We are so honored to celebrate the transformative work of the Sunrise Movement. This organization embodies fierce, proficient organizing that has built a formidable youth-led climate change movement. Since their formation in 2017, the unstoppable Sunrise Movement has been a leader in fighting for a climate change agenda that demands good paying union jobs and investments in the working class and communities of color.
Sunrise Movement has successfully popularized the Green New Deal, a congressional resolution to mobilize every aspect of American society to 100% clean and renewable energy, guarantee living-wage jobs for anyone who needs one, and a just transition for both workers and frontline communities. Their powerful grassroots organizing, policy advocacy and election work has made it impossible for policymakers to deny or delay the urgency of our climate crisis.
Varshini Prakash is the co-founder and Executive Director of the Sunrise Movement and will be joining us to accept the award. Varshini tirelessly works for bold solutions to address some of our world’s most pressing challenges. She is a truly visionary leader who has been recognized in the TIME 100 Next list (2019), Forbes’ 30 Under 30 (2020) for law and policy, and has been featured in the New Yorker, Democracy Now, TeenVogue, BBC, Washington Post and more. We can’t wait to hear from her at the Midwest Academy Awards.
To read about the other honorees, click below:
For their visionary and powerful climate justice work:
- Sunrise Movement, accepted by Executive Director Varshini Prakash
- Climate Justice Alliance, accepted by co-director, Ozawa Bineshi Albert
For their life-changing reproductive freedom work:
For their tireless work to enact economic justice:
- 9to5 & 925 SEIU, accepted by Ellen Cassedy, Karen Nussbaum and other leaders from 9to5
- Starbucks Workers United
Presenting Sponsor
Direct Action Sponsor
Strategy Sponsor
Progressive Sponsors
Champions of Justice Sponsors
Norbert Goldfield
Megan Hull
Friends of the Academy Sponsors
Heather Booth*
Jeff Blum & Ellen Cassedy
Everett Foundation
Cathy Hurwit
Jackie Kendall*
Kweli Kitwana
Mike Lux and Barbara Laur
David Medina* & Tim DeMagistris
Eddy Morales* & Hugh Harris
Nick Nyhart & Kathleen McTigue
Public Citizen
Karen Thomas**
*Current Board member
**Former Executive Director