As part of our annual year-end survey of VERGE influencers and partners, we recently asked the question: What technology or development makes you hopeful for sustainability in the year ahead? 

Vien Truong is the new CEO of Dream Corps, where she work to make the world a greener, healthier, better place. In the short time I spent with her it was clear how truly passionate she was about her work and her life long home of Oakland. Interview:  Joanne Furio; Photo Credit: Derek Yarra, SF Magazine

Vien Truong, CEO of Dream Corps, speaks at a news conference by local groups in Oakland, Calif. on Wednesday, Nov. 1, 2017 to launch a new campaign to remove lead from drinking water at Oakland schools.

At the end of September 2017, women in Congress received a special delivery. An open letter signed by 100 women—including Alfre Woodard, Bozoma Saint John, and Ashley Judd—urged the legislative ladies to guard the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which is in danger of losing a third of its budget under the Trump administration.

"She and her network of advocates have already implemented policy ideas that took a billion dollars from polluters and invested that money to uplift the poorest and most polluted communities in the state. Vien is a young woman with a remarkable story, one that has made her the ideal champion for using clean-energy solutions to help ordinary people earn a living and save money." - Van Jones, President & Founder of Dream Corps 

Lawmakers joined a group of mothers today outside the Capitol to call on Congress to reject President Trump's proposed cuts to U.S. EPA's budget.

In the wake of Hurricanes Harvey and Irma and historic fires, federal agencies are struggling to keep up. Meanwhile, the Trump Administration is pursing a 31 percent budget cut to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

In the aftermath of hurricanes Harvey and Irma, Americans have been compelled to face an indisputable fact: Climate change is real and it has set upon us. To continue oversimplifying it as strictly a matter of "global warming" is to deny the breadth and scope of its detrimental physical and economic impacts on the most vulnerable among us.

Vien Truong is no stranger to the climate justice movement. A long-time resident of Oakland, California, environmental equity is an abiding passion for the CEO of Dream Corps and leader of Green For All.

Environmental justice activist Vien Truong learned two things as a child: Climate change affects us all, and some people suffer more than others.