Serena Mendizabal

Co-Chair of SevenGen National Indigenous Youth Energy Council

Serena Mendizabal (she/her) is a Cayuga Wolf Clan Panamanian woman from the Six Nations of the Grand River Territory. Serena is a community-based researcher and grassroots organizer. Serena first began her journey in clean energy when she was 18 working in community engagement and communications at the Six Nations of the Grand River Development Corporation. While working in community engagement, she found gaps in community consent with her community’s clean energy portfolio and went on to further explore what a true ‘just transition’ can look like in a community of over 28,000 members. Serena is the Just Transition Lead at Sacred Earth Solar, an organization founded on empowering frontline Indigenous communities with climate solutions and healing justice. Serena is the Co-Chair of the SevenGen National Indigenous Youth Energy Council, a Subject Matter Expert on Connecting for Climate Change Action, an Indigenous advisor to Iron & Earth, a Youth Action and Environment Fellow with the Lawson Foundation, and works with Protect the Tract, a Haudenosaunee-led group in her community, Six Nations, focused on enforcing the traditional governance (the Haudenosaunee Confederacy)’s moratorium on development along the Grand River (Haldimand Tract).