Haleh Zandi
Haleh is an initiative officer at the Pisces Foundation, focusing on the Fast Action on Super Pollutants Today (FAST) Initiative in partnership with ClimateWorks Foundation. FAST is a field-wide effort to catalyze the full potential of super-pollutant mitigation while centering equity, health, and social justice.
Prior to joining Pisces, Haleh worked at the intersection of environmental, economic, and racial justice movements. In 2009, Haleh co-founded Planting Justice where she designed, implemented, and managed an innovative non-profit model nestled within the fields of urban farming, prison abolition, and land rematriation. Throughout her professional career, Haleh has been organizing in communities hardest hit by toxic air quality, forged by her deep commitment to addressing the intersecting climate, public health, and equity crises.
Haleh’s experience in grant-making initiatives extends further with her work as a Steering Committee Member of Equitable Food Oriented Development (EFOD), a national coalition that uses food and agriculture to create economic opportunities, healthy neighborhoods, and build community assets in marginalized communities. In her efforts with EFOD as well as through her collaborative work with the Oakland Climate Action Coalition, Haleh remains dedicated to participatory practices using emergent strategies that build power amongst Black, Indigenous, immigrant and systematically-oppressed communities.
Before establishing these initiatives, Haleh worked for Peace Action West in Berkeley, CA and with the Women of Color Resource Center in Oakland, CA. She holds a B.A. at UC Santa Cruz and an M.A. at the California Institute of Integral Studies. Beyond being hopeful about the potential for super pollutant mitigation, Haleh enjoys spending time with her children at local beaches and making twists on traditional Persian dishes while cooking for family and friends.
Job Title
Initiative Officer-
- Otis Spikes, Nursery Manager
Planting Justice since 2016
I have seen myself in the best, best headspace in my life. I’m not drinking no more. I’m eating healthier. It took me to come here, to be here, to really learn to love myself again.
- Otis Spikes, Nursery Manager