“Stories, Systems, Survival” Earth Day Panel

How do we care for ourselves, and each other, in the face of climate change? This panel featuring Tony, Tyler, and Ploy explores the connections between mental health, community care, and climate justice in a time of overlapping global crises.

Join us for a conversation on collective care practices, the power of storytelling to connect lived experiences with environmental realities, and how systems like inequality and colonialism shape both the climate crisis and its emotional impacts. Panelists will also share practical tools to help students stay grounded, resilient, and engaged.

• Tony Perez Soto – Tony is an Indigenous climate activist and scholar whose work centers decolonization, migration, and Indigenous sovereignty; his perspective will ground Luther’s exploration of spirituality and climate justice through lived cultural and ancestral knowledge.
• Tyler Massias – Tyler is an environmental justice activist/organizer and Earth Guardians’ Speakers Bureau Director whose work in food sovereignty and regenerative agriculture reflects a spiritually rooted approach to community resilience. He also brings a scientific and policy-oriented perspective.
• Ploy Kongkapetch – Ploy is a multicultural therapist and founder of Heartwork Psychotherapy, where she supports activists and changemakers in navigating the emotional impact of climate and social justice work. Her approach centers grief, anger, hope, and exhaustion as essential parts of caring deeply, helping individuals build more sustainable relationships with themselves and the movements they are part of.