Victoria Elizabeth Whalen
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Victoria Elizabeth Whalen 𖦹
Project Manager
she / her
Victoria Elizabeth is a legal advocate, climate justice organizer, and storyteller rooted in the U.S. South. She serves as Project Manager of the Future Generations Tribunal, a global, youth-led initiative advancing the rights of future generations through community testimony, legal innovation, and movement-building. The Tribunal organizes regional hearings and builds a public-facing, living database of lived experience and case studies to shift legal and policy norms. Victoria also coordinates the People’s Climate Diplomacy Program (PCDP), supporting frontline youth to strategically engage in global climate negotiations and civil society campaigns.
She holds a J.D. from the University of Oregon School of Law with a concentration in Environmental and Natural Resources Law and is a former Sustainable Land Use Fellow and Westling Environmental Justice Fellow. Her legal work focuses on local and state land use, zoning reform, and environmental justice through a public health lens, working alongside community-based coalitions and local governments to advance equity-centered climate policy. She earned her undergraduate degree in Biology and Urban & Environmental Sustainability from Marymount Manhattan College, where her thesis explored race, air pollution, and COVID-19 vaccine equity in New York City. Her advocacy includes work with Our Climate and NY Renews, and she regularly participates in COPs, SBs, and Climate Weeks.
Alongside her legal and organizing work, Victoria is an intersectional environmental justice content creator. She collaborates with organizations including NRDC, Earthjustice, Blavity, Action for the Climate Emergency, and Black Girl Environmentalist, using video, digital storytelling, writing, and spoken word to make climate justice accessible, grounded, and people-forward.
Milestones & Achievements
Co-Founder and Co-Coordinator of the People’s Climate Diplomacy Program, training and embedding youth leaders in international climate negotiations and movement-based advocacy spaces
Sustainable Land Use Fellow, University of Oregon School of Law Environmental & Natural Resources Center (2021-2024), advancing equitable land-use policy through research, public engagement, and legal analysis
Vice President of the Black Law Students Association, University of Oregon School of Law (2022), supporting student advocacy, leadership development, and institutional accountability
Featured in The Washington Post (2023) in A Fight Brewing in Oregon Could Decide How We Heat Our Homes and Cook, discussing electrification, fossil fuel dependence, and climate justice at the local level
Featured interviewee in IMAGINE5 (2024) through 5Talks: with Victoria Whalen, Environmental Justice Lawyer, exploring climate justice and feminist leadership
Co-Author and Researcher, Middle Housing Misconceptions White Paper (May 2022), analyzing equity gaps and public misunderstandings in Oregon’s middle housing law implementation
Organizer and panelist at the 2023 Oregon Chapter of the American Planning Association Annual Planning Conference, leading the conference’s first panel on land-use racism and environmental injustice
Official Speaker, Girl Up Caribbean Annual Gender Justice Conference (2023)
Actress and subject of the award-winning environmental justice documentary short film Act for Impact (2021), selected at multiple international film festivals
Overall Solo All-Star Winner and first-place Comedy Division recipient at the Access Broadway Competition, receiving the “Broadway Star” Award for a Ms. Trunchbull, Matilda the Musical, monologue

