Nalleli Cobo

At 19, Nalleli Cobo led a grassroots campaign that successfully shut down a toxic oil drilling site in her community, which had caused serious health problems for her and others. Her advocacy led to major policy changes, including unanimous votes by the Los Angeles City Council and County Board of Supervisors to ban new oil drilling and phase out existing sites. Cobo began her activism at age nine after noticing strong odors from a nearby oil well. She later co-founded People Not Pozos and the South Central Youth Leadership Coalition, both focused on fighting environmental racism. In 2022, she received the Goldman Environmental Prize and was named to the TIME100 Next list.