Meet The Faces Of Rising Earth
We're fueled by an amazing group of enthusiastic educators, activists, researchers, artists, and youths. We believe in the reciprocal relationship of gifts that humans and all other living systems share.
TEAM
Lauren Wigo - Co-Founder, Executive Director
Lauren is a mother, somatic movement educator, writer and earth healing advocate. For over twenty years, she has incorporated experiential anatomy, body work, developmental movement, yoga, and meditation into her private practice. Her work helps clients understand and identify their movement patterns and provides support for new pathways of moving and being. Through the years she's also had the privilege of teaching the awareness practices of movement, yoga and meditation to youth organizations like The Door, The Lower Eastside Girls Club and various New York City schools.
Along with teaching and her work with Rising Earth, Lauren has been homeschooling her 3 children for the last 8 years. Rising Earth’s graphic novels and programing grew out of Lauren’s desires to create digestible, relevant and transformational learning experiences that will guide youth toward a greater awareness of humanity’s impact on the environment. She is passionate about creating content that helps young people understand our current patterns of disconnection and their roles and responsibilities in protecting, caring for, and healing our planet. Lauren is the lead writer and researcher for the graphic series, interviewing and working closely with scholars. She is also an all-around producer within the organization.
Maggie Chang - Co-Founder, Art Director, and Producer
As an artist and educator, Maggie has written several, interdisciplinary art curriculums for the New-York Historical Society and has helped hundreds of teen artists at LaGuardia Arts High School (aka New York City's acclaimed "Fame" school) develop their artistic skills and harness them for good. With her remaining hours, she's led the non-profit, Orange Giraffe Project, in guiding a multitude of people living with cancer to transform and celebrate their bodies through personalized jewelry making. Maggie has been honored by the School Arts League with a Mentorship Award, and she recently received an AmeriCorps Leadership Award from Comcast NBCUniversal.
Maggie is currently working on projects that cultivate empathy and empowerment and that bring important stories to life through art, including her own children's books and organizations like Rising Earth. For Rising Earth, she guides the writing and art team in creating its graphic novels, from manuscript to sketches to final art, and oversees the curriculum writing team. She also supervises the youth programs and is an all around collaborator, having played an integral part in establishing the organization as a non-profit. Maggie is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and Columbia University's Teachers College.
Isabel Marte - Production Assistant and Summer Program Coordinator
Isabel is recent graduate of Rochester Institute of Technology, where she majored in 3D Animation with an immersion in Portuguese. Although her studies were in animation, graphic design has remained a significant part of her life. At RIT, Isabel was involved in the Desano Language Documentation Project with linguist Wilson Silva, who works on the documentation of the language of an indigenous group named Desano located in Brazil. Their goal was to gather more interest within the Desano community to preserve their language, which Isabel assisted with by creating animations for their traditional spoken stories. She even got to travel to Brazil to work on this project and meet the community.
Isabel’s goal is to use her love of graphic design and animation to teach others in a more interesting and entertaining way. She keeps the Rising Earth team organized and assists on just about every part of the organization. (She's also the artist who drew the team portraits!)
Joseph Baiz-Elm - Writer and Teaching Artist
Joseph Baiz-Elm is a citizen of the Comanche Nation and a descendant of the Onondaga, Oneida, and Otoe-Missouria nations. In 2014, he received a BA in Linguistics and a Certificate in Iroquois Linguistics from Syracuse University. Having a lifelong interest in storytelling and creative writing, he is excited about the possibility of art and story to communicate an indigenous view of the relationship between humans and the natural world.
Joseph is part of the writing team for Rising Earth's graphic novels. He spearheads story, curriculum, and back matter material pertaining to indigenous topics, and assists in all areas involving writing, including letters and grants.
Eris Johnson-Smith - Director of Education Programs and Curricula Writer
Eris earned his BA in Creative Writing and African American Studies from Hampshire College and his Master's degree in the John W. Draper program in Humanities and Social Thought at NYU. As the Director of Education Programs, Eris leads the design and facilitation of the education programs including the Teen Production Council and Alumni Teen Production Council Internship. He also is part of the curricula writing team for Rising Earth.
For over 15 years, Eris has developed and facilitated programs focused on social justice youth leadership and empowerment. He served as the Director of Curriculum for Global Kids, an internationally known youth development and human rights education organization. He also served as the Director of Community Engagement at Essex Street Academy, where he directed the peer mediation and restorative justice program. Throughout his professional career, a major focus of his curriculum and facilitation efforts have sought to empower young people to address the causes and impact of climate change in their communities through sustainable and equitable practices. Eris has also co-led student trips to Costa Rica and New Orleans that focused on youth action and leadership in response to climate change and environmental racism.