Lil Milagro Henriquez, M.A., is a native New Orleanian, whose family survived Hurricane Katrina, and a 17-year veteran of social and environmental justice activism. Determined to be a catalyst for change, Henriquez resolved to fill the critical gap in education and community development for Oakland youth using her own expertise in disaster preparation and response, youth education, and leadership as well as the expertise of colleagues in complementary fields. In 2017, she founded Mycelium Youth Network, an educational nonprofit designed to integrate place-based ancestral knowledge with hands-on holistic S.T.E.A.M. (Science Technology Engineering Arts and Math) programming in order to prepare her community’s youth for a climate-challenged future. Mycelium Youth Network was named one of a handful organizations focusing on youth climate preparedness on the West Coast. As Executive Director, Henriquez is leading the way in youth climate resilience and mitigation work.

Henriquez has worked on a myriad of social justice issues, including access to higher education for low-income people and communities of color, food sovereignty, environmental racism, union democracy and labor organizing, among many others. In 2010, she received a graduate degree in Social and Cultural Anthropology. She reached ABD (All But Dissertation) status for our PhD in Systematic Theology from the Graduate Theological Union.