Allie Lindstrom

Allie Lindstrom’s story is about a calling becoming a career. She is an inborn problem-solver whose selflessness and courage make her a formidable change maker. The Pathfinder Program in Environmental Sustainability first exposed Allie to the socio-political impacts of environmental change. Ever since, Allie has been engaged in political organizing centered around environmental justice issues.  

As Campaign Manager for Fossil Free WashU, Allie used a combination of teach-ins, fundraising, petitioning, and direct action to work with the university administration toward endowment transparency. Her peer and student nominator Maya Samuels-Fair writes, “Thanks to Allie, divestment has become a household term for undergraduate students. Allie is always talking about organizing herself out of positions—training others to fill her role—and she succeeded in this. She is a mentor to many, and she left Fossil Free WashU with more hope and momentum than ever.”  

Allie sees collaboration and teamwork as a central element of all her work, as evidenced in the alliances she built among activist students, faculty, and community partners. Because of her prodigious talent for community organizing, Allie was recruited to help build the “Title Mine” student movement, which led to concrete changes in WashU’s Title IX policies regarding relationship and sexual violence policy and prevention. After her graduation in December 2019, Allie became an organizer for the Sunrise Movement’s Ann Arbor Hub, a movement of young people fighting to stop the climate crisis, which she founded in her hometown. In addition to organizing, she is working on the Bernie Sanders 2020 campaign to elect climate leaders across the country. While the nature of her work is changing, her commitment to bringing new youth leaders into the climate movement is constant. 

Allie’s trajectory demonstrates to others that they too can pursue their passion without compromising their ethics. Her nominator testifies to just what an inspiration Allie has been: “I think of leaders as those who live according to their own ethics, forge a path for change, and mentor others. Allie does all three every day.”