Uplifting Afro-Latine Voices in Environmental Justice: Meet Paul Presendieu

Feliz Ano 2024 Green Latinos! My name is Paul Presendieu (Presendieu-Cuesta) of New Rochelle, NY. I was born and raised in the City of New Rochelle as the son of Colombian and Haitian immigrants. My mother Luz Mercedes Presendieu-Cuesta immigrated to New York from Cali, Colombia in 1983, while my father Roussel Presendieu immigrated to New York in 1978 from Saint-Marc, Haiti. On top of my strong environmental values, I was raised to have a sense of pride in being an Afro-Latino to show the diversity of Latin America and exemplify the cultural diversity of the Black Community. The support my parents received after immigrating to this nation showed the ability found within the unity of our Brown and Black communities. My passion as a climate leader unfortunately grows from a moment of great tragedy for my family. At four months old I lost my mother from a tree falling on her during an episode of climate whiplash where strong winds knocked down a tree that would’ve been removed if New Rochelle has a tree ordinance and arborist at the time. While this moment brought extreme heartbreak to my family, I was able to discover a sense of purpose greater than my human experience, while channeling a level of emotional intelligence that has enabled me to excel assisting vulnerable populations in our climate space. Also, fast-forward 32 years, I am now the first Latino and person of color to serve as Chairman of the City of New Rochelle’s Ecology and Natural Resources Advisory Committee, where I am leading the update to our city’s sustainability plan and key sectors such as our tree ordinance.

My father ensured that I had an upbringing rooted in environmental stewardship. I was in the Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts of America growing up in New Rochelle, and persevered numerous weekends where I wanted to play tag or soccer with friends, but had to assist my father with yard work that he told me would build character. I recall him sharing phrases with me such as “Palo que nace doblado, jamas su tronco endereza”, or to be happy that I have a garden in the back year to learn how to grow food. After graduating from the New Rochelle Public School District, I attended SUNY Westchester Community College as a Nursing Pre-Major, graduated then was accepted into Montefiore School of Nursing, and received a job offer to work in White Plains Hospital as a Nursing Technician for their Emergency Department. After two years of employment at the hospital and into nursing program to become a Registered Nurse, I realized that being in the healthcare field paled in comparison to my passion to be in the environmental field. To my father’s dismay, I left my position at White Plains Hospital and my nursing program to return to SUNY Westchester Community College to study environmental studies. Thankfully, while at the college I received a paid internship opportunity for the Federated Conservationists of Westchester County, New York’s oldest environmental education nonprofit that was established in 1965 to support their community engagement and youth equity efforts.

My work there not only enabled me to support critical programs with my county government such as our inaugural youth climate action summit, and workshops showing young residents paid internship opportunities, jobs, and overall extracurriculars in the environmental field. My success returning to SUNY Westchester Community College allowed me to receive a full academic scholarship, transfer to SUNY Purchase for the completion of my undergraduate studies, and receive an invitation to participate in the United Nations Inaugural Youth Climate Summit in 2019, where I met phenomenal leaders such as Greta Thunberg and Vanessa Nakate. After completing my undergraduate study, I was able to become the Outreach Manager of Sustainable Westchester, Westchester County’s nonprofit consortium for 45 municipal governments to support community-based energy programs, climate policy, and community education efforts. My experience at Sustainable Westchester revealed to me that our communities are not a monolith when it comes to implementing sustainable practices, and I will forever be indebted to the support I received from the Green Latinos Climate Justice and Clean Air Working Group to facilitate innovate programming for strengthening bonds with Westchester County’s Latino population. On top of my work as the organizations outreach manager, I was able to conduct quarterly Hispanic Roundtable discussions featuring Latino elected officials at all levels of government to share what we should be doing organizationally to ensure racial equity is present in the core nucleus of all programming.

I now currently serve as the Director of Community Engagement for Soulful Synergy, a millennial-minority-owned social enterprise dedicated to equitable sustainable development and the creation of circular economies. Our company prioritizes green-collar workforce development through the lens of diversity and equity, prioritizing our most marginalized communities and providing the needed wrap-around career services to ensure employment in our growing green economy. This includes single parents, the previously incarcerated, individuals with disabilities, and residents navigating our immigration process. Soulful Synergy has trained nearly 8,000 students in 10 years, helping residents fill the needed labor shortages amongst electricians, facility managers, green construction laborers, energy auditors, and technicians for the clean energy needed to decarbonize our facilities and execute our state and national climate agendas. We are also forward-thinking in providing trainings in emerging technologies such as offshore wind training in New Jersey, and electrical vehicle charging infrastructure training throughout New York, where residents will be able to conduct site feasibility assessment and gain knowledge on how charging infrastructure could be established to neutralize charging deserts and build confidence amongst New York residents adopting the use of electric vehicles.

Through extracurriculars, I am currently in my second year as the United Nations Association of the United States of America’s Global Ambassador for the 13th Sustainable Development Goal Climate Action and am the first New York resident democratically elected to the Executive Committee of the Democratic National Committee’s Climate Council. These experiences allowed me to be grounded in a spirit of humility, and have a sharpened mindset on what could be executed during 9-5 professional hours. I strongly believe that we are in an unprecedented time in American history for the Latino Community. With census data showing the rise our population, we must stand tall as young professionals to show young members of the community that they could succeed in the environmental field, provide economic empowerment to residents who could support our needed linguistic equity efforts through pure cultural heritage. To me, the Latino Community is a “Vaso de Colores”, showing the richness of our diversity, and our strength of unity.