Introduction

Marshall Ganz sits down with Dyanna Jaye, Sunrise’s Co-Founder and Organizing Director, to chart the rise of a movement that has rocked the political establishment, and to learn about Dyanna’s own journey to climate justice leadership.

Dyanna shares Sunrise’s movement building ‘DNA’, taking us from the moment they were thrust onto the national stage after the high profile sit-in protest outside Nancy Pelosi’s Office with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, through to how they’re scaling a national movement driven by thousands of young people in local communities at this time of social distancing and deep uncertainty.

Dyanna and Marshall also explore the power of sustained learning for building powerful movements and how we can seize this very moment to create the change our communities want.

Listen to Podcast

Explore Further

Listen to other inspiring podcasts

• Faces of Change Podcast by Leading Change Network
• Changemakers Community Organizing Podcasts

Brief about Dyanna Jaye

Dyanna Jaye is a U.S.-based climate justice organizer, leadership trainer, and movement strategist known for her role in building some of the most impactful progressive coalitions of the last decade. As a founding member of the Sunrise Movement, Dyanna has played a central role in shaping the national climate conversation, mentoring emerging activists, and designing powerful structures that center grassroots leadership. Her work spans the intersections of climate, justice, democracy, and power-building—with a deep commitment to equity, collective action, and long-term systemic change.

Basic Information

Dyanna Jaye is an organizer and strategist based in the United States, working across the environmental, political, and civic sectors. She is currently focused on building infrastructure to support grassroots organizers and local leaders, particularly those working on climate and economic justice. Through facilitation, coalition-building, and strategic advising, she empowers others to take leadership in the movements that shape their lives.

Background / Bio

Early Life & Education

Raised in the American South, Dyanna was drawn to organizing through firsthand exposure to social inequality, environmental degradation, and political disenfranchisement in rural communities. Her upbringing nurtured an early awareness of the structural barriers that marginalized voices face, especially in the context of race, class, and geography.

She studied political science and environmental studies at The College of William & Mary, where she became involved in campus organizing and student-led environmental campaigns. Her time in college solidified her interest in connecting academic research on policy and justice with direct community engagement and activism.

Professional Experience

Dyanna’s professional organizing journey began in labor and environmental justice campaigns before she rose to national prominence through her work co-founding the Sunrise Movement—a youth-led climate organization that catalyzed national attention on the Green New Deal and redefined how climate advocacy is communicated, organized, and led.

At Sunrise, she served in key leadership roles focused on training, organizing, and national structure. She helped design scalable training programs and coordinated decentralized campaign models that empowered thousands of local leaders.

Beyond Sunrise, Dyanna has continued to serve as a facilitator, consultant, and strategist for multiple movements and political initiatives. She supports organizations in building democratic governance structures, developing inclusive leadership models, and integrating climate justice across their strategies.

Skills and Areas of Expertise

Leadership & Organizational Development

Dyanna excels in designing internal structures and leadership pipelines for grassroots organizations. Her focus on distributed leadership and horizontal decision-making enables movements to be both scalable and democratic. She has helped numerous organizations develop governance models that are transparent, values-aligned, and rooted in equity.

She also mentors young organizers in leadership roles, with special attention to those from frontline communities most impacted by environmental and social injustice.

Civic Engagement & Advocacy

At the core of Dyanna’s work is her commitment to building people-powered movements that influence policy and shift narratives. She is skilled in issue campaigning, coalition building, and grassroots mobilization. Her strategic approach combines mass mobilization with behind-the-scenes advocacy and electoral influence.

She has supported national and local campaigns around the Green New Deal, climate adaptation, economic transition, and democracy reform.

Education & Training

Dyanna is a masterful trainer and facilitator who has led hundreds of workshops on movement building, climate justice, leadership development, and community organizing. Her sessions are known for being participatory, trauma-informed, and rooted in storytelling and relational practice.

She has developed training curricula for youth organizers, nonprofit teams, and local campaigns—focusing not just on tactics but on political education, identity, and sustainability in activism.

Achievements & Highlights

Organizational Leadership

As a founding member of the Sunrise Movement, Dyanna helped transform a small network of youth climate activists into a national movement with widespread impact. She was instrumental in the development of:

• The Sunrise Hub model, enabling local chapters across the U.S. 
• The Sunrise Fellowship program, training emerging organizers in climate justice and campaign skills 
• Internal governance processes rooted in participatory democracy and anti-oppression principles 

Her leadership was key to navigating the organization’s growth while maintaining alignment with its core mission and values.

Educational Contributions

Dyanna has taught courses and led seminars on climate organizing, movement governance, and feminist leadership at institutions including Harvard University, Georgetown, and the University of Michigan. She also supports peer learning cohorts and cross-movement exchanges where grassroots leaders reflect and strategize across issue areas.

Through her educational work, she has empowered hundreds of activists to not only act but also think critically about systems change and collective care.

Publications and Thought Leadership

Dyanna has written and spoken extensively on climate organizing, intersectional justice, and transformative movement strategy. Her insights have been featured in publications like The Nation, Jacobin, and Yes! Magazine. She is often cited for her clarity in linking grassroots work to political impact, and for her commitment to accountability and inclusion in organizing spaces.

Her writing challenges extractive political culture and advocates for building long-term organizing infrastructure that supports both winning campaigns and healing-centered leadership.

Target Audience or Collaborators

Sectors & Demographics

Dyanna collaborates with:

• Youth-led movements and grassroots climate organizers 
• Progressive political campaigns and electoral coalitions 
• Unions and labor justice groups 
• Environmental justice and frontline community organizations 
• National advocacy networks and training institutes 

She also works directly with BIPOC organizers, rural leaders, and emerging movement builders who are developing alternatives to hierarchical power structures.

Geographic Focus

While Dyanna’s base is in the United States, her work has global resonance. She has collaborated with international organizers and movement-building initiatives across Latin America, Europe, and the Global South, especially in climate and feminist networks. Her model of leadership development and campaign design is frequently adapted by regional partners interested in participatory frameworks.

Values and Vision

Core Beliefs

Dyanna believes in the power of decentralized, values-rooted leadership. She sees organizing not just as a means of winning campaigns, but as a way of reclaiming dignity, community, and shared purpose.

Her work is grounded in the principles of:

• Justice over charity 
• Collective leadership over individual heroism 
• Care and healing as core to sustainable activism 
• Intergenerational knowledge sharing, where past movement lessons inform future strategies 

She is committed to building a political culture that is not only strategic but emotionally intelligent and inclusive.

Long-Term Goals

Dyanna’s long-term goals include:

• Supporting the creation of regional organizing schools that center frontline leadership 
• Building networks of climate justice organizers in rural and under-resourced areas 
• Developing models for non-extractive governance and mutual aid within progressive movements 
• Creating spaces for reflection, repair, and resilience in activist communities 

She is also working on a book that documents her experiences building movements and offers a roadmap for values-driven organizing in a time of climate and democratic crisis.