About ECHO
ECHO Alliance supports people and communities working on climate action, environmental protection, and social justice.
We focus on the people behind that work: local leaders, community groups, and grassroots initiatives whose commitment often exceeds the resources and support available to them.
Our work brings together leadership development, peer learning, practical support, and public engagement. Shaped by firsthand experience of environmental action and working under pressure, we help people build trusted connections and sustain their efforts.
Why ECHO Exists
Local leaders and grassroots groups bring deep knowledge, trusted relationships, and commitment to their communities. Yet they often work with limited funding, few connections to wider networks, and little support when difficulties arise.
Funding for climate, conservation, and development does not always reach the people doing the day-to-day work. In challenging settings, those people may also face isolation, burnout, or pressure simply for speaking up.
ECHO exists to help close this gap, connecting people with practical support, opportunities to learn from one another, and allies who can stand alongside them.
Our People
ECHO brings together people with experience in climate organizing, community leadership, human rights, and supporting others through difficult times.
Across our team and board, firsthand experience of working under pressure shapes our decisions and our understanding of the support people need.
Team
Hong Hoang
Co-founder & Executive Director
Hong Hoang is a Vietnamese climate and environmental leader with more than two decades of experience in campaigning, community engagement, and youth leadership. She co-founded and led CHANGE, a nonprofit in Vietnam working on climate, wildlife, and environmental issues. After spending 478 days in prison, she founded ECHO Alliance to support people working for environmental and social change. Her work draws on firsthand experience of building movements, navigating pressure, and the solidarity that helps people carry on.
Gregory John Fitzpatrick
Financial Controller
Greg has more than a decade of experience in accounting and related roles across a wide range of industries. A self-described “nerd for numbers and exact answers,” he enjoys using Excel and automation to make financial reporting more accurate and efficient.
Irfan Toni Herlambang
Digital and Campaign Advisor
Irfan brings more than 20 years of experience in strategic communications, digital engagement, and media, including work with 350.org in Asia. His background spans climate justice, poverty reduction, and disaster resilience in Indonesia. He enjoys connecting digital tools with grassroots organizing and working directly with activists and local communities.
Board of Directors
Liangyi Chang
Co-founder & Chair
Based in Taipei, Liangyi has spent decades in grassroots climate organizing, building trust across borders and helping communities grow their own leaders and networks. He links local climate action with international advocacy, including at Climate Week NYC and the UN climate negotiations. In 2023 and 2024, he led the international #FreeHong campaign for Hong Hoang’s release. The experience convinced him that protecting defenders takes two things: support networks people can trust, and strong public voices.
May Boeve
Director & Secretary
May Boeve is a next generation climate and social movement leader, currently consulting with philanthropies focused on climate and democracy. For 15 years she served as the founding Executive Director of 350.org, an international climate advocacy organization that she co-founded in 2008. May hosts the podcast How We Build This and co-authored The Oxford Handbook of Climate Action and Fight Global Warming Now. She was featured as a TIME Magazine next-generation leader and is a recipient of the John F. Kennedy New Frontier Award. She has also been featured in numerous publications as a thought leader about movement building to fight the climate crisis. She lives in Oakland, California with her family.
Thomas Asher
Director & Treasurer
Tom Asher connects research with democratic practice and community participation. He is Senior Director of Research and Engagement at Columbia World Projects at Columbia University. His experience spans the White House Office of Management and Budget, where he led efforts to strengthen public participation across federal agencies, and the Social Science Research Council, where he founded a fellowship program supporting doctoral students across six African countries. He is the author of The Crisis of Democratic Participation and How to Fix It.
Christian Vanizette
Director
Christian Vanizette is a social entrepreneur, Obama Scholar, and co-founder of chilli.club, a platform focused on protecting nature. He previously co-founded makesense, a global nonprofit supporting thousands of entrepreneurs around the world to build businesses and nonprofit organizations for social and environmental good. His experience brings together entrepreneurship, community building, and collective action.
Our Story
ECHO grew out of years of environmental organizing, and a personal understanding of what happens when people come under pressure for their work.
Our co-founder, Hong Hoang, spent a decade leading CHANGE, a Vietnamese nonprofit that mobilized young people and communities around climate, wildlife, and environmental issues. In 2023, she was arrested and sentenced to three years in prison for her activism.
CHANGE’s community gathered in late 2022 to mark its tenth anniversary and say farewell as mounting pressure forced the organization to close.
During that time, people around the world spoke up for her. International advocacy and solidarity helped secure Hong’s release 20 months early. That experience, along with the practical challenges faced by her family and colleagues, showed how much support can achieve and where it still falls short.
Founded in 2026, ECHO carries these lessons forward. We bring together people whose experience of organizing, facing adversity, and supporting others informs how we work alongside communities today.
More than 9,200 people across 55 countries joined the #FreeHongFreeThemAll campaign in 2023-2024, calling for Hong Hoang’s release.