As the Transportation Equity Program Manager, Maurissa Brown (she/her/hers) advocates for clean, safe, and affordable mobility options that benefit low-income communities of color. Maurissa works to ensure state zero-emission vehicle transportation policy, planning and investments build healthy, climate-resilient communities. Maurissa previously worked as a Roger Arliner Young (RAY) Clean Energy Diversity Fellow during which she developed a background in building science and innovation, energy codes and policy, and zero-emission technologies. Maurissa built a relationship with the Coalition of Communities of Color and joined the Building Community, Shifting Power Collective in Portland, Oregon as a researcher and organizer. She held healing space for communities of color to determine their own climate justice needs for local policy, which led to the Collective’s development of the HEART Standards–equitable and healthy building performance standards–for communities who live in existing rental housing in Multnomah County. Maurissa was born and raised on Tongva land (South Central Los Angeles). As a South Central native, Maurissa personally understands the socio-economic impacts of redlining and intentional neighborhood disinvestment. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Ecology, Behavior, & Evolution from the University of California, Los Angeles. Maurissa is an artistic and scientific mind and enjoys melding the intersections between ecology and environmental justice through painting and writing. She believes storytelling through art is essential to changing the narrative of our cultural relationship to nature and one another.