Italia (she/they) was born in Santiago Ixcuintla, Nayarit and raised in Southeast Los Angeles. Her journey as an environmentalist started at the age of 11. In an effort to clean up their city, Italia would walk to and from school collecting trash along the way. In college, she was an outdoor educator for underserved youth with the LA Audubon Society and Big Chico Creek Ecological Reserve. After graduating college, Italia struggled finding a position that involved the outdoors and the environment and landed a job in tech instead. After two years in tech, Italia decided to give her dreams of an environmental career another shot and landed their current role as Environmental Justice Organizer with LUNA.