’s (YCAT) Executive Director for the inevitable future. After much deliberation, YCAT Founder Samir Chowdhury — now serving as Executive Chairman of the Board of Directors — decided to pass his role on to Amaya.
The decision was made mainly due to Chowdhury’s transition into the next chapter of his life at Stanford University. Though Chowdhury will remain as YCAT’s sole proprietor, he will begin to play a minimized role in administrative affairs — leaving Amaya to manage 13 Directors, 9 subteams, 7 global regional branches, 1,500+ youth organizers, thousands of dollars, a multitude of partnerships, and every other aspect that comes with running an international nonprofit organization.
Chowdhury is beyond confident that Amaya will be able to continue his legacy and expand YCAT’s potential. “Cami was 100% the best choice for the position, and as I move onto the next chapter of my life where I won’t have the needed capacity to serve as Executive Director, I am ecstatic to see what she does with our entire movement at her fingertips,” Chowdhury said.
“Cami is one of the most talented, kind-hearted, passionate, and perseverant people I’ve ever seen. On top of being on track to be her family’s first person to attend higher education and managing the demanding household responsibilities of taking care of her newly born younger sister, she is the Vice-President of C.D. Hylton High School’s Center for International Studies & Languages and Editor-In-Chief of the newspaper. She leads with an energy that immediately puts a smile on the face of every single person. There is no other person more qualified to be serving in the role of YCAT’s Executive Director,” Chowdhury went on to elaborate.
Chowdhury, who founded the global 501(c)4 climate justice advocacy organization, will now work as a full-time student at Stanford University where he plans on studying energy resources engineering and public policy. His desire to pursue professional research, advocacy, and writing meant he would no longer be able to commit time to serve as YCAT’s Executive Director. He hopes to demolish the social, political, and economic barriers to sustainable energy resources while building an inclusive, equitable clean energy economy in the future.
YCAT’s Climate Extracurricular Education subcommittee, formerly co-led by Amaya, will now be led entirely by Climate Education Director Zora Rodgers. The subcommittee aims to implement equitable climate education programs at elementary schools and middle schools and has already worked with numerous schools — even establishing a successful summer program that was spearheaded by Amaya and Rodgers. The subcommittee now has its eyes on developing a winter climate education program for the end of 2021.
