Bio

Manvi Bhalla (she/her) is an experienced activist-scholar who has been engaged in intersectional justice work since the age of 11. She is recognized as one of the ‘Top 25 Under 25’ environmentalists and ‘Top 30 Under 30’ sustainability leaders in Canada. In 2022, she was honoured with the ‘Eco-Hero of the Year’ award at Canada’s largest environmental film festival. She has designed many impactful initiatives to raise awareness and promote non-partisan political actions across a variety of social issues, including but not limited to environmental justice, racism, poverty, income inequity, health inequities experienced by underserved communities, violence against women/MMIWG, and voter turnout. In 2019, she co-founded the national climate justice non-profit, Shake Up The Establishment and in 2020, she co-founded the feminist health promotion non-profit, missINFORMED. Among other leadership roles in the sector, she is presently on advisory committees for the Canadian Coalition for Environment and Climate Justice, Foundation for Environmental Stewardship’s The Harbour and Youth Climate Corps. 

Alongside all of her community organizing work, Manvi is also a full-time graduate student and published health researcher who has worked at the Hospital for Sick Children and the Universities of Guelph, Waterloo and Dalhousie. In mid-2021, she received her MSc in Public Health and Health Systems, where her research aimed to improve climate change risk communication and investigate structural barriers towards climate action within the public health sector. Presently, she is a PhD student at the University of British Columbia. She received a SSHRC Doctoral Fellowship to fund her studies in Resources, Environment and Sustainability within the Law, Governance, Justice & Policy stream. Her research rests at the intersections of epistemic diversity, environmental justice and health policy. At UBC, Manvi also mentors brilliant undergraduate researchers as part of UBC Climate Hub’s Climate Justice Research Collaborative.