While her father was studying in Guatemala to become a doctor, Nicole Hernandez Hammer lived in a trailer in the jungle with her mother and ate fruit from trees that she herself had climbed. After the family moved to the United States when she was four, she had to work harder to experience the natural world, but an experiment with a butterfly growing in a plastic bottle solidified her love for nature — and turned her to a life in science.
Hernandez Hammer is an accomplished sea-level researcher, climate change expert, and environmental justice advocate. After 15 years in academia, she switched to advocacy when it became clear to her that the climate crisis was disproportionately impacting Latinos and other communities of color. Today, she is tackling those issues directly as an environmental scientist and climate justice and labor organizer with the Service Employees International Union (SEIU).
“I decided that I have an opportunity and an obligation and a duty as a scientist, as a mother, as a Latina to sound the alarm,” said Hernandez Hammer, who was born to a Cuban father and Guatemalan mother. Former First Lady Michelle Obama invited her as a special guest to the 2015 State of the Union.
“I want to do everything I can to educate, so kids of this generation know we’re working hard to give them a better future,” she said. “If we are able to prevent the worst effects of climate change, I want my son to know that I was a part of it. And if not, I want him to know we tried really hard.”
