Alicia’s Bio
Alicia White is an award-winning change-maker, social innovator, environmentalist, and social impact expert. Alicia’s work has been centered around social innovation, urban development, social impact, climate equity, partnerships, tech, and community relations to create a more environmentally sound and equitable future. Much of her experience has been on the ground in communities creating solutions, programming, initiatives, advocacy, and access to improve under-resourced and BIPOC communities.
She is the Founder of Project Petals, a groundbreaking community development, environmental, and educational organization in New York City. Her upbringing in Queens, New York, inspires her innovation, and seeing a divide in the access to resources and opportunities throughout the city where she grew up is a catalyst for her work. Alicia’s advocacy work stems from a lifelong passion for improving the environment, environmental regeneration, making innovation and educational programming accessible, and connecting communities with vital resources. To date, Project Petals has directly improved the environments of over 70,000 thousand New York residents. She has been a Digitally Undivided Fellow where she worked on technological solutions to improve environmental outcomes and an Impact Hub New York Blueprint 2021 inaugural innovator where she reimagined the future. Alicia’s first advocacy project Railroad Park is now one of the largest environmental conservation projects in NYC. The project has been funded at 21 million at the city level to preserve the nature preserve in Southeast Queens.
She has spoken at the Keller Center of Innovation at Princeton University, PRSA Public Affairs, and Government Section, and countless other institutions on subjects such as climate change, social impact, social innovation, equity building, community development, humane social media, leadership, women in leadership, startups, and youth leadership. Alicia is a storyteller who has partnered with media outlets to shift the narrative of environmental and community based stories.
Alicia has over a decade of experience in the social sector, working with nonprofits and companies on development, CSR, and sustainability. She has advised with major brands like Rolex to increase their social impact and create an ecosystem of social impact strategic planning. Alicia believes that every entity should have a people-first approach, and actively participating in social equity initiatives and sustainability should be of the utmost importance to any industry.
Alicia’s work has been featured in media outlets, including ABC, NBC, NY1 New York Post, Reader’s Digest, Mashable, Women’s Health Magazine, and The Huffington Post. People Magazine has also highlighted her works in their Resiliency rising series, and Drew Barrymore has described Alicia “As someone who has something to teach us all.” Alicia has worked on various media projects with State Farm, Honda, People Magazine, and Facebook to highlight environmental and community work in BIPOC communities.
What I have created
Project Petals
I founded Project Petals Inc. in 2014 to focus on climate change, community revitalization, and the environmental development of communities in need. The organization works to bring awareness to the lack of BIPOC environmental leadership and environmental justice issues that can or may hinder under-resourced communities’ development. To learn more about Project Petals and our work, please visit www.projectpetals.org
Blue SKYie
Blue SKYie is a consultancy focused on social and environmental innovation. Blue SKYie operates as a community of innovators working on solutions toward more just and equitable innovation for communities, cities, and marginalized innovators. Please visit and learn more about Blue SKYie here.