Environmental Policy and Sustainability Management (MS)
Gén Abreu (they/them/elle) completed their MS in Environmental Policy and Sustainability Management in 2021 after completing their BA in Environmental and Political Science at Marist College in 2015. They identify as a nonbinary person of color with Mayan and Nahuat Indigenous roots, as well as Salvadoran and Dominican ancestry.
Between completing their BA and beginning their MS at The New School, Gén gained vast experience in community organizing and outreach, youth environmental justice education, and community participatory research through their work with
WE ACT for Environmental Justice, North Brooklyn Neighbors, and the Indigenous Peoples Climate Change Assessment Initiative. In 2015,
Gén was awarded a Fulbright Research Grant to go to Cusco, Peru, where they worked alongside Quechua farmers from the Potato Park to document the cultural, environmental, and economic
implications of the climate crisis for potato production.
While in the Environmental Policy and Sustainability program, Gén partnered with Kaija Xiao, a fellow student, the research assistant to the chair, and the 2021–2022 TNS Tishman Center Aronson Fellow,
to support and facilitate food sovereignty land projects promoting counter-hegemonic queer liberation, Indigenous land rematriation, and decolonization of the food system in northeastern occupied so-called New York State. Abreu's research,
titled Landed Liberation: Exploring Pathways for Decolonizing the Food System of the Northeast by Centering Queer and Trans BIPOC Futures, provided tools, resources, and networks for queer and trans BIPOC seeking land access and engaged in rematriation across
Turtle Island.
In 2020, Gén was hired as a leadership and enrichment manager at Futures Ignite, an organization working in New York City’s racially and economically segregated public school system
to advance a whole-school model of programming, counseling, and advocacy designed to help BIPOC students direct their college and career futures. They advance the mission of the organization by fostering youth enrichment, leadership, and community programming
through cross-sectoral partnerships and environmental justice youth education and leadership.
Learn more about Gén’s work: