Thanu Yakupitiyage
Thanu Yakupitiyage (she/her) is the U.S. Communications Director at 350.org, a global organization working to build a safe and equitable world safe from the effects of the climate crisis through a just transition away from fossil fuels. Prior to joining 350.org, Thanu was the communications director at the New York Immigration Coalition for close to seven years where she headed the organization's communications and media relations strategy. Through her work at NYIC, she became an immigration policy expert, working to shift narratives on immigration and immigrants themselves. She was a lead organizer in efforts to push back against Trump's executive orders in his first week in office that mandated a Muslim Ban and increased enforcement and raids against immigrant communities and the program lead for a leadership development program for New York City-based DREAMERS. Thanu’s shift to doing climate work has been rooted in her deep desire to build an intersectional climate movement that prioritizes migrant and racial justice. Over the past five years in her role at 350.org, she has led work on intersectional climate narratives, including bringing a migration perspective to the critical work of climate justice. She has led narrative work around the largest climate strikes in history, fossil fuel divestment, and climate solutions. You can follow her on twitter at @ty_ushka.