San Francisco, CA - Aekta Shah currently works with the Wangari Maathai Center (WMC), a partnership between San Francisco State University and UC Berkeley towards goals of Environmental, Educational, and Economic design for equity. With WMC she is currently engaged in research on the achievement gap as well as programming including leading Youth Participatory Action Research classes and Youth Sustainability Council in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay. She recently worked with Boston Public School District as a researcher and case study writer and was previously a Program Manager at the Institute at the Golden Gate, a partnership of the National Park Service and the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy. Committed to providing meaningful leadership opportunities to traditionally underserved youth, Aekta has worked with a range of organizations including Americorps and The Sierra Club. She has also been recognized by organizations such as the Aspen Institute, Green for All, Bioneers and has presented for the UN on issues of sustainable development and education. In 2005, Aekta founded the Big Green Bus project, a cross-country, waste vegetable oil-fueled journey across the U.S. to promote sustainable development. Aekta holds an Ed.M in Education Policy and Management from Harvard and a B.A. in Developmental Psychology and Education from Dartmouth College.