In a time when California faces growing economic divides, housing crises, and environmental challenges, a handful of exceptional leaders are forging paths toward equity, justice, and resilience. This week, The James Irvine Foundation announced its 2025 Leadership Award Recipients, celebrating a diverse group of innovators whose work is transforming communities across the state. In an event held by Ethnic Media Services, three winners of this valuable Award (Nayamin Martinez, Cutcha Risling Baldy and Helen iris Torres) were present to share their mission and impact of their admirable work to the community.
Since 2006, the Irvine Foundation Leadership Awards have recognized leaders addressing the most pressing issues affecting Californians—ranging from immigration and health care to economic mobility and climate resilience. This year’s cohort reflects the Foundation’s ongoing commitment to uplifting “solutions that work” by supporting leaders with both visibility and financial resources to scale their impact.
A Legacy of Leadership and Impact
The James Irvine Foundation, established in 1937, has long prioritized expanding opportunity for Californians who are working but struggling with poverty. The Leadership Awards, one of the Foundation’s most high-profile initiatives, provide each recipient’s organization with $350,000 in flexible funding, alongside leadership coaching and amplified public exposure.
“This award is not just about recognizing success—it’s about accelerating it,” says Don Howard, President and CEO of The James Irvine Foundation. “These leaders are meeting Californians where they are, with practical, effective solutions. Our goal is to ensure their work grows to reach even more people in need.”
Meet 3 of the 2025 Award Recipients: Driving Change in California
The 2025 awardees represent an inspiring cross-section of California’s dynamic leadership landscape—working in areas such as workforce development, housing, immigrant rights, environmental justice, and youth empowerment.
1.Nayamin Martinez — Central California Environmental Justice Network
“I’m a very proud Mexican immigrant, something that right now it’s been seen as negative, but I’m very proud of where I come from and who I am. I have been living in Fresno, California for almost 25 years and since the first time that I got to this country, I have made my mission to help immigrant communities, especially farm workers. Why? Because if you know Central Valley, you know that that’s one of the main occupation of people who look like me. Who come from Latin America who English is our second language or our third language and who oftentimes are ignored and discarded like we’re not important”, shared Martinez, Executive Director of Central California Environmental Justice Network.
The mission of the organization she leads is to end environmental racism and achieve economic justice and health equity through sustainable regional solutions. They work to empower our communities and secure our children’s future by eliminating negative environmental impacts in low-income and communities of color.
In order to achieve that, they focus on working with community members and other stakeholders at the local, regional, state and federal level to identify environmental justice issues and develop sustainable solutions. They also educate and empower communities, especially focusing on rural areas, to advocate for themselves by providing them with technical assistance and resources.
Also, the organization aims to promote alternative methods for creating a safer environment, encourage youth to be aware of and actively participate in addressing environmental issues, and serve as a central hub for environmental activism in the Central Valley.
2. Cutcha Risling Baldy— Rou Dalagurr Food Sovereignty Lab & Traditional Ecological Knowledges Institute
“Rot Dalagurr is a Wiyot phrase, and it was given to us in a process that we did with the local Wiyot peoples where they voted and decided what they would like to represent this space as, and this one floated to the top. And what it means is ‘Everyone works or everyone works together’. We thought it was a really beautiful way to bring the language into the space, but also to start to name things In a way that really honors the peoples of that place”, mentioned Risling, Co-Director of the Rou Dalagurr Food Sovereignty Lab & Traditional Ecological Knowledges Institute.
The Food Sovereignty Lab is a space designed to facilitate research, but it operates with a strong emphasis on Indigenous input that centers Tribal autonomy and self-determination. The lab is committed to upholding Indigenous sovereignty and ensuring that Indigenous communities retain control over how their knowledge is approached, researched, engaged with, represented, and managed. Community voice and representation are prioritized in all aspects of the lab’s work. Recognizing that Indigenous knowledge is not monolithic, the lab acknowledges that traditional ecological knowledges are unique to each originating community—deeply localized and place-specific. Therefore, these knowledges must be housed and represented in collaboration with, and under the guidance of, the communities from which they come.
About the possible changes on policies aimed at eliminating diversity, equity and inclusion programs, cutcha said that she has “been speaking with a few of my elders because I think I rely a lot on their perspective of place and time and them reminding me how long indigenous peoples have been navigating a federal government system that has been trying to control, erase, diminish, and take us apart from like sort of their very first start of agreeing to treaties and then breaking every one of them, agreeing to the ways in which they were going to provide funding and aspects of like what we needed in Indigenous communities and then not providing it. And they remind me all the time to remember that our elders, our ancestors lived through times like this where it felt dark and heavy and like it was always going to be this way. And even in those moments where it felt the worst, like it was not like what could possibly. How could we possibly walk through this together? They still did what they could”.
3. Helen Iris Torres (Los Angeles) — CEO, Hispanas Organized for Political Equity (HOPE)
“My passion really stems from seeing my mother’s experience. She brought myself and my sister as a single mother from Puerto Rico to Detroit, Michigan. It was a monolingual Spanish speaker raising my sister and me and I had a very serious heart disease growing up, so she had to navigate a system public education system that did not provide for my sister to have a bilingual education. In a healthcare system that was very unfriendly, difficult to navigate, and against a society that quite frankly discriminated and harassed her for being a single mother. I was a witness to this”, said Torres, CEO, Hispanas Organized for Political Equity (HOPE).
As a nonpartisan organization, HOPe is committed to ensuring political and economic parity for Latinas through leadership, advocacy, and education to benefit all communities and the status of women. They prepare and support Latinas as civic leaders, advocates for policy changes that champion equity for Latinas, and educates the public on the experiences and contributions of Latinas to our economy and society. For over 30 years, HOPE’s innovative programming has served 60,000 Latinas and touched the lives of several thousand more through our advocacy efforts.
“This such a beautiful program that is led by women and really fosters the sisterhood of women. Now, hope doesn’t lead those programs but we’re in all of them and we have plenty of women and within our network that are either promotoras or leading nonprofits that lead programs. through the James Irvine Foundation, this is one opportunity to highlight a series of women leaders from various different backgrounds and I think that’s something to be uplifted and to be acknowledged.
The Power of Recognition and Support
For these leaders, the James Irvine Foundation Leadership Award is more than an accolade—it’s a catalyst for growth. Alongside the $350,000 grant, recipients gain access to a network of peers, leadership development opportunities, and heightened public visibility that can drive new partnerships and policy influence.
Notably, the Foundation has increased its commitment to worker-centered solutions, reflecting a deep understanding that economic mobility must be built on addressing systemic barriers in education, housing, healthcare, and environmental justice.
At a time when California’s complex problems can feel overwhelming, the James Irvine Foundation 2025 Leadership Award Recipients remind us that solutions are not only possible—they are already happening.
For more information about the 2025 Leadership Award Recipients, visit irvine.org/leadership-awards.