Layel Camargo (they/them) is Yaqui and Mayo of the Sonoran Desert, born on the unceded ancestral lands of the Kumeyaay people, now known as San Diego, California. From an early age, Layel was drawn to storytelling as both survival and expression—writing telenovelas as a child and persuading their parents and cousins to perform and watch the scripts they authored. This early instinct toward narrative, performance, and collective imagination would later become the foundation of their life’s work.
While attending the University of California, Santa Cruz, Layel pursued acting, which led to commercial and theatrical performances following graduation. They earned dual bachelor’s degrees in Legal Studies and Feminist Studies, grounding their creative practice in structural analysis, justice frameworks, and feminist thought. However, Layel’s acting career was ultimately curtailed by the entertainment industry’s lack of inclusion for transgender and gender non-conforming performers. This exclusion marked a turning point: rather than abandoning storytelling, Layel redirected their creative power toward transforming the systems that restrict who gets to be seen, heard, and valued.
Since coming out as transgender and gender non-conforming, Layel has dedicated their life to ending gender-based violence and advancing transformative justice, environmental justice, zero-waste initiatives, and climate justice. For over 15 years, they have worked at the intersection of storytelling, cultural strategy, art-making, and leadership coaching—recognizing narrative as one of the most powerful tools for social and ecological change. As an Indigenous storyteller, Layel is widely recognized for advancing cultural and narrative transformation through organizing, filmmaking, and movement-building.
Layel is the founder of Climate Woke, a storytelling and narrative platform developed in collaboration with The Center for Cultural Power. Under Climate Woke, Layel organized more than 500 artists of color in service of climate justice, influenced over 10 cultural strategy departments across movement organizations, and produced, directed, and hosted 120+ original media works, including films, visual art pieces, and national communication campaigns. Their approach merges documentary-style filmmaking with comedy, intimacy, and cultural critique—using humor as a way to lower defenses, tell difficult truths, and invite broader audiences into urgent conversations.
In collaboration with Movement Generation’s Justice & Ecology Project, Layel served as an Impact Producer for the web series The North Pole, executive produced by Rosario Dawson. With Movement Generation, they also produced and hosted the podcast Did We Go Too Far?, inaugurated the artist fellowship Creative Wildfire, and helped develop the organization’s cultural strategy department—bridging movement-building with artistic experimentation.
In 2020, Layel co-founded Shelterwood Collective, a large-scale forest restoration and land stewardship project encompassing approximately 900 acres. As co-founder and co–Executive Director, Layel contributed to and led within an overall organizational budget of $20 million, including the acquisition of a $4 million forested property and management of a $2.5 million annual operating budget. At Shelterwood, Layel directed communications and arts programming, commissioning four artist works—including two murals—retaining an artist-in-residence, and supporting two artist fellows in collaboration with Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Their leadership centered land as a living relationship, not a commodity, and positioned artists as essential to ecological restoration.
Beyond Shelterwood, Layel supported the stabilization of artist employment through a $9 million effort with Tribeworks Cooperative, further demonstrating their commitment to sustainable livelihoods for creatives. Earlier in their career, Layel also co-founded the Bay Area Transformative Justice Collective, committing seven years to transformative justice practice alongside leaders such as Shira Hassan and Mariame Kaba, grounding their work in accountability, healing, and non-carceral responses to harm.
Layel’s work has been widely recognized. They were named a 2020 Grist Fixer and were co-awarded a Humanitarian Award by the International Association of Sufism. They are a sought-after public speaker and have presented at institutions including the University of Montreal, UC Santa Cruz, University of Pennsylvania, and many others.
Deeply committed to embodiment and resilience, Layel is passionate about nervous system regulation as an evolutionary necessity for surviving social, ecological, and political collapse. They believe that climate adaptation is not only technological or policy-driven, but relational and embodied. A longtime community builder and proud member of the LGBTQ+ community, Layel spent seven years living vegan and zero-waste, founding Woke n Wasteless to center BIPOC experiences of zero-waste living as a pathway to ancestral reconnection and cultural memory.
Layel loves facilitating nature-based experiences for and with artists, believing that deep connection with the Earth is both a creative resource and a resilience strategy. Across all their work, Layel Camargo weaves together lineage, humor, land, justice, and imagination—helping individuals, organizations, and movements remember who they are and envision what is possible.
Layel holds a dual bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and is currently pursuing a Master’s in Sustainability Management at the University of Southern California, with an expected graduation in Summer 2026.
