Regina Valdez

Staff

Regina Valdez is the Assistant to the Director at the Center for Sustainable Development.

Regina has been working to share information regarding the environment and climate change for much of her life. She is a LEED Green Associate, GreenFaith Fellow, Climate Reality Leader and Climate Reality Mentor, and the former Program Director for Climate Reality New York City, where she worked to showcase a diverse group of youth, activists, and scientists to share their knowledge and experience with the broader New York community. A former New York City teacher, she taught in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, and Washington Heights, in Manhattan. She also taught at the college level at the University of Houston.

Regina has been involved in infusing climate activism within the Buddhist community, including completing EcoSattva training from One Earth Sangha, and helping to co-found the Sacred Earth Sangha at New York Insight Meditation Center, where she has been a practice leader for many years. She organized a daylong ‘Rolling Retreat’, where Buddhists from around the country converged to participate in the People's Climate March in Washington, D.C. With her belief that spirituality and human connection are key to solving the climate crisis, she coordinated a weekend-long retreat, Right Action in the Anthropocene, which included international faith leaders as well as members from The Earth Institute at Columbia University.

Regina holds a Master’s Degree in English with a focus on Restoration and 18th century English literature. She wrote her master’s thesis on Mary Astell, who worked assiduously to secure the rights of women to pursue an education. Heeding the words of Astell, ‘The Span of Life is too short to be trifled away in unconcerning and unprofitable Matters,’ Regina aims to educate and empower youth to understand the cause and scope of global warming to better enable them to serve as ambassadors for the planet and all living beings who inhabit it.

 

Various Publications, including:

A Buddhist’s Apology to Mother Earth - Elephant Journal

Fusing Contemplative Practice with Social Action - Tricycle Magazine

Buddhists Take Action at March for our Lives - Tricycle Magazine

 

https://medium.com/@reginavaldez