Nastasia is an educator, activist, nonviolent direct action practitioner and trainer, photographer, and parent to two youngsters, aged 6 and 10. Nastasia became involved with Climate Disobedience Center in 2019 as a member of a praxis group and organizer with the No Coal No Gas campaign, and then as a CDC fellow from 2023-2024. She approaches this work with the belief that climate justice can only be reached through decolonizing and dismantling white supremacist capitalist and patriarchal systems and that our resistance to these systems lies in our solidarity and interconnectedness. Nastasia’s current work focuses on the following areas:
Defendant Support Model: This work focuses on building cultures of critical care within campaign and movement spaces through the defendant support model, which is based on the belief that an action has not finished until everyone is free of the criminal legal system. Nastasia works with CDC and other community members convening and training teams of non-attorney legal supporters who offer one-on-one and collective support for activists facing criminal charges. The support team guides defendants in understanding state-specific criminal procedures and maintains space for defendants to take a deep breath, process, and make intentional and authentic choices in their cases. Support teams work in partnership with movement attorneys who approach defense work with deep solidarity for all people mired in the criminal legal system. Learn more about Defendant Support.
Demand Response: Nastasia is working with community pods and Boston-area students to approach community conservation from a lens of solidarity and abundance, rather than scarcity. Within this frame, conserving electricity use together in response to times of peak demand on the New England energy grid prioritizes the ways in which we can work together to ensure that no-one goes without the resources that they need to maintain healthy, comfortable lives. This work is exploring the ways that we can help each other by sharing resources (for example, eating dinner together!) that both strengthen our relationships as well as our resiliency for conserving together to prevent the continuance of fossil fuel peaker plants. Learn more about Demand Response.
Research, writing and teaching: Nastasia’s research interests focus on the intersection of environmental justice, restorative justice, and youth voice and leadership in education. Nastasia is a part-time professor at Clark University in the department of Sustainability and Social Justice, where she teaches a course connecting local activism with global justice movements. She has co-authored multiple articles with educators and youth, exploring and advocating for learning spaces that prioritize social justice and multigenerational knowledge. Nastasia is co-editor for the forthcoming book Uncovering Possible: Pedagogies for Apocalyptic Times. Nastasia holds a Masters’ in Teaching and a Doctorate in Educational Leadership. She is currently pursuing a degree in Restorative Justice at Vermont Law School.
Contact Nastasia at nastasia@climatedisobedience.org