Our Leadership Team
Born in Louisville, KY and brought up in Columbia, MD, Paul graduated from Cornell University with a BA in Liberal Arts in 1988 and has since lived on and off in New York City. He spent most of his career working in Russia, living in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Novosibirsk and Irkutsk. Upon his return to the US, Paul worked in Latin America until retiring in 2018. Paul joined The Climate Reality Project after participating in their online training in 2020. Inspired by the knowledge and skills gained at the training, Paul joined CRP’s lobbying efforts of the federal government to pass robust climate legislation until the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act. Since then, Paul has focused his energy on lobbying the NY state government for the passage of the laws required to meet the CLCPA, especially the Renewable Heat Now package. When not being a climate activist, Paul can be found maintaining trails for the NY NJ Trail Conference with his dog, Dolly.
Paul Kiesler | co-chair
Deepa is a native New Yorker, born and raised in Queens. Holding a Master's degree in Public Health from Columbia University, she has devoted much of her career to tobacco control. Realizing the public health threat posed by the climate crisis and the fossil fuel industry's use of the same deceptive tactics employed by Big Tobacco, she was determined to become a part of the solution. After attending the Climate Reality Project's first virtual training in 2020, Deepa became an active member of the NYC Metro Chapter, including its lobbying efforts for climate solutions at the federal and state level.
Faith is a journalist, senior copy manager, and editor. Her work has been published in British Vogue, ELLE, Harper's Bazaar, Glamour, and numerous other publications, with a focus on talking to women founders and celebrities of color about their experiences breaking ground. She is also an e-commerce industry expert, with over a decade helping brands translate their experiences and products into the digital world. Faith is a linguist by trade, having studied French and Arabic at Tufts University, while also growing up speaking Spanish in her family. She loves film, going to the museum, being a patron of the arts including the New York City Ballet, and spending quality time with family and friends. Faith's passion for mitigating the harm done to the planet and climate led her to join The Climate Reality Project, where she now serves as Co-Chair of the New York City chapter. Originally from Queens, she currently lives in Harlem.
Faith Cummings | Co-Chair
Philip has been a New York City resident for 40 years, during which he led his family’s textile manufacturing firm. Prior to his moving to New York, he was graduate student at the University of Washington where he completed a Ph.D. in Atmospheric Science. Since the sale of the business, he has worked in renewable energy and educated himself about climate change. In 2013, he joined Citizens Climate Lobby, and he completed presenter training at the ClimateReality Project’s Chicago Training. Currently, he is focused on supporting New York State’s efforts to meet the goals of the CLCPA.
Deepa Prasad | Advocacy Co-Director
Beth has been a New York City resident for 16 years. Originally from the South, she graduated from Auburn University’s School of Architecture and practiced with a series of commercial architecture firms throughout her career. Upon moving to NYC, Beth’s career focus shifted to project management, and eventually operations, working in a large international firm. Prior to leaving the architectural industry in 2021, Beth worked with fellow principals to establish a framework within the firm by which interior materials being used on projects would be tracked and reviewed for embodied carbon, material ingredients, and sustainable sourcing. Beth attended The Climate Reality Project’s Atlanta Training in 2019. Since last year, she has been volunteering with NYC based organizations, including Renewable Heat Now, a coalition which advocates for state policies which accelerate the reduction of fossil fuels used to heat and cool our homes and workplaces.
Beth Keros | Engagement Director
Minnie Li was trained as a Climate Reality Leader in 2021. Prior to joining the NYC Chapter, she started and ran an Employee Resource Group with a focus on climate change at work. She’s a filmmaker and producer with a corporate job at a financial firm. She received her BAs in Communications and Philosophy at University of California, San Diego, and a MA in Cinema Studies from New York University. Besides her love for films and climate advocacy, she enjoys fencing, tap dancing, and laughing out loud at The New Yorker Cartoons.
Minnie Li | Social Director
Philip Kahn | Advocacy Co-Director
Anjali is co-founder of Make Justice Normal and a social practice artist and writer dedicated to creating for, with, and in community in public spaces.
Recent blessings include an Asian American Arts Alliance grant on community healing and care; a City Artist Corps grant; commissioning grant and individual artist grant via the Queens Council on the Arts, resulting games on the Brooklyn Grange LIC Rooftop Farm and Sunnyside’s Bliss Plaza; and installations at the Brooklyn Museum, Dumbo Arts Festival, Digital Games Research Association, and Propelify Innovation Festival.
She's also part-time Senior Advisor, Impact Accountability, at Prime Coalition and writing. With Purvi Shah, she creates interactive art as circlefor, a collaboration reflecting on how we inhabit the sacred and how art can be of service to healing.