Co-Founder & CEO

Vien has advised companies, lawmakers, foundations, and organizations on developing inclusive workforces, creating sustainable economies, and promoting equitable environmental policies.

Before co-founding Eco Equity, Vien led Nike's Global Sustainability Engagement team, spearheading global efforts to meet sustainability targets, establishing strategic partnerships and delivered sustainability-focused positions, platforms, and campaigns that engaged Nike employees, consumers, industry leaders, and other sectors.

Vien played a leading role in developing and implementing the strategy for the Biden/Harris climate surrogates, collaborating with the Climate Engagement Advisory Council (CEAC). Her work included engaging grassroots leaders, climate justice advocates, elected officials, communities of color, environmental groups, labor, and Native American communities.

Previously, she served as Senior Advisor on Climate Justice for Tom Steyer's Presidential campaign where she co-led in drafting his justice-centered climate plan and developed strategies to engage diverse and climate-focused voters both nationally and in key districts. She also served as a surrogate, delivering speeches to diverse audiences across the country.

As President and CEO of the Dream Corps, Vien led a national team that passed historic policies in criminal and climate justice, while also creating nationally recognized programs to increase diversity in the tech sector.

Vien co-led the coalition that passed and implemented California’s Climate Investments law, a model now replicated in other states and nationally. She also co-led Charge Ahead California, a policy that accelerated the adoption of electric cars, buses, and medium- and heavy-duty vehicles, while ensuring frontline communities were central to the policy.

Vien has received numerous congressional, state, regional, and local awards for her advocacy on behalf of those most vulnerable to climate change, including the White House Champion of Change award for her work on climate equity.

Co-Founder

Dan has been a leading force in designing and winning groundbreaking environmental policies and legislative campaigns for over 3 decades. He's crafted successful strategies, built coalitions, persuaded policymakers, raised millions of dollars, developed effective messaging, and recruited, trained, and managed hundreds of staff members.

Dan co-founded the OffshoreWindNow coalition with Eddie Ahn and Jeff Hunerlach. This coalition led the campaign for AB 525 (Chiu), collaborated with the CEC to set ambitious goals, and was crucial in passing AB 1373 (Garcia) for Central Procurement.

Dan was the lead lobbyist and strategist for SB 100 (de Leon), which passed in 2018. He led the two-year campaign to ensure California generates 100% of its electricity from carbon-free sources by 2045. Dan also played a key role in the campaigns for 20% clean energy (2002), 33% clean energy (2008), and 50% clean energy (2015).

Dan helped design and pass SB 1, the Million Solar Roofs campaign. He collaborated with the Schwarzenegger Administration to both win and implement the law. Dan and Governor Schwarzenegger celebrated the Millionth Solar Roof in November 2019.

Dan envisioned and co-led Charge Ahead California, which passed the legislation to bring environmental justice, equity, and environmental groups to place one million light, medium, and heavy-duty electric vehicles (EV) on California’s roads by 2023 and ensure that all Californians, especially lower-income households most impacted by air pollution, benefit from zero tailpipe emissions.

Dan devised the strategy to ban single-use plastic bags, achieving success in numerous towns and eventually statewide. He not only supported the passage of SB 270 (Padilla) but also won two ballot measures in 2016 (Yes on 67, No on 65) that thwarted industry efforts to roll back the law.

Dan helped organize the California Energy Commission’s mandate requiring new homes to be built with solar panels (2019).

Dan led campaigns to ban dangerous phthalates in children’s toys and bisphenol A in canned food. He was instrumental in passing ‘Green Chemistry,’ a comprehensive toxics policy, and organized the Healthy Schools program to track pesticide use in schools.

Dan conceived and implemented Oceans Day in 2002, which has grown into an annual educational event and the largest single-day Capitol event focused on ocean conservation, attracting over 250 participants each year.

Senior Advisor

Rocky Jaramillo Rushing is a senior consultant for Eco Equity with nearly three decades of experience as a Capitol insider and a proven advocate. 

His extensive experience as a seasoned expert in politics and policy was honed while serving as Chief of Staff in the California Senate and Assembly. Rocky has a deep understanding of the craft of legislating and a network of influential contacts within legislative offices and leadership.

Rocky's expertise is multi-faceted, encompassing media relations, legislative processes, crisis management, and campaign strategy. He has a solid background as a journalist and press secretary, adding superior writing, communications, and media planning to his skill set. 

Throughout his career, Rocky has been recognized as a staff leader in both houses of the Legislature. He has successfully guided significant legislation to the Governor's desk, addressing issues such as economic growth, consumer and environmental protection and crime reduction. 

His ability to build coalitions with legislative offices, industry representatives, and stakeholder groups has been instrumental in achieving policy and political goals. During his tenure with the Legislature, he also mentored young staff, created impactful media strategies, and mobilized grassroots campaigns.

Among his notable achievements, Rocky has steered legislation to protect homeowners from unscrupulous attorneys, supported the Homeowners Bill of Rights, and secured a $500 million film tax credit to curb runaway production. He has also delivered landmark consumer protections for used car buyers and legislation to clean up urban "brownfields."

Rocky has held pivotal roles as Chief of Staff to Senator Tom Hayden and Assembly Member Cindy Montanez where he oversaw legislative agendas, managed staff, and handled media and constituent relations. 

As a Senior Consultant to Senator Gloria Romero, he investigated correctional system policies and advocated for prison reform. His earlier role as a Consultant to Senate Pro Tem John Burton involved investigating juvenile-justice issues and supporting rehabilitation initiatives for at-risk youth. 

