Jolisa, a native Detroiter, joined the Taproot Earth family as Senior Director of Operations. She is a political ecologist and former U.S. diplomat who, after more than a decade working in global climate policy and programming, believes the neo-colonial response to the climate crisis is too slow, paternalistic, and largely devoid of the leadership, wisdom, and lived experiences of frontline communities. Growing up in Detroit, she became acutely aware of the political and economic disenfranchisement that undergirds environmental exploitation. At an early age, she understood that the socially manufactured conditions and systems of extraction that plagued her hometown were not unique to Detroit or the United States. Her work is grounded in intersectional feminism and Black liberation, and she enters this work carrying the stories of Brightmoor, Ambanja, Schoolcraft, Anacostia, and all the communities that have shaped her politics, practice, and commitment to collective liberation.