In advance of Earth Day, Miranda Frausto, a senior at Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI), has been named a Hoosier Resilience Hero by Indiana University’s Environmental Resilience Institute (ERI).
Frausto began her climate advocacy work in high school. Serving as the head youth leader for the Promise Project, she and her peers worked with elected leaders in Carmel to draft and pass the first youth-led climate resolution in the state. Two years later, Frausto helped put the resolution into action as the City of Carmel’s Indiana Climate Fellow. There, Frausto conducted the city’s first greenhouse gas inventories of local and community emissions and laid the groundwork for Carmel’s climate action planning process. For the past 3 years, Frausto has served as an intern with the IUPUI Office of Sustainability, leading waste reduction and food recovery efforts and managing a composting pilot project for IUPUI Food Services, several food waste audits and a sustainability speaker series. She currently serves as the co-director of the Campus Kitchen at IUPUI and has secured over $5,000 in funding to support efforts to combat food insecurity on campus.
Hoosier Resilience Heroes are individuals and groups committed to ensuring a safe, healthy environment for their families, their neighbors and future generations. This year’s cohort includes professionals and volunteers dedicated to sustainable agriculture, clean energy development, environmental justice, and other aspects of environmental protection and resilience.
“From farms, to suburbs, to urban neighborhoods, everywhere you look you find people working to make Indiana a healthier, more environmentally sustainable place to live,” said ERI Director Janet McCabe. “Our heroes are leading the charge against ongoing threats to our state, such as climate change and long-term social and environmental inequities. We applaud their efforts and are inspired by their contributions to our state.”
To learn more about ERI’s 2021 Hoosier Resilience Heroes go to: https://eri.iu.edu/who-we-work-with/residents/2021-hoosier-resilience-heroes.html.
About the Environmental Resilience Institute
Indiana University’s Environmental Resilience Institute brings together a broad, bipartisan coalition of government, business, nonprofit and community leaders to help Indiana better prepare for the challenges that environmental changes bring to Indiana’s economy, health, and livelihood. Launched in May 2017, ERI is working to deliver tailored and actionable solutions to communities across the state of Indiana.