Meet Tawndalaya “Tawndy” DaRoza-Cesar
A sower of the seeds and seams! A Kreatress, designer and cultivator from Boston, MA

An alumna from Howard University, a current fellow with Tuskegee University’s Carver Integrative Sustainability Center (CISC) in partnership with Hustlaz 2 Harvesters (H2H), she grows all plethora of herbs and vegetables while conducting regenerative applied agricultural research in Washington, DC.

Tawndalaya’s work focuses on agricultural applied research that demonstrates how to live a healthy lifestyle in harmony with the land. This lifestyle incorporates the powerful healing capabilities of the Earth’s medicine focusing on holistic health and wellness, horticulture therapy, herbalism, nutrition and permaculture. Tawndalaya is also passionate about building skilled and resilient communities that are conscious of how to incorporate these healing modalities in their lifestyle while adopting regenerative practices that are beneficial to the wellbeing of their community and the Environment.

Tawndalaya is also passionate about pioneering a regenerative fashion cycle + lifestyle that is not destructive to the Earth or its inhabitants. This includes a fashion cycle that is innovative, ethical and creative without having an exploitive catastrophic impact. Furthermore a lifestyle that is integrative, nourishing, therapeutic and conducive to shifting the paradigm of the degenerative habits and cycles we currently live by.

Furthermore, she dreams of pioneering a regenerative supply chain model that focuses on designing and manufacturing textiles from biodegradable organic materials in order to mitigate the harmful impact the industry has had on the Earth while initiating a new generation of skilled palm engineers.

Celine is a Black Geographer and Afro-Environmentalist whose African identity, culture and traditions influence her work. Her ancestral and familiar connections are rooted in Rwanda and the DRC; while growing up in Cape Town, South Africa. She is now grateful to live and learn on the Haldimand Tract, Turtle Island, located in so-called Canada. These intersecting identities and experiences influence the lens through which she approaches her work. And Celine hopes to be intentional and unapologetic in her stand for environmental liberation and work with her community to realize this future(s).

La’Meshia Whittington serves as the Deputy Director for Advance Carolina and the North Carolina Black Alliance Campaigns Director. Professor Whittington is the co-convener of the NC Black & Brown Policy Network, former National Democracy Campaigner for Friends of the Earth, former Chairwoman of the FRENC Fund Administration, Founding member of Democracy Green, member of the Burke Women’s Fund in Western NC, member of the Board of Directors for Cape Fear River Watch, the former N.C. spokesperson on fair courts for The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, and a community liaison for the National Academies of Science, Engineering & Medicine for the Guidance on PFAS Testing and Health Outcomes national study. Professor Whittington leads work on intersectional democracy and environmental justice.

Professor Whittington serves as an adjunct professor in the Division of Sociology at Meredith College and a Lecturer of Diversity and Environmental Justice in the College of Natural Resources at N.C. State University. Professor Whittington has led guest lectures at N.C. Central University, NC Central Law School, Shaw University, Duke University, and her work has been seen on PBS NC, CSPAN, Bloomberg, Bloomberg Law, and a host of other publications. She is a petitioner in two active petitions to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, challenging major contaminants PFAS and 1,4 Dioxane (PFAS and 1,4 Dioxane). Professor Whittington is an Afro-Indigenous woman from North Carolina, a royal descendant of the former Afro-Indigenous settlement: The Kingdom of the Happy Land.