Tatianna Lyne

  • Tatianna was born and raised in the South Bronx, NY amongst people with a history of revolutionary creativity and an experience of systemic oppression. Her social justice work began when she was trained as an environmental justice community organizer by the Bronx’s most powerful black women and other leaders. As a strategist and city planner, Tatianna has spent the last 12 years centering the self-determination of communities like her own in various policy, planning and research processes. She has translated her lived experience and training into collaborative action in local government, higher education and philanthropy.

    Tatianna’s motivation to do this work began when she attended middle school outside of her home district. This was the first time she was exposed to the reality that people in other geographies fared differently when it came to health and wealth. She would later come to learn that her community’s black and brown identity was intimately connected to both, thus leading to a lifelong commitment to racial justice. The intersectional nature of this commitment has informed her journey across diverse scales of work, geographies and sectors.

    While working at the Surdna Foundation on the Sustainable Environments team, she mobilized resources to support equitable regional food economies, including expansion into the U.S. South. She has also worked to advance investment in racial and economic justice by coordinating institutional change collaborations. Her recent work has included public health Participatory Action Research, post-disaster community engagement in Mocoa, Colombia, implementation of NYC’s Disconnected Youth Task Force legislation and the launch of Columbia University’s Community Advisory Council. Prior to launching COTA Collective, she served as a Strategy Associate at the Waverley Street Foundation, a global $3B climate funder.

    Tatianna holds a Masters in City Planning and an Applied Data Science certification from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She has received a U.S. Department of State Fulbright Award and has served as an expert food systems panelist for the White House’s Rural Development Council. Today she serves on the board of The Point Community Development Corporation. As Co-Founder and Principal at COTA Collective, she specializes in translating insights into strategies, building bridges to foster collaboration, and organizing plans into action. She’s currently a homeowner in Mount Vernon, NY, considers herself to be a lifelong learner and lives her best life when she is traveling and eating her way through the world.

Alison Corwin

  • Growing up in a working class family in New York, Alison learned early on about the trade-offs between health and a paycheck. While she did not have the language to describe what she felt and saw, she would later understand the systemic injustices of an economy that prioritizes productivity over humanity and well-being. Both of her parents developed terminal illnesses due to their exposure to toxic chemicals, a familiar story for many people and one of the driving forces behind her lifelong commitment to environmental justice. Alison’s practice is informed by her lived experience and deep understanding of interdependence, the 25 years she has spent in the nonprofit and philanthropic sectors, and the incredible teachings of many organizers, movement leaders, colleagues and friends.

    As Co-Founder and Principal of COTA Collective, Alison focuses on environmental and climate justice with an unwavering commitment to centering racial and economic justice. She spent the past 10 years at the Surdna Foundation where she helped to lead the Sustainable Environments program, alongside a team of brilliant and courageous women, most recently as its Program Director. Together they built a body of work that centered race and power and mobilized resources in service of frontline leaders and communities. Prior to launching COTA Collective, Alison served as a Strategy Director for the Waverley Street Foundation, a global $3B climate funder. Alison has also spent over a decade advancing funder organizing and disrupting extractive and harmful practices in philanthropy. She captured the essence of her approach in an article titled Philanthropic Leadership Means Following the Frontlines published by the Stanford Social Innovation Review.

    Alison is a graduate of St. Lawrence University and Tufts University, holding a Masters in Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning. Alison loves group learning experiences and is a proud Rockwood and PLACES Fellow. She has served on the boards of the Neighborhood Funders Group (NFG), the Environmental Leadership Program, as a Trustee of The Solutions Project, and as Co-Chair of the Climate Justice Table for the Greater New Orleans Funders Network. She currently serves as a board member of Just Futures Impact and as a Strategic Advisor for the Initiative for Energy Justice. Outside of COTA Collective, she spends time with her family in New Rochelle, NY and enjoys various creative pursuits, spending time with friends and experiencing the joys and challenges of her new role as a mama.