Recently, the Sierra Club welcomed the arrival of two great new staff members to work in our Austin office. Mayté (likeMy-tay) Salazar, who helped to establish a low-income advisory task force in Austin, is now an Apprentice with the Beyond Coal Campaign. Dr. Tane Ward, a long time Indigenous Rights activist who has worked extensively with community groups in Austin for more than ten years, is the new Organizing Manager for the Beyond Coal Campaign in Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and Mississippi.
A little bit more about Mayté and Tane and what they will be working on at the Sierra Club:
Mayté Salazar was born in Chihuahua, Mexico, but considers the border towns of Juarez and El Paso to be home. She graduated with the highest honors from the University of Texas with a B.A. in Anthropology, History, and Latin American Studies and hopes to continue her studies through law or graduate school sometime in the future. As a student leader at the University of Texas, she advocated for the representation and involvement of underrepresented students, which led her down a path to discover environmental justice organizing at the Sierra Club Lone Star Chapter. She was part of the effort that ensured the passing of a local resolution, calling for a Low-Income Advisory Task Force to assess how Austin Energy can better serve its low and moderate-income customers using renewable and clean energy solutions. Now an apprentice with Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal Campaign, Mayté is excited to help this Task Force address issues of representation, affordability, and accessibility not only from a public health perspective, but also from a building wealth perspective via a more just and equitable clean energy economy.
Dr. Tane Ward is a long time Indigenous Rights activist with over ten years experience working with Native communities to help protect their lands and preserve their sovereignty. He specializes in building decolonial politics that serve to challenge the destructive exploitation of traditional communities, and create alternative frameworks for resistance in urban and elite spaces. He is a long time educator and community activist in Austin, Texas, where he lives with his duality and their daughter. Tane received a PhD in Anthropology with a focus in Native American and Indigenous studies from the University of Texas at Austin. Tane is dedicated to anti-racist organizing principles and is a founding member of the Undoing Racism Austin Collective. He has worked extensively with community groups in Austin for more than ten years. He is very excited to be joining the national Beyond Coal Campaign for the Sierra Club, where he sees his activist work continuing to a new level. He will be managing Beyond Coal organizers in Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and Mississippi.