Environmental Leadership Cohort

My name is Andre Newman II. I’m a security manager from Falls Church and a former Boy Scout. I’ve been using various hiking trails and parks across the DMV to meditate, train, recharge, or even escape the pace of the city for over a decade. I hope to show and share the value of accessing the outdoors throughout life. Don’t forget, Hydration first!

Kaila Philo is a journalist based in Washington, DC. She's passionate about urban farming, yoga, hiking, and exploring.

A native Pennsylvanian, Katherine fell in love with the outdoors at an early age.  During her teens, she spent summers camping in MD and hiking in Central PA.  Now living in Northern Virginia, she enjoys her weekends exploring local trails and state national parks.  Katherine hopes to inspire others to be adventurous in nature but also respect and care for it.

Kristen Walker is a Ph.D. student in Bioenvironmental Science at Morgan State University. Her dissertation research focuses on environmental justice and education by evaluating soil quality on black-owned urban farms in Baltimore city. Kristen is a student researcher with Morgan CARES, a network of diverse and innovative stakeholders, who work together on issues to address health inequalities in Baltimore. Kristen is the graduate chair of Morgan’s Community Based Participatory Research Club and is the recipient of a seed grant to form Morgan’s first Science Policy Group, for which she serves as President. Concurrent to being a full-time Ph.D. student, Kristen is also employed as a full-time Biologist with the United States Department of Agriculture’s Agriculture Research Service. She previously received a master’s degree in Agriculture from Kansas State University, and a bachelor’s degree in Agriculture from the University of Maryland Eastern Shore. Additionally, Kristen is a returned Peace Corps volunteer who served in Cameroon, West Africa from 2013-2015, where she taught secondary school science, and trained host country nationals in public health, and sustainable agriculture initiatives.  

Omoniyi Adekanmbi is a Maryland native who returned to the area in 2010. Her passion for the outdoors developed during the covid-19 pandemic when she took to weekly hikes to exercise and get outdoors during the lockdown. During this time, she also took up camping and kayaking and soon expanded to other outdoor activities, including completing Soul Trak’s Fall 2021 Outdoor Climbing course and her first adventure race. Omoniyi’s experience in the outdoors has led to a passion for promoting diversity in the outdoors and environmental stewardship. She is excited for the opportunity to engage with peers with a similar passion through the 2022 Environmental Leadership Cohort and to build the skills and knowledge for long-term leadership in environmental sustainability and outdoor recreation.

Omoniyi earned a Bachelor of Science from Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania. She also received a Master of Science from Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts, and a Master of Public Policy from The George Washington University in Washington D.C.

Rochelle Coleman is an Associate Director at Arabella Advisors and manages a portfolio of nonprofit projects to ensure the operational success of their programmatic goals. Before joining the Arabella team, Rochelle worked at PeacePlayers International, a sports-based youth development peacebuilding organization as the Director of Global Programs. In this role, she provided leadership and oversight to global program initiatives and cultivated an atmosphere of collaboration and accountability across five program sites in South Africa, Northern Ireland, the Middle East, Cyprus, and the United States. Her other experience at PeacePlayers included supporting expansion into the United States, building and managing three of the five cities: Baltimore, MD, Chicago, IL, and Los Angles, CA. Before PeacePlayers she was the owner of RAC Basketball, a training company conducting camps, clinics, and individual training in the Washington, DC area. Rochelle earned a B.A. in history at Syracuse University and an M.S. in sport management at Slippery Rock University."

Valentine is a Maryland native who enjoys traveling, dancing, board games, and most recently, rock climbing. On weekends, when not curled up with a good book, you can find her taking windy walks in her neighborhood.