Miracle Gatling, a changemaker in youth empowerment and social impact, has dedicated her life to cultivating people power. Whether organizing local communities around anti-trafficking in their streets and industries or collaborating with fellow eco-innovators in the youth-led revolution for sustainable action, her work has focused on educating, engaging, and mobilizing youth around causes critical to preserving our environment, human rights, and freedoms.
At Columbia University’s Global Columbia Collaboratory, Miracle collaborated on a grant pitch with Litro de Luz, an NGO addressing digital poverty with sustainable lighting solutions. Desiring more experience, she furthered her expertise with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, where she researched climate policy in North Africa. As her knowledge base grew, Miracle took to her community to combat unsustainable practices with Freedom Group, an initiative raising awareness about labor trafficking in agro-based industries. Her commitment to advocacy and sustainability is evident through fellowship and volunteer roles with Laura Flanders and Friends, Meridian International Center, the City University of New York, and the USDA Forest Service.
Combining her passions for sustainable development and our youth, Miracle has ventured into social innovation by founding her sustainability education initiative, Pashm, a project supported by beVisioneers: The Mercedes-Benz Fellowship. In September of 2024, Miracle, seeking to connect with other youth concerned with the world’s environmental and humanitarian crises, joined H2OO’s U.S. Youth Action Council for the UN Ocean Decade as the Education Working Group Committee Co-Chair. Her experience with H2OO’s Programming not only empowered her to learn, grow, and advocate in ways she hadn’t before, but inspired her to get directly involved in providing youth the same transformative experiences as Head of Programming at H2OO, where she remains dedicated to her mission of creating a more empathetic, just, and equitable world.