Courtney Naquin is a climate and environmental justice communications professional based in New Orleans. Courtney was born and raised in a petrochemical and fossil fuel “sacrifice zone” of Southeast Texas, and has deep family roots in endangered bayou communities of Southern Louisiana. They’ve seen first hand the devastation and displacement of multiple major climate and environmental disasters, from Hurricane Katrina to the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill to the more recent Hurricane Ida.
Their upbringing inspired them to make environmental advocacy and climate communications their career. They are currently the Gulf Coast Deputy Press Secretary for Sierra Club’s Beyond Dirty Fuels campaign, working closely with grassroots organizations and frontline leaders to elevate the Gulf South resistance to extractive and polluting industry. They are a firm believer in “bottom up” messaging and community-led storytelling that centers the experiences and needs of those most impacted by industry activity and climate change. Courtney is dedicated to helping stop the fracked gas “LNG” buildout that is threatening the Gulf Coast, especially in the Rio Grande Valley, Southeast Texas, and Southwest Louisiana. They work with communities and groups along the “fracking cycle,” referring to the extraction of fossil fuels from the Permian Basin to transport and export along the TX/LA Gulf Coast.
Courtney also works as the education coordinator for the Houma Language Project, a new cultural restoration initiative with United Houma Nation, one of Southern Louisiana’s Indigenous Tribes. The Houma Language Project aims to revitalize Uma, the Tribe’s original language, and to engage Houma youth to help keep Houma French alive in a time where climate change poses an active existential threat to the Indigenous peoples of Southern Louisiana
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