Dawny’all Heydari
Dawny’all Heydari serves as Climate Campaign Manager, Advocacy, supporting Pacific Environment’s strategic advocacy efforts and community power building for all climate campaigns, including Ports for People and Ship it Zero. Previously, for over a year, she led Pacific Environment’s Ship It Zero campaign, through which she accelerated the global shipping industry’s decarbonization. Under Dawny’all’s leadership of Ship It Zero, Target, Amazon, and IKEA committed to abandon dirty ships and reject LNG; shipping giant Maersk accelerated its climate ambitions by a decade and CMA-CGM and COSCO ordered green methanol ships; and Los Angeles, Long Beach, and Minneapolis passed city council resolutions calling on importers to commit to 100% zero-emission shipping by 2030.
An accomplished, creative, and relentless organizer for social and environmental justice, Dawny’all has served in a number of campaign and public interest roles, including the Bernie Sanders 2020 presidential campaign in Iowa, the New Orleans public defender’s office, and global LGBTQ+ rights advocacy at the United Nations headquarters in New York City with OutRight Action International. For the Sanders Campaign for President, Dawny’all led a rural field organizing program that led to Washington County, Iowa, caucusing for Senator Sanders by a margin of 8.6% in the crowded 2020 Democratic presidential caucuses. At Yale, Dawny’all led a student advocacy campaign that helped secure the passage of a 2015 Connecticut state statute (HB-6844, an Act concerning in-state tuition eligibility) extending undocumented students’ access to public higher education.
Originally from California, Dawny’all was awakened to climate consciousness after being evacuated in a wildfire. She is eager to build collective power to combat environmental racism and classism, restore healthy, long-living port communities and clean oceans, and keep global warming below 1.5°C.
Dawny’all earned a Bachelor of Arts in American studies and the multidisciplinary academic program in human rights from Yale University, where her studies focused on how communities in the United States and around the world have advanced racial, gender, economic, and environmental justice. She is currently based in Long Beach, California.
