Equity in the Latinx Community

Please join Latinxs in Sustainability us on September 30th, 6-7:30PM EST for our next event, Equity in the Latinx Community Part 1: Equity Journeys. Equity in the Latinx Community will be a series aimed to start discussions about equity and inequities in our community. From career trajectories and person equity journeys, to the inequities which COVID19 exacerbated, to efforts within organizations around equity and inclusion. Part 1 will showcase 4 Latinx professionals in the sustainability industry who will share their career trajectories as well as their person equity journeys. Join us to hear from: Andres Alvarez is the Research Director at Creative Renewable Solutions LLC. Both a computational scientist and an energy market specialist, he is committed to creating clean and equitable energy solutions for utilities, developers, and communities through rigorous data analysis and deep industry research. Prior to joining CRS Andres worked at Avangrid Renewables where he focused on strategic planning and techno-economic modeling of renewable energy systems, battery storage, pumped hydro, and emerging technologies. Andres holds a B.Sc. in Nuclear Science and Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Christian Sanchez is a Senior Energy Consultant with Sargent & Lundy where he provides technical advise and independent engineering due diligence to utilities, developers, IPPs and financial institutions working on renewable energy projects, including solar, wind and energy storage. In the past nine years Christian has also worked on energy resilience, grid reliability, grid infrastructure and microgrid projects across the US. Christian is a native of Ecuador and holds a BS and MS in Electrical & Computer Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and an MBA from Indiana University. Christian enjoys dancing, riding a bike and playing soccer. He recently earned his open water certification to scuba dive with bull sharks. Melina Acevedo is a Sales Analyst at Nextracker, where she project-manages utility-scale solar tracker projects from initial RPF to contract negotiation to execution. She works closely with developer and EPC customers across the US to ensure projects are de-risked internally across finance, planning, logistics, and engineering. Prior to Nextracker, Melina led loan operations for the residential solar financing company, Solar Mosaic. Melina is a native of Peru and holds a BA in Chemistry and a Minor in Materials Science and Engineering from Princeton University. As a first generation college graduate, Melina is passionate about increasing BIPOC representation in cleantech/sustainability -- she recently launched a Scholarship through YPE SF Bay Area for university and community college students seeking to enter cleantech after graduation. Sebastian Sarria is the Program and Policy Manager at San Diego Community Power. At SDCP, he works to maintain a strong connection with the community via the Community Advisory Committee and by creating programs like Community Solar. A native of Colombia, Sebastian also ensures that equity is prioritized so that opportunities are available to everyone. He holds a Master of Public Policy degree from the UC San Diego School of Global Policy and Strategy and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from the University of Central Florida.