Rahwa Ghirmatzion
Rahwa Ghirmatzion (she/her) is the executive director of PUSH Buffalo, a community organization that works at the grassroots to create and implement a comprehensive revitalization plan for Buffalo’s West Side, with more than $80 million invested in affordable housing rehabilitation, solar installation, green jobs training, weatherization, and green infrastructure. Born in Asmera, Eritrea in the middle of a civil war, she came to Western NY at the age of eight by way of Sudan as a refugee. She was educated in Buffalo Public Schools and then the University at Buffalo. Over the last decade, PUSH has built a powerful, grassroots movement guided by racial, economic, and environmental justice rooted in the realities of poor and working-class people living in Buffalo. The benefits of PUSH’s organizing model extend far beyond the boundaries of our Green Development Zone on Buffalo’s West Side, a place that we practice our values through action and what it means to have a Just Transition to a regenerative and renewable economy. She serves on the New York State Climate Justice Working Group, a group created by New York’s 2019 climate law to identify disadvantaged communities on the front lines of climate change that will be a focus for state climate investment.