Campo-Sano Climate Action Conference, October 4, 2025

Program goal

Campo-Sano Climate Action: A Regional Conference on California Farmworkers and the Environment will be co-hosted on Saturday, October 4th, 2025, by the University of California, Santa Cruz, and community partners. The conference will address the challenges of resilience amid the impacts of climate changes and the many other compounding risks farmworkers face. We will first review lessons learned from developing practical remedies and health promoter training designed to protect farming communities. Next, we will involve all attendees in deliberating ways to scale up these protective efforts and make them sustainable amid mounting social and political challenges.

Program description

The daylong conference will start with a morning session including testimonies of health promoters from local community-based organizations (CBOs) and UCSC students. The frontline community health workers will describe the challenges they face in trying to protect farmworkers from environmental stressors in a context that is also overshadowed by chronic but intensifying political and economic vulnerabilities.

A report will also be delivered by faculty on the two-year effort supported by funding from a California Climate Action grant to develop the Campo-Sano data app. This app is designed to inform local farm communities on climate related risks from exposures to high temperatures, flooding, wildfire air pollution, groundwater contamination and other risks. We will showcase how this application can be used on mobile phones to support farmworkers who want to report their experience of these risks anonymously to state agencies and legal advocacy groups.

A keynote luncheon presentation will be followed by a dialogue between representatives of state agencies and local community-based partners. Discussion panels and breakout sessions will engage these CBOs and state agency officials to explore the extension of workplace protections for farmworkers and further regulation enforcement, as well as the possible scale-up of Campo-Sano trainings across the state. This dialogue is critical in the face of the federal government’s retreat from protecting agricultural workers, their employers and the food security they support for our wider community.

Program organizers and host contacts

Matt Sparke, Co-Director of Global and Community Health and Distinguished Professor of Politics, University of California, Santa Cruz.

Miguel Tirado, Professor Emeritus, Cal State Monterey Bay

Jessica De La Cruz, Administrative Research Coordinator, Institute for Social Transformation, University of California, Santa Cruz.

Gabrielle Peñaranda, Graduate Student, UC Santa Cruz, official conference raconteur

Colleen Stone, Sociology Department Assistant, Administrative Coordinator of the Center for Critical Urban and Environmental Studies, and Manager of the Science & Justice Research Center, University of California, Santa Cruz.

Program participants (in alphabetical order)

