About

POCACITO Network
1004 Fern Ct
Charlottesville, VA 22901, USA

info@pocacito.org

POCACITO Network has achieved a 2026 Candid Gold Seal of Transparency.

POCACITO Network is an IRS 501c3 tax exempt organization. Your donation is tax deductible as allowed by law.

EIN 99-0392258

Here is a link to our Guidestar / Candid profile.

Our Mission

It is the mission and purpose of POCACITO Network to create experiential learning opportunities in support of communities building social and environmental equity through regenerative sustainability movements. When connected, these movements produce a dynamic network of people and organizations working collaboratively to envision and realize a world capable of sustaining health and wellbeing for generations to come. POCACITO Network puts this mission into practice with focused programming along three intersecting tracks.

Our Impact in 2025:

• 40 students at summer camp + 25 students at planting day
• reached 100 students in school arts program
• reached 250 students online in biomimicry program
• reached 250 participants at in-person workshops and conferences
• in-person activities in
  • Biloxi, Mississippi
  • Birmingham, Alabama
  • Boise, Idaho
  • Bremen and Hannover, Germany
  • Galveston, Texas
  • Gulf Shores, Alabama
  • New Orleans, Louisiana
  • New York, New York
  • Richmond, Virginia
  • Santa Fe, New Mexico
  • Washington, DC

Education | Archive | Network

The first track encompasses POCACITO Network’s education programming. The scope of environmental and climate science today is matched only by the pace at which it grows. Compound that with the forecast impacts for society and the myriad public and private initiatives working to address them globally, and it is clear that traditional education and training systems lack the agility and space necessary to support communities and individuals seeking skills and knowledge now.

Working with subject-matter experts and practitioners across scientific, humanities, policy, and advocacy fields, POCACITO Network creates and implements curricula that merge concepts with practice, making ideas and innovations from around the globe accessible and locally actionable. Facilitating these immersive, experiential learning opportunities opens up communication between often-siloed communities, increases access to the knowledge and skills necessary to address climate change and environmental degradation at the local level, and invites new people with new perspectives and new talents to the work for social and environmental equity.

POCACITO Network’s second track entails publishing and archiving these opportunities and other initiatives, creating an open-access resource of activities and information that helps to tell the stories of community-centered sustainability movements, their protagonists, their achievements, and their lessons learned. This constantly-evolving archive consists of media from across the spectrum, including written reports, essays, teaching materials, interviews, presentations, podcasts, zines, and videos documenting and reflecting on specific projects. Such archive entries are free and available to the public via the POCACITO Network website and various media platforms.

Where the archive improves access to the how of best practices and the why of cutting-edge innovations, the third track, the network, embodies it. Open to everyone through voluntary association, but mostly comprising the individuals and groups who participate in POCACITO Network programming, the network of POCACITO Network connects those seeking to engage in and with community to address climate and environmental issues. The work of the network includes events, exchange trips, and in-person and online conferences that enable participants to support each other’s work, learn from each other, and build relationships across disciplines and geographies. Through this sharing of experiences, POCACITO Network members help establish the foundation for the future work of sustainability movements.

Sign up for our newsletter, connect with us online, join us in the field: you’re always welcome to join the POCACITO Network.

POCACITO Network is a nonprofit, tax-exempt charitable organization (tax identification number 99-0391158) under Section 501(c)3 of the U.S. Internal Revenue Code.

Board

Alexx Baerwald Simard

Alexx Baerwald Simard is a Practice Manager at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg Center for Government Excellence with six years of experience helping municipal and nonprofit organizations with project and policy development, implementation, and evaluation, and 10 years of experience managing projects and teams. She specializes in public sector strategy, coalition-building, community-driven solutions, and digital transformation, especially related to sustainability and climate action. Alexx helps organizations manage sustainable and inclusive change.

By focusing on equitable systems change, Alexx raised $5M for a Local Foods Distribution Center in Charlotte, NC; implemented a federal rural well water quality research project among 8,000 households in Gaston County, NC; and facilitated the alignment of a portfolio of community resilience strategies at the City of Charlotte. 

As an LGBTQ+ community organizer, Alexx facilitates connection and creative expression in the Charlotte arts and queer communities. Alexx is a mixed media creative reuse artist and loves spending time at art museums, in nature, and with their spouse and three dogs.

Felicia Naranjo Martinez

In her tenure at the University of Colorado Boulder, she has served as Executive Director of the Colorado European Union Center of Excellence, worked with Advancement and the Industry and Foundations Relations team, Environmental Studies as the Director of Special Projects, as Finance and Business Operations Manager for the Program in Jewish Studies, and Executive Aide for the SPIKE Center for Sustainability Education.

Felicia has managed a portfolio of diverse foreign grant awards that funded multiple programs, projects, and events in the U.S., Europe and Scandinavia. In collaboration with numerous partner organizations and working closely with the EU Commission in Brussels and the EU Mission to the United States in Washington, D.C. she has developed and implemented hundreds of events. Since 2009, she has had the distinct honor of working directly with various sitting and retired Ambassadors, Heads of State, and EU Head of Sections.

Felicia earned a BA in English and Primary Teaching Certificate from the University of Colorado Boulder and holds an Associate Degree in Human Services from Metropolitan State University where she graduated Magna Cum Laude. She has served on the board of directors for the Santa Fe World Affairs Forum and Growing Up Boulder, and is currently serving on the board of POCACITO.

Her interests include climate change mitigation, programs for youth that encourage and support social justice and the ongoing evolution of the European Union. On a lighter note, she enjoys time with family, walking in nature, esoteric studies, cooking, music and reading.

Brendan O’Donnell

Besides being on POCACITO's board, Brendan is the Climate and Environment Policy Program Director for the Heinrich Böll Stiftung Washington D.C. since February 2025.

Brendan O’Donnell combines an education in the theoretical humanities (MA, History of Art and Architecture, University of Virginia; BA, English and Philosophy, University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth) with extensive professional experience in the field of environmental education and communication.

In 2021, he founded POCACITO and has since been active in transatlantic projects with this organization. From April 2015 to December 2019, he worked as a fellow for the Ecologic Institute US in Washington DC. Since 2004, he has worked as a freelance journalist, editor and researcher for different target groups and in numerous media types. He has developed websites, apps and other publicly accessible communication tools. His publications range from brochures (e.g. on energy transition and sustainable finance) to academic books (Arctic Summer College Yearbook at Springer and Low-Carbon Energy Security from a European Perspective at Elsevier). He has been working as a volunteer radio presenter since 2021 and feels comfortable developing and conducting interviews, podcasts and live moderations.

Besides his support for POCACITO, Brendan is the climate and environment director for the Heinrich Böll Foundation in Washington, D.C.

Max Gruenig

Max Gruenig is a climate and energy educator with expertise and experience in the US and Europe and one of the co-founders of POCACITO.

In addition to his work with POCACITO, he lectures on environmental policy at Georgetown University in Washington D.C. From 2021 until 2025, Max was a senior fellow with climate think tank E3G. Before that, Max was President of Ecologic Institute USA from 2015 to 2020 and worked for Ecologic Institute Berlin from 2007 to 2018. Max has researched European and US energy and climate policy; urban sustainability, especially climate protection, nature-based solutions and the circular economy. He has frequently lectured on energy and climate policy at schools, universities and other institutions and has briefed members of Congress and testified before state and national legislators.

In 2004, Max Gruenig graduated with a masters degree in economics from Humboldt University of Berlin (HU Berlin, Germany). 

Thanks for reading.