Jada Allen of the Lumbee Tribe Named 2025-26 UNITY Earth Ambassador
UNITY is honored to announce Jada Allen, a member of the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina, as one of its newly awarded 2025 Earth Ambassadors. Representing the Southeast Region, Jada is a senior at Duke University whose life’s work is deeply grounded in protecting her people, their homelands, and the sacred relationship between environmental health and Indigenous resilience.
“For me, being an environmental ambassador means honoring my ancestors’ connection to the land and waterways,” Jada shared. “As Indigenous peoples, we protect and have a relationship with the land… To do so, we must stay in the homelands that we have created for ourselves.”
Growing up in Robeson County, North Carolina, Jada experienced the full force of environmental change first-hand through Hurricanes Matthew (2016), Florence (2018), and Helene (2024). These experiences inspired her lifelong commitment to emergency preparedness and climate resilience in Native communities. “Now, the very aspects of the land that served as protection threaten our ability to stay,” she said. “The climate crisis is getting worse, and my people are at the frontlines of it.”
Jada’s nomination as a UNITY Earth Ambassador is a reflection of her powerful community-driven work. Her research projects at Duke include the Lumbee River Project, which examined nitrate contamination in local water systems and spotlighted Native environmental activism, and a visual storytelling zine titled Lumbee Land Relations, which explored her tribe’s past and present connection to land, including her own family’s history as multi-generational farmers.
“Jada is rooted deep in her identity as a Lumbee,” shared nominator and former Earth Ambassador Marco Ovando. “She deeply loves and protects the land, people, and health of both in a responsible and resilient manner. She exemplifies the BEST of what this program provides.”
Her advocacy stretches far beyond the classroom. During the summer of 2024, Jada served as a Udall Intern in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs at the U.S. Department of the Interior, where she worked on policy related to energy independence, water rights, and land sovereignty. “Much of the work the office did was related to environmental concerns,” she explained. “It gave me a deeper understanding of how federal policy impacts tribal efforts in disaster preparedness and climate justice.”
If awarded, Jada proposed a project that builds practical tools for resilience: a youth-led workshop series designed for Lumbee and other Native youth in North Carolina. “Participants will learn how to create emergency plans, assemble disaster kits, and develop evacuation and flood mitigation strategies,” Jada said. The workshops will also delve into the role of tribal governments in disaster planning and explore public health risks that follow extreme weather. Her goal is to empower Native youth to become environmental leaders within their communities, equipped with both ancestral knowledge and modern tools.
“She has the ability to not only create a one-time project but a lasting initiative that will sustain for many years moving forward,” noted her nominator. “With the Lumbee community supporting her, she is never alone in her endeavors.”
Jada’s path reflects the true purpose of the Earth Ambassador program: to inspire Indigenous youth to take bold steps in protecting their lands, preserving their culture, and building climate resilience for generations to come. She now joins a powerful lineage of UNITY Earth Ambassadors working across Indian Country to respond to the challenges of the climate crisis through Indigenous knowledge, advocacy, and leadership.
“As a Lumbee woman raised in my homelands, I know our land once protected us,” Jada reflected. “Now it’s our turn to protect it—and each other.”