The Lone Star Chapter is pleased to announce the newest addition to our family, Larisa Manescu! Larisa will join our communications team as Communications Coordinator, which includes managing our social media platforms, developing monthly newsletters, contributing content and editing expertise to our website, producing videos, and supporting message development across mutliple campaigns, among other duties.
A first-generation Romanian American raised in Canada, Larisa graduated from UT-Austin in 2015 with double majors in journalism and international relations. A freelance writer and editor with an activist heart, she believes in the power of media, art, and activism to work together to educate, inspire, and ultimately shift the status quo on all matters of social justice. She's stoked to get creative with storytelling in the Communications Coordinator role to evoke empathy and action about all matters of environmental justice in Texas and the world over and she's already humbled and inspired by the grit of the people she's met at the Lone Star Chapter.
In her free time, you can find her dancing in hip-hop classes around the city, volunteering with Boss Babes ATX (a nonprofit/collective promoting self-identifying women in creative industries and the arts), or searching for a good horror flick to enjoy.
(Fun fact: She's trilingual but her Spanish is a tad rusty, so help her out by sending her your favorite Spanish tunes - Calle 13 is a personal fav).
While we welcome Larisa, we congratulate our outgoing Communications Coordinator, Olka Forster, who recently became a Regional Online Organizer with the Sierra Club's Beyond Coal Campaign. We're also very thankful that Olka will still work out of our Austin office!