Working with Environmental Champions

In our most recent issue of Convene, we highlighted how three champions fight for environmental progress as elected leaders in their communities, and why we are proud to partner with them:

Diana Perez started working with Washington Conservation Action (WCA) before she even ran for office, as an activist opposing the proposed Tesoro Savage oil terminal in Vancouver. WCA helped lead the Stand Up to Oil coalition that defeated that proposal in 2018. Perez ran for Vancouver City Council in 2022, becoming the first Latina to serve there.

“I was lucky to get WCA’s endorsements. WCA has always been an organization that I can look to and lean on, for policy information, for connections to other organizations, for context and support,” Perez says. “WCA aligns with my values, stressing economic and environmental justice, clean energy and more.”

In her first year on city council, Perez advocated for a city climate action framework, which passed. She also introduced the state’s environmental health disparities map to the city manager. The map illustrates, through census tract data, which areas have the most risk from underinvestment and pollution. The city then developed its own equity index map.

“The map shows where we don’t have sidewalks or tree canopy or clean air,” Perez explains. “We can then use this high-level information to guide planning, transportation and other services.”

If Perez is successful in her current campaign for state representative, she says she’ll continue to stress climate, equity and safety. “I want to bring the community voice to the table,” Perez says. “A big part of a healthy community is healthy land. I’ll continue to fight for those things.”

WCA has endorsed Perez for state representative.

“When I first ran for office in 2019, there were seven or eight candidates in the primary. It was a tough run,” says Megan Dunn, now in her second term on the Snohomish County Council. “To separate myself from the other candidates, I framed myself as an environmental champion, my work as chair of the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency, and the Northwest Center for Alternatives to Pesticides, the Salmon Recovery Council, among others. The endorsement by Washington Conservation Action (WCA) really helped in that race.”

Dunn says she connects with WCA on policy issues at least once a year and connects with WCA’s government and policy teams when county issues intersect with legislation or policy developing in Olympia.

In 2025, Dunn helped the county council finalize the strongest urban tree canopy protection in the state.

“We have a lot of healthy urban forests in unincorporated parts of the county. We’ve done something that no other county has been able to do, mandate no net loss of these forests,” Dunn says. “If trees are cut, they must be replaced. We have 38 percent tree coverage now, and we’ll maintain that.”

Dunn has pushed environmental progress in other areas: She advocates for removing fish barriers. Thousands of culverts and dams block fish migration in the county. She serves on the tree equity steering
committee. In the past, trees tended to be planted in more prosperous neighborhoods with sidewalks. She pushes for more evenly distributed plantings. She’s also working on septic failures in more rural parts of the county, improving monitoring, connecting households with septic tanks to replacing aging tanks or to connect to sewer lines. If sewage pollution can be reduced, Tribes can reopen traditional shellfish beds, she says.

Vicky Frausto was born and raised in Sunnyside, then spent 10 years in Seattle, earning bachelor’s and master’s degrees and working. When she returned to her hometown, it was with the goal of revitalizing Sunnyside. “Sunnyside is the heart of the Yakima Valley, the hub between Yakima and the Tri-Cities. More than 16,000 people live in Sunnyside. Of those, 86% are Latine, with about 70% speaking only Spanish.

“We’re working to change systems in Sunnyside, to be rooted in community, to invest in change. Our community center has been closed for two years,” Frausto says. “The Yakima metro area has the 8th worst air pollution in the country, according to the American Lung Association. Our people deserve better.”

Washington Conservation Action (WCA) supported Frausto in her 2025 run for re-election to the mayor’s office.

“WCA has been a visionary partner in community,” Frausto says. “WCA has built a relationship with ELLA, a local group that has been pushing for deep environmental work in Yakima County, work that has been non-existent until recently.”

In 2023, Pacific Agriculture connected with the Port of Sunnyside, proposing to build a large bio digester just 200 yards from the nearest neighborhood, which included an assisted living home. ELLA connected with scientists and organized a campaign with Spanish materials to get the word out. They encouraged people to show up for a public hearing for an air permit in March 2026. The hearing room was standing room only, many of them neighbors of the proposed site.

“They wanted to build a methane plant right next to where people live. We started with messaging that connects with people and turn that into action,” Frausto says. “I have hope for this community. We’re finally engaged in decision making, not just absorbing the impact of decisions that others make.”