Fearless Voices: Surabhi Mahajan

Our monthly spotlight of inspiring people furthering conservation in the Northwest.

Surabhi Mahajan is the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Specialist at Friends of Trees. Her work focuses on the organization’s internal equity practices, and she’s also making sure their external programming is equitably reaching the entire community.

“One of my goals is to make headway into the work of environmental justice meaningfully. Planting trees is a tool we can use to make our environment better. It is also a tool that can be used to help get rid of toxins in the air, preserve and encourage wildlife species, and help improve the social determinants of health for marginalized communities. I would like to see the environmental sector work more closely with the social justice sector to really help mitigate and prevent negative environmental impacts by focusing on the needs of the communities that are impacted the most.”

Having grown up in Salem and now a current resident of Vancouver, Surabhi’s favorite thing about the Pacific Northwest was an easy answer…”the trees. Even if that’s a cliché.”