Illai Kenney

Illai Kenney serves as program manager in the Howard University Office of Sustainability. An environmental and social justice youth activist, Kenney's first public speech was at the Million Youth Movement Rally at the age of nine. She cofounded Georgia Kids Against Pollution when she was 12.

A winner of the Brower Youth Award for environmental leaders, she challenged Coca-Cola over water practices in India and spoke up about poverty at the United Nations Summit on Sustainability in South Africa. Kenney was among the many activists gassed at the traumatic Ferguson March that underscored Black Lives Matter.

She served as an organizer with Black Youth Vote to promote youth civic engagement and as a Green Ambassador with the Toyota Green Initiative and Green for All. She volunteered with Hearts for Africa in Malawi and went to Ghana with the Morehouse College MPAGE program, where she worked on sustainable development projects