• Norma A. Ahedo Juarez, Center for Community Advocacy
• Gabriella Alvarez, Research Specialist at UC Santa Cruz Institute for Social Transformation
• Ibi Aseyori, Staff Services Manager I, Cal/OSHA Enforcement Branch Recruitment and Retention
• Margarita Azmitia, Distinguished Professor of Psychology, UC Santa Cruz 
• Norma Benitez, CA Director of the Network of Promotoras y Trabajadores Comunitarios
• Iris Bojorquez, Community Action Board of Santa Cruz County
• Laura Beth Bugg, Associate Teaching Professor, Associate Director of Global Community Health, UC Santa Cruz
• Megan Carney, Associate Professor of Anthropology, Director of the Center for Regional Food Studies, University of Arizona
• Federico Castillo, Department of Environmental Science Policy and Management, UC Berkeley
• Giselle Castillo, Undergraduate Student, UC Santa Cruz 
• Liliana F. de la Fuente, Ventures
• Angela Gallegos-Castillo, Associate Director of Movement Building for Visión y Compromiso
• Oscar Gamino-Rojas, Outreach and Education Manager, State of California Department of Industrial Relations
• Quinn Gavin, UC Berkeley Staff Researcher
• Javier González-Rocha, Assistant Professor of Applied Mathematics, UC Santa Cruz
• Joel Hernandez Laguna, Executive Director, The Center for Community Advocacy (CCA)
• Carly Hyland, Assistant Professor of Cooperative Extension, Environmental Health Sciences at UC Berkeley,  UC Agriculture and Natural Resources
• Joseline Islas, Center for Community Advocacy
• Svasti Kandpal, Undergraduate Student, UC Santa Cruz 
• John Laird, State Senator for California’s District 17
• Rey Leon, Executive Director of LEAP and Mayor of Huron
• Nicolas Lopez Galvez, Assistant Professor of Environmental Health, San Diego State University
• Gregg Macey, Director of the Center for Land, Environment and Natural Resources at UC Irvine School of Law
• John MacMillan, Vice Chancellor for Research, UC Santa Cruz
• Maria Nunez Magana, Undergraduate Student, UC Santa Cruz 
• Maria Elena Manzo, Executive Director of Mujeres en Acción
• Aria Marquez, Undergraduate Student, UC Santa Cruz 
• Carlos Martinez, Assistant Professor, Latin American & Latino Studies, UC Santa Cruz
• Susana Matias, Cooperative Extension Specialist, UC Agriculture and Natural Resources
• Zulfiquar “Ali” Merchant, Senior Safety Engineer, CalOSHA
• Evelia Meza, Unique Interpreting Services
• Adriana Molina, Center for Community Advocacy
• Nashaly Pari-Candia, Undergraduate Student, UC Santa Cruz 
• Gabrielle Peñaranda, Graduate Student, UC Santa Cruz, official conference raconteur
• Fabiola Perez-Lua, Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Fellow, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health
• Marisela Quezada, President/ Owner, Unique Interpreting Services
• Alicia Riley, Associate Professor of Sociology & Core Faculty in Global and Community Health Program, UC Santa Cruz
• Guillermina Rivera, Executive Director, Proyecto Mixteco Interpretation Services
• Francisco Ronquillo, Health Extension Regional Officer (HERO)
• Leslie Salmon-Zhu, Graphic Recorder
• Carlos Menjivar Sanchez, Undergraduate Student, UC Santa Cruz 
• Adriana Santana, Mujeres en Acción
• Adam Schiff, Senator for California in the US Senate
• Maria Talero, Center for Community Advocacy
• Leslie Tinoco, Undergraduate Student, UC Santa Cruz 
• Miguel Tirado, Professor Emeritus, Cal State Monterey Bay
• Sally Tirado, Former Assistant Professor and Director of Community Medicine, UCSF Affiliated Natividad Family Medicine Residency
• Briana Toji, Líderes Campesinas
• Faerl “Fae” Torres, Executive Director of Operations Office for Community Health, University of New Mexico
• Mael Vizcarra, UCSC Research Associate
• Ewan Whittaker-Walker, MSC MeTox UC Santa Cruz
• Cindy J Wong, Lecturer of Global and Community Health, University of California, Santa Cruz
• Sam Ying, Associate Professor of Environmental Sciences, UC Riverside; Co-director Center for Planetary Health, UC Global Health Institute.
• Donna Young, Chief Executive Officer of Salud Para La GenteJorge Iván Zesati, Center for Community Advocacy

Program sponsors

• University of California Office of the President
• University of California Santa Cruz, Global & Community Health
• University of California Santa Cruz, Institute for Social Transformation
• University of California Office of the President Farmworker Community Health Vulnerabilities and Responses Amid Climate Change Grant

Acknowledgements

• Funding from the State of California legislature through a Climate Action Grant administered by UC Office of the President
• Funding from the California Strategic Growth Council through a S/hero Grant administered by UC Office of the President
• Offices of CA Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas, State Senator John Laird, and US Senator Adam Schiff
• Health Workforce staff team at the Health Improvement Partnership of Santa Cruz County
• Mira Achilles, GCH BA grad for childcare support
• Maria Cadenas, Ventures
• De Andre James, Community Health Trust of the Pajaro Valley
• Kimberly Lau, Professor of Literature, Provost of College Nine and John R. Lewis College
• Los Mejicas folklórico group
• Staff team from UC Office of the President
• Staff team from the UC Santa Cruz Office of Research
• Staff team from the UC Santa Cruz Copy Center
• Staff team from the UC Santa Cruz Conference Services
• Staff team from the UC Santa Cruz Media Services

UC Santa Cruz Global and Community Health, and Building Belonging undergraduate students:

Program partners

Community partners:

Map and directions