Julia Hatton is the President & CEO of Rising Sun Center for Opportunity, a nonprofit workforce development organization building career pathways for economic equity and climate resilience serving the greater Bay Area and Central California, and recipient of the USGBC-CA 2024 Environmental Justice Award. Rising Sun specializes in preparing people with limited or no income, youth, women, and folks who’ve been incarcerated for sustainable, high-road careers that provide the opportunity to build wealth while building sustainable communities. Its programs include Opportunity Build, a construction pre-apprenticeship for the building and construction trades (including one of the nation’s only all-women cohorts