Varshini Prakash

Varshini Prakash (born 1992/1993) is an American climate activist and the founding executive director of the Sunrise Movement, a 501(c)(4) organization which she co-founded in 2017.^[1] She was named on the 2019 Time 100 Next list,^[2] and was a co-recipient of the Sierra Club John Muir Award in 2019.^[3]

Varshini Prakash
Born	1992 or 1993 (age 31–32) Massachusetts, U.S.
Education	University of Massachusetts, Amherst (BA)
Known for	Former executive director and co-founder of the Sunrise Movement
Political party	Democratic

Early life and education

Prakash was born to and raised in Massachusetts by parents from Southern India;^[4] her father was from Tamil Nadu.^[5] She first became aware of climate change when she was 11 while watching news coverage of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami which impacted Chennai, where her grandparents lived.^[6][7] Growing up, she wanted to become a doctor.^[6]

Prakash went to college at the University of Massachusetts Amherst where she began organizing around climate issues.^[6][7] In late 2015, devastating floods in South India seized her attention, having caused flooding up to the level of her grandparents' apartment in Chennai.^[4][5] To help combat climate change, Prakash became a leader of the school's fossil fuel divestment campaign. Prakash also worked with a national organization, Fossil Fuel Divestment Student Network. In 2016, a year after she graduated, UMass Amherst became the first large, public university to divest.^[6][8]

Career

In 2017, Prakash launched the Sunrise Movement, an American youth-led political movement and 501(c)(4) that advocates political action on climate change, with seven other co-founders.^[6][9]

In 2018, she became the Sunrise Movement's executive director after the group organized a protest occupying U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office asking that a congressional task force be established to address climate change.^[6]

As part of her work with the Sunrise Movement, Prakash advocated for proposals like the Green New Deal.^[10] In 2020, the organization endorsed U.S. senator Bernie Sanders in the Democratic Primary for the presidency.^[7] Prakash was named as an adviser to Joe Biden’s climate task force in 2020.^{[11][12][13][14]} She is also an advisory board member of Climate Power 2020, a group that includes Democrats and activists advocating for increasing the interest American voters take in climate action.^[13]

Prakash is co-editor of the book Winning the Green New Deal: Why We Must, How We Can, released August 2020.^[15][16][17] She also is a contributor to The New Possible: Visions of Our World Beyond Crisis.^[18][19] Prakash appeared in Rachel Lears' 2022 documentary film, To the End, which focuses on the effects of climate change. The film debuted at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival^[20][21] and was presented at the Tribeca Film Festival in June 2022.^[22]

In September 2023, Prakash stepped down as Sunrise executive director, succeeded by Sunrise activist Aru Shiney-Ajay. ^[23]

Recognition

Prakash was named on the 2019 Time 100 Next list of emerging global leaders.^[10] She was a finalist for the 2019 Pritzker Emerging Environmental Genius Award from the University of California, Los Angeles.^[24] She received Dickinson College's Rose-Walters Prize for Environmental Activism with a college residency in the 2021–2022 academic year.^[25]