In this clip, 1993 Echoing Green Fellow Charlie Lord talks about his Moment of Obligation and the experiences that drove him to seek social change. While in law school, Charlie realized the connections between environmentally unfriendly practices, and social injustices in low-income neighborhoods. He became inspired to transform environmental standards with the aim of creating safe cities and communities. With help from Echoing Green, Charlie co-founded Alternative for Community and Environment (ACE), an environmental justice center working to build power in low-income communities of color. Watch the clip below to find out more about ACE’s work, as well as Charlie’s current project, the Urban Ecology Institute.

Katie Redford, a 1995 Echoing Green Fellow, talks about how she became inspired to work in the field of international human rights. While teaching English in a refugee camp on the border of Burma and Thailand, her students begged her not to forget them when she returned to the freedom and democracy of America. Troubled by the human rights abuses that she witnessed, Katie dedicated herself to finding a synthesis between the power of law and the power of people to end human rights injustices around the world. Despite the criticism of naysayers and doubtful professors, Katie applied for an Echoing Green grant and founded EarthRights International (ERI). Check out the clip below to find out more about Katie’s view on social change, the precedent setting case that forever changed international human rights law, and ERI’s current projects. Also, Katie is profiled in our Be Bold book.