--- title: Leah Thomas Is on the TIME100 Next 2022 List description: Find out how Leah Thomas is shaping the future and defining the next generation of leadership. canonical: https://time.com/collections/time100-next-2022/6214746/leah-thomas/ article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2022-09-28T09:58:19.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-03T00:06:46.467Z og:title: 2022 TIME100 Next: Leah Thomas og:description: Find out why Leah Thomas is on this year’s TIME100 Next list og:url: https://time.com/collections/time100-next-2022/6214746/leah-thomas/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9c4dbfbf493bbdea/698a35c7d07533454ae6d404/time100-next-leah-thomas.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: 2022 TIME100 Next: Leah Thomas og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 2022 TIME100 Next: Leah Thomas twitter:description: Find out why Leah Thomas is on this year’s TIME100 Next list twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9c4dbfbf493bbdea/698a35c7d07533454ae6d404/time100-next-leah-thomas.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Sep 28, 2022 # Leah Thomas by [Kyla Mandel](https://time.com/author/kyla-mandel/) ## Kyla Mandel Mandel is a senior editor at TIME.  Courtesy Sanetra Longo Courtesy Sanetra LongoCourtesy Sanetra Longo Leah Thomas’ mother made sure she was surrounded by stories centering brown and Black voices throughout her childhood in St. Louis. But at college, and while working as a National Park Service ranger, the self-­proclaimed science nerd realized conversations about the environment and social justice didn’t always take into account how the issues overlapped. When [Black Lives Matter protests](https://time.com/5859213/corporations-black-lives-matter/) erupted in 2020, she posted a call to action on Insta­gram that popularized the idea of “intersectional environmentalism.” Scientists echoed the words. Professors began lecturing on the topic. Thomas and her friends launched a resource hub to help everyone from the public to major brands rethink their approaches to sustainability. In the time since, she’s continued to build a coalition of educators and activists to further raise awareness—and uplift solutions. This includes launching a unique Black eco-­feminist summit in London [this October](https://www.intersectionalenvironmentalist.com/black-ecofeminist-summit). Her work addresses more than just injustices, she says: it also shows that “diversity and inclusion and environmentalism is very joyful.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/time100-next-2022/6214746/leah-thomas/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/time100-next-2022/6214746/leah-thomas/"},"headline":"2022 TIME100 Next: Leah Thomas","datePublished":"2022-09-28T09:58:19.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-03T00:06:46.467Z","description":"Find out how Leah Thomas is shaping the future and defining the next generation of leadership.","url":"https://time.com/collections/time100-next-2022/6214746/leah-thomas/","keywords":["TIME 100 Next","sponsorshipblock","time100nextphenoms2022"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9c4dbfbf493bbdea/698a35c7d07533454ae6d404/time100-next-leah-thomas.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Kyla Mandel","jobTitle":"Mandel is a senior editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/kyla-mandel/"}],"creator":"Kyla Mandel","articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9c4dbfbf493bbdea/698a35c7d07533454ae6d404/time100-next-leah-thomas.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/time100-next-2022/6214746/leah-thomas/","name":"2022 TIME100 Next: Leah Thomas"}}]}] ```