About LJCS
Since 2019, we have advanced climate justice through the integration of art, education, and advocacy - building community power through grassroots organizing and fostering cultural change through creative programming across Turtle Island.
Our Mission
Land Justice Community School (LJCS) builds frontline youth leadership, community-rooted education, narratives, and systems for Black, Brown, Indigenous, Asian, immigrant, and working-class communities advancing self-determination, land sovereignty, and climate justice.
Our Vision
We envision a future where Black, Brown, Indigenous, Asian, immigrant, and working-class communities steward their land, food, housing, water, and cultural knowledge through community-owned systems, rooted in Indigenous sovereignty, intergenerational healing, and collective power. In this future, youth and communities lead through storytelling, cultural knowledge, and community-based learning—remaining deeply connected to their land, histories, and each other.
Land Justice Community
School Team
Alexia
Alexia Leclercq
Founder, Executive Director
(she/they)
Alexia is an environmental justice organizer, scholar, and artist, with over a decade of experience winning clean water protections, land-use reforms, and fossil fuel phaseouts. Her leadership has been recognized by Forbes 30 under 30 and the WWF Conservation Award. Her art and poetry explore belonging, immigration, relationship to land, and traditional knowledge.
Celine
Celine Rendon
Program Director
(she/her)
Celine Rendon is an adaptation and environmental planning professional grounded in environmental science and grassroots environmental justice. She has led climate resilience planning, youth leadership, and community engagement efforts across Texas and the Gulf South, including Austin’s first Climate Equity Plan, participatory research, resilience strategy development, and climate justice education.
Noé
Noé Elias
Education Coordinator
(he/him)
Noé is a educator, community organizer, and social and environmental justice advocate from a pueblo in Queretaro Mexico and East Austin. He spent over 13 years as a dual language educator in Austin ISD. Dedicated to uplifting marginalized voices, he also serves with local organizations and chairs the Austin Community Development Commission.
John
John Redhawk Gutierrez
Environmental Educator
(he/him)
John Redhawk is a Tejano educator, organizer, and herbalist rooted in Texas and Northern Mexico. A devoted nature enthusiast, he studies ecology, flora, fauna, and fungi. Guided by transformational justice, he advances community agriculture, education, and habitat restoration.
Maxochitl
Maxochitl Cortez
Creative Coordinator
(they/them)
Maxochitl is of Indigenous descent from Aridoamerica. As a queer and native resistance artist, educator, and community organizer, they use storytelling as a pathway to liberation by asking what freedom means, how we reach it for all people, and which narratives we honor on our path to healing. They are a teaching artist and host with everyWordpoetry.
Alexia
Alexia Leclercq
Founder, Executive Director
(she/they)
Alexia is an environmental justice organizer, scholar, and artist, with over a decade of experience winning clean water protections, land-use reforms, and fossil fuel phaseouts. Her leadership has been recognized by Forbes 30 under 30 and the WWF Conservation Award. Her art and poetry explore belonging, immigration, relationship to land, and traditional knowledge.
Celine
Celine Rendon
Program Director
(she/her)
Celine Rendon is an adaptation and environmental planning professional grounded in environmental science and grassroots environmental justice. She has led climate resilience planning, youth leadership, and community engagement efforts across Texas and the Gulf South, including Austin's first Climate Equity Plan, participatory research, resilience strategy development, and climate justice education.
Noé
Noé Elias
Education Coordinator
(he/him)
Noé is an educator, community organizer, and social and environmental justice advocate from a pueblo in Queretaro Mexico and East Austin. He spent over 13 years as a dual language educator in Austin ISD. Dedicated to uplifting marginalized voices, he also serves with local organizations and chairs the Austin Community Development Commission.
John
John Redhawk Gutierrez
Environmental Educator
(he/him)
John Redhawk is a Tejano educator, organizer, and herbalist rooted in Texas and Northern Mexico. A devoted nature enthusiast, he studies ecology, flora, fauna, and fungi. Guided by transformational justice, he advances community agriculture, education, and habitat restoration.
Our Board Members
Rev
Yearwood
Yearwood
Lennox Yearwood Jr
Board Member
(he/him)
Rev Yearwood is a Pentecostal minister, community activist, and national leader in political hip hop and environmental justice. As president of the Hip Hop Caucus, he mobilizes civic engagement, youth voting, and policy advocacy, and has led major campaigns advancing human rights and environmental justice, including post–Hurricane Katrina Gulf Coast efforts.
Jasmine
Jasmine Butler
Board Member
(they/them)
Jasmine is a Black queer writer, cultural worker, and afrofuturist-abolitionist from Memphis with deep Mississippi roots. Committed to collective liberation through mutual aid and education, they are a network weaver, educator, historian, and archivist. Jasmine holds a BA in Geography from Dartmouth College and currently resides in Dallas, TX.
Cassandra
Dr. Cassandra Jean
Board Member
(they/she)
Cassandra is an interdisciplinary scholar and practitioner in social science, climate resilience, and environmental justice. With over a decade of experience, they combine research, community engagement, and policy development to address systemic inequities. Dr. Jean holds degrees from Adelphi and Howard University and completed a postdoc at the University of Washington.
Kianna
Kianna Pete
Board Member
(she/they)
Kianna is a Diné/Navajo environmental advocate, policy researcher, and media justice creator from the Southwest. Guided by Diné teachings, she collaborates globally to advance Indigenous self-determination and educational equity. Her work bridges collective knowledge through digital storytelling, curriculum development, Rights of Nature advocacy, MMIWG2S+ work, and community-centered research.
Lennox
Lennox Yearwood Jr
Board Member
(he/him)
Rev Yearwood is a Pentecostal minister, community activist, and national leader in political hip hop and environmental justice. As president of the Hip Hop Caucus, he mobilizes civic engagement, youth voting, and policy advocacy, and has led major campaigns advancing human rights and environmental justice, including post-Hurricane Katrina Gulf Coast efforts.
Jasmine
Jasmine Butler
Board Member
(they/them)
Jasmine is a Black queer writer, cultural worker, and afrofuturist-abolitionist from Memphis with deep Mississippi roots. Committed to collective liberation through mutual aid and education, they are a network weaver, educator, historian, and archivist. Jasmine holds a BA in Geography from Dartmouth College and currently resides in Dallas, TX.
Cassandra
Dr. Cassandra Jean
Board Member
(they/she)
Cassandra is an interdisciplinary scholar and practitioner in social science, climate resilience, and environmental justice. With over a decade of experience, they combine research, community engagement, and policy development to address systemic inequities. Dr. Jean holds degrees from Adelphi and Howard University and completed a postdoc at the University of Washington.
Kianna
Kianna Pete
Board Member
(she/they)
Kianna is a Diné/Navajo environmental advocate, policy researcher, and media justice creator from the Southwest. Guided by Diné teachings, she collaborates globally to advance Indigenous self-determination and educational equity. Her work bridges collective knowledge through digital storytelling, curriculum development, Rights of Nature advocacy, MMIWG2S+ work, and community-centered research.
Community Advisory Board
Hedda Elias
Eric Paulus
Chiara Beaumont
Melinda Montoya
Agueda Padilla
Cassandra Medrano
Taniquewa Brewster
Jaynell Nicholson
Rodrigo Leal
Angel Gonzales
Annitha Taban
Our Partners
We work in partnership with community-led organizations, educators, and cultural institutions rooted in land, justice, and collective care — building pathways for youth leadership and climate justice from the ground up.
Join our movement
Land justice is built through relationship, care, and collective action. Stay connected to frontline organizing, youth leadership, and community-led systems shaping a more just future.