His diverse skills were called on while serving as the Executive Principal Consultant for the Senate Rules Committee, assigned to monitor the Department of State Hospital and design policies and practices to better serve the more than 6,000 patients and 11,000 employees. Employing his writing and media-relations skills, Rocky joined Senate Pro Tem Kevin de León’s press team, advising and implementing communications campaigns to advance legislative and political goals, writing and placing opinion pieces in major media outlets.

Rocky joined the Los Angeles based non-profit Coalition for Clean Air in 2018, becoming a strong and successful voice before the California Air Resources Board for reducing sources of pollution and climate-harming emissions, with a focus on disadvantaged and low-income communities.

Rocky's career began as an investigative newspaper reporter, where he wrote award-winning stories for major California newspapers.

Rocky is lives in Sacramento with his wife. Together, they have two adult daughters and three dogs. When Rocky is not advocating for climate-mitigating policies, he can likely be found hiking in the Sierra, camping in the desert or at home listing to classical music and jazz.

Senior Advisor

Trina has effectively worked with corporations, government entities, nonprofit organizations and philanthropic foundations to accelerate community led, equity centered climate mitigation, resiliency and adaptation solutions.

 As the Vice President of Global Programs at the Institute for Sustainable Communities, Trina managed global teams implementing a range of projects, including supporting historically disinvested communities in the US on enhancing climate resilience, working with factories and manufacturing sites across Asia on decarbonization while increasing gender equity and migrant worker rights, and developing city decarbonization roadmaps from the perspective of the urban poor.

While at The Nature Conservancy, New Jersey chapter, Trina lobbied for groundbreaking pieces of legislation that result in meaningful greenhouse gas reductions, including accelerating the adoption of electric vehicles, setting a baseline for energy and water efficient appliances, and passing amendments to the Global Warming Response Act in NJ. Trina also served in the NJ Board of Public Utilities Equity Working Group and Rutger University’s Climate Change Alliance Transportation Working Group.  

 Trina has extensive experience working with the private sector, including at Allianz SE in Munich where she led the decarbonization strategy across 30 operating entities and at PricewaterhouseCoopers in Zurich where she developed sustainability strategies for multinational corporations.

At the Climate Group, Trina was the Global Head of Member Engagement responsible for managing its global member network, consisting of Fortune 50 companies and large sub-national governments across North America, Europe, India, China, and Australia, to accelerate the transition to a low carbon economy via programs and high-level events.  

 Trina is a prolific public speaker and has Board positions on organizations meaningfully advancing environmental solutions and promoting civic engagement. Trina holds a B.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Maryland at College Park, a Masters in Engineering Management from George Washington University and a MBA from the Stern School of Business at New York University.

Advisor

Radha is a seasoned advocate, with deep experience in state, federal, and international policy work, and has worked on advocacy campaigns focusing on economic and social justice. 

Most recently at SaverLife, as the inaugural Policy Director of the organization, she built an agenda to address the root causes of inequality and economic insecurity, centering those who are directly impacted. She built advocacy strategies that had 60+ press mentions in one year, built partnerships with the US Treasury, White House, multiple Federal Reserve banks, many other federal and state officials, and much more. 

As the National Policy Director for Tom Steyer’s presidential campaign, Radha built a bold policy agenda to address the way in which Americans build wealth, while fostering a network of supporters, organizations, and advocates committed to similar goals. 

Most recently at NextGen Policy, she worked on legislative campaigns in California, working closely with large and diverse coalitions to advocate for policies and programs that promote economic justice and opportunity throughout the state, including a first-in-the-nation Bill of Rights for student loan borrowers.

Radha has co-authored reports to Congress on jobs and the US Recovery Act, established a $5 million charitable foundation for former Google employees, and worked with the World Bank on developing a more comprehensive understanding of poverty. 

Radha holds a Master’s degree in Public Policy from Georgetown University, a Certificate in International Management from Oxford University, and a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from UC Berkeley. She is fluent in Tamil and proficient in Spanish. When she is not doting on her cat, you’ll find her roaming the cliffs of Northern California beaches or the local farmer’s market.

Advisor

Alvaro S. Sanchez (he/him/his) is an urban planner with extensive experience crafting, implementing, and evaluating strategies that leverage private, public, and philanthropic investments to deliver benefits to priority communities. Alvaro is The Greenlining Institute’s Vice President of Policy. He leads a team that develops policies that create a future where communities of color can build wealth, live in healthy places filled with economic opportunity, and are ready to meet the challenges posed by climate change. Under his leadership, The Greenlining Institute has shaped over $5.2 billion in California Climate Investments targeted at priority communities, established the Transformative Climate Communities and Regional Climate Collaboratives state programs via legislation, and launched the Towards Equitable Electric Mobility Community of Practice, a multi-state effort to advance equitable electric mobility policies. Prior to joining Greenlining, Alvaro led Green For All’s stormwater infrastructure strategy. As a member of the State and Local Initiatives team, he led the organization’s strategies for connecting impacted communities to economic opportunity related to national stormwater infrastructure investments. He wrote several reports detailing the untapped opportunity of using green infrastructure as a cost-effective stormwater management tool that creates job and business opportunities for underserved communities. Several leading water and stormwater utilities throughout the country have used the framework he presented to deliver triple-bottom-line benefits. Alvaro has over a decade of experience working on economic development and land use issues throughout California and nationally. In 2011 he received a Master of Planning degree from the University of Southern California, where he focused on affordable housing and economic development. He is on the board of the Urban Sustainability Directors Network, the advisory board of the UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation, LISC’s Emerging Leaders Council, and the advisory committee of The University of California Alianza Mexico’s “Latinos and Mexico: Culture and Identify” program. He was named one of Grist's 50 Fixers in 2019. Alvaro, who believes you can never be too wonky, lives in North Oakland, grew up in Los Angeles, and was born in Mexico City.