EJ Hero: Diego Morales

The Brightline Podcast: Season 3, Episode 1

In our first episode of season three, we’ll hear from Diego Morales, a law student and former Brightline Defense fellow, as he shares his journey from childhood adventures in California’s tide pools to advocating for environmental justice in the courtroom. We’ll explore how his experiences with the National Park Service, Brightline, and the EPA shaped his commitment to advocating for vulnerable communities affected by environmental harm, inspiring him to pursue a career in law to continue this vital work. Listen here:

Transcript:

DIEGO: I know that there will be a lot of long and frustrating days. But at the end of it, I’ll be doing the work that’s most meaningful to me.

AUBREY: This is The Brightline Podcast from Brightline Defense. We explore environmental justice, or EJ, issues in the Bay Area and California, highlighting the work of community-based organizations, including our own. My name’s Aubrey, and I’m so excited to be back for season three! Things are gonna be a little different this time around.

This season, we'll be introducing you to some of California's very own EJ heroes. These are people who are out there, working on environmental justice issues in their communities each and everyday. They may not always be in the headlines, but they are the lifeblood of EJ work in California, and we can't wait for you to meet them. 

First up, Diego.

DIEGO: My name is Diego Morales, and I'm a 2L at Berkeley Law. I'm from South San Francisco, California and am a proud Double Bear.

Long before Diego started law school at Berkeley and became a “Double Bear,” he was just a kid growing up in South San Francisco. But sometimes, on the weekends, his family would get out of the hustle and bustle of urban life.

DIEGO: Growing up, my family would go on trips to Point Lobos State Park on the central coast and we would go tide pooling and look at the sea creatures.

These tide pools were like a whole new world to explore

DIEGO: You  know, you're precariously standing on slippery rocks, but you're getting to see anemones and sea stars and urchins, and nudibranchs, which are very colorful sea slugs. 

Diego's love for these park ecosystems wasn't something he grew out of, either. Even into college, he thought his love for places like Point Lobos might offer a career path. 

DIEGO: I originally thought I wanted to be a National Park ranger. So I had two internship experiences with the National Park Service. And the first one was at Rosie the Riveter in Richmond. 

Part of Diego's job there was to help run the outdoor education programming for fourth grade students. It was part of Every Kid in A Park, a program where fourth graders across the country get free admission to National Parks. Diego's programming was specifically focused on bringing in kids who might not usually have access to these places.

DIEGO: It was a mix of history lesson about shipbuilding industry in Richmond during World War II. But we also got to do a little walk along the Bay Trail and talk about the habitat of the Bay, impacts from climate change. And on one  trip, a  student came up and told me that he had never seen the bay before.

And these students were from Richmond. And that was a big shock for me. 

Aubrey: For context, Richmond sits right on the shores of San Francisco and San Pablo Bays.

I guess I always took the bay for granted growing up so close by. But that interaction really highlighted the lack of access to outdoor spaces in certain communities in the Bay Area.  And that was exacerbated by the fact that the bay is lined by refineries in communities like Richmond and how that polluted air and lack of access to the outdoors really meets  uniquely in that area and being exposed to that for the first time was, was definitely formative for me.

Diego took this new awareness of environmental injustice to his next internship at Point Reyes National Seashore in Marin County. 

DIEGO: And as a part of that experience, I got to help with programming and outreach for Latino Outdoors Week. Point Reyes is known for elephant seals, so we would take pieces of fur that elephant seals molt and show that to, to youth in San Rafael. 

Diego hoped that maybe this kind of unconventional outreach would help spark excitement for the outdoors in a curious kid, just like the tide pools had done for him. And I couldn't help but ask:

AUBREY: So did you get to wear a park rangers outfit?

DIEGO:I wish, no, we didn't get to wear the uniform. But it always seemed like a natural arc of  growing up, being in the outdoors, looking up to park rangers, and then in college doing these two internship experiences with the Park Service. And being able to put together programming for students and visiting schools  felt like a  full circle moment for me.

Meanwhile, back at school, Diego was discovering a new potential career path.

DIEGO: My first semester at Berkeley,  I went to an event called “Environmental Lawyers of Color,” and there  were three panelists there. And that's the first time I met Eddie.

That's Brightline's executive director, Eddie Ahn. 

DIEGO: At that time, I suppose law school was just a twinkle in the distant future. I hadn't thought about it. I  don't think I knew any lawyers. Certainly hadn't looked into what law school was or what a lawyer does. I think it was just  helpful to see other people of color pursuing careers in environmental law. 

After Diego left the panel, the twinkle of law school in his future kept growing brighter. So a year later, he took a chance.

DIEGO: On a whim, I emailed Eddie to learn more about what Brightline does. And he invited me into the office to talk to me. And eventually that led to him offering me the Policy Fellow position.

Diego was psyched. Up until then, he'd only really done environmental education work. Now he got to take a peek into the policy side of things. 

DIEGO:  And I remember on my first week, I got to immediately start doing Very interesting work around, uh, like clean energy transit and public transportation.  

This was early 2020. [covid news reel SOT] It wasn't long until the covid-19 pandemic began, and things shifted quickly at Brightline. The team went remote, but they were also turning their attention to some new, pandemic-specific EJ issues.

DIEGO: Brightline was concerned that with folks being required to stay home that their energy bills would rise. So we developed materials writing to the Governor and commissioners at the Public Utilities Commission and the Energy Commission  advocating that, you know, these low income populations should not have to bear the brunt of increased energy costs during the lockdown.

Brightline needed someone from the team to call into the commission to make their case. Eddie offered Diego the chance, and he took it.

DIEGO: And this was my first time making public comment on anything 

AUBREY: Were you nervous?

DIEGO: I was pretty nervous. I think I definitely had it all written out. I knew exactly what I was going to say and I practiced, I practiced it and just  made sure to not speak too fast, but not go over time.

The day of the hearing arrived. 

DIEGO: I was calling into a conference call and I, Iremember being in my apartment and standing up- I can't remember if I got dressed up or not- but I always speak better standing up. So I was just in my room on my cell phone, called into this commissioner's meeting and gave the public  comment.

I was proud to have done it. And today that's the only public comment I've given. And it was a great experience to have had.   Those days were a blur. 

After a blur of exciting firsts at Brightline, Diego's fellowship came to a close. But he wasn't done expanding his EJ horizons. Next up, the United States Environmental Protection Agency.

DIEGO: I started my job as a Pathways intern at their office in San Francisco. Starting first as a summer intern and then getting to stay on and do work during the school year was an incredible way to  take classes about environmental policy and law, and then in the same day, learn  about some of the same things at work.

But it wasn't just the information he was learning that was so valuable for Diego. That twinkle of inspiration that had started at the panel with Eddie was growing.

DIEGO: The attorneys at EPA Region 9 in San Francisco, they were just incredible mentors.

And that mentorship was critical as he worked his way through some challenging projects at EPA.

DIEGO: I got to research and write about the overlapping harms faced by mobile home park communities from the arsenic contaminated drinking water to emissions from diesel trucks. But also very importantly, the heat related impacts from drought and extreme heat events.

And being able to think about these complex problems together and in tandem to craft solutions, you cannot address one and not the others. That wouldn't solve anything.

And  seeing  the, the impacts of getting people clean water is, is really why we're here.  I decided to go to law school so that I could continue that work  and really advocate on those, on behalf of those who, who need the most protection from environmental harms

So Diego studied for the LSAT, wrote his essays, and applied to law school. He got into Berkeley, and that's when things got really challenging. 

DIEGO: Going into law school,  everybody told me how busy it would be, but I'm not sure I believed them until I actually got there.

He survived his first year of intro classes and all nighters. 

DIEGO:And I'm excited for getting to choose my classes this upcoming year. I'll be doing some environmental law coursework and writing, which  is sorely needed after my first year law classes.

He also spent this past summer interning at the California Department of Justice in the natural resources section, where he got to see what it means to work in a courtroom. But there are still a lot of unknowns about how he'll end up merging law and EJ. 

DIEGO:I'm still figuring out if I want to do more impact litigation, suing on behalf of communities, or if I want to  do the  government role, but I'm certain it'll be public interest-oriented.

Diego knows that being a lawyer, and especially one that fights for EJ issues, is not an easy job. But all of his experiences, from his internships at Point Lobos State Park to the California DOJ, have cemented his vision. 

DIEGO:I know that there will be a lot of difficult and frustrating days, but at the end of it, I'll be doing the work that's most meaningful to me and most impactful for my local communities, the Bay Area, the state that I call home, and that that'll  push me along.

I asked Diego what he thought the younger version of him, the little boy exploring the tide pools, would think about him pursuing a career in law.

DIEGO:I think he would say, stick to being a park ranger. But if not,  this work, tackling the effects of climate change and protecting public health, that those are also super important.  

I still don't like wearing this suit, but begrudgingly getting more used to it.

Aubrey: A suit's not quite as cool as a park ranger uniform

DIEGO: Right. [laughs]

Aubrey: This episode was written and produced by me, Aubrey Calaway. Original music by Maya Glicksman . Thank you to Eddie Ahn, Carolina Correa, Mehra Mazun, and Jacob Linden for help with research and writing, and to Rosa and Miryam for sharing their stories. For more information about Brightline, you can visit our website at BrightlineDefense.org or on social media @brightlinedefense. You can also find a transcript of this episode on our Medium Blog.  And finally, don't forget to give us a follow and leave a review if you enjoyed the show. We are so excited to continue exploring Bay Area environmental justice issues with you this season, so please stay tuned for more from us, wherever you get your podcasts. Take care.