Meet the Curator.
Diego Zapata (he/him) grew up in Lincoln Heights and has devoted his personal life and professional career to his community’s empowerment. Intimately shaped by Lincoln Heights’ history, its Latin@ and Asian cultural fabric, and the abundant biodiversity found within his community’s parks and open spaces, Diego has come to understand the value natural spaces hold for local youth and community members experiencing high rates of environmental injustice. The decline of biodiversity reflected by this project was the catalyst for Diego to pursue his early start in community organizing and science-based advocacy to defend the value of Los Angeles’ remaining open spaces and the peoples’ rights and autonomy to access and steward them.
Work & Organizing Experience
Diego has over 9 years of direct experience leading community-first urban greening projects, increasing access to local food production, restoring and monitoring Los Angeles’ urban ecosystems, and exploring nature-based approaches to soil and water remediation throughout East Los Angeles. His work spans grassroots stewardship, institutional program-building, holistic community organizing, and experimental ecological practice.
At North East Trees, Diego began as a Youth Environmental Steward, carrying out hands-on urban forestry work including street tree planting and site-based greening projects across Northeast Los Angeles. He later founded the organization’s native plant nursery and volunteer program at Ascot Hills Park, expanding community access to locally grown native plants propagated from regional seed stock and cultivating a volunteer network rooted in place-based care.
At Metabolic Studio, Diego supported soil and water remediation initiatives along the Los Angeles River, contributing to applied research and fieldwork exploring phytoremediation and other ecological strategies to address heavy metal contamination within urban floodplain systems.
At Occidental College, Diego founded and led FEAST as a student service organization, significantly expanding its programming, operations, and organizational capacity to advance student-led sustainability initiatives and embed environmental stewardship within campus life. He also was an active member of OSUAG, Occidental Students Against Gentrification, where he led student organizing efforts to challenge Occidental College’s role as one of the largest landowners in Eagle Rock and Highland Park and to prevent the institution from contributing to ongoing displacement and gentrification in surrounding communities.
Education
Diego has a B.A. in Biology from Occidental College ’19, where he studied invasive shot hole borer pathology and ecology under the mentorship of Dr. Gretchen North. He also earned his Master of Science in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from UCLA ‘24, where he leveraged landscape genomic approaches to understanding the resiliency of ecologically and culturally significant California Black Walnuts species (Juglans californica and Juglans hindsii) under climate and land use change with Dr. Victoria Sork.