Environmental Education for Resilience and Resistance

Fridays with Daren

Fridays with Daren is a weekly live show hosted by Goldin Solar CEO Daren Goldin and marketing director Dane Myers. In the show, which streams every Friday at 1 PM eastern, Daren and Daren are generally joined by guests who share their expertise in the environment in Florida. In our sixth episode, Daren and Dane are joined by a panel of nonprofit leaders from around the state of Florida. Each panelist represents an organization that focuses on educating the public in order to help us create a more resilient and just world for all.

About our panelists:

Mayra Cruz is the Climate Resilience Program Manager at Catalyst Miami. She manages CLEAR (Community Leadership on the Environment, Advocacy, and Resilience) and HEAL (Housing, Equity, Advocacy, and Leadership), which provide trainings around social justice and community organizing around the issues of climate change and affordable housing, respectively. Collectively the programs have graduated over 300 leaders who are more civically engaged and advocating for resilient solutions to Miami’s most pressing problems. She also supports Catalyst’s work around disaster preparedness and advocating for equitable resilient strategies for vulnerable communities. As a member of the Miami Climate Alliance, she advocates for access to clean energy for low-wealth communities. Mayra graduated from Columbia University with an MPH in Environmental Health Sciences with a Certificate in Climate and Health.

Caitlin Fogarty is a regenerative landscaper, permaculture consultant and community organizer. Over the last four years, she’s co-organized dozens of events for her nonprofit Orlando Permaculture around community resilience and community self-reliance. She’s an avid citizen mycology scientist and researcher and makes her livelihood as founder and lead designer for Regenerative Designs.

Barbara Martinez-Guerrero grew up in South Florida, graduating from G. Holmes Braddock, a local public school in Miami and attending FIU to obtain her undergraduate degree in elementary education with a focus on Teaching English to Students of Other Languages (TESOL). She is a returned Peace Corps volunteer, having spent two years teaching English as a foreign/second language in a high school in eastern Europe. She was a classroom teacher for 10 years teaching both in Miami public schools and New York City public schools. She earned her Master’s at Teachers College, Columbia University for International Educational Development with a focus on Peace Education and Conflict Resolution. Upon her return to Miami, she began her informal educator experience through Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden’s environmental education outreach program where she integrated sustainability and conservation lessons to teachers and students throughout South Florida. Her experiences uniquely position her to take on the role of Executive Director for Dream in Green, leading the organization in expanding its programs in the region. Dream in Green’s mission is to empower individuals, especially youth, to lead in the response to climate change and other environmental challenges facing South Florida.

About the host, Daren Goldin:

Daren Goldin is the co-founder and CEO of Goldin Solar. Goldin Solar has installed over a thousand solar arrays in the state of Florida offsetting over 10 million pounds of CO2 and saving residents more than a million dollars in energy costs.

Watch Episode Six, Environmental Education for Resilience and Resistance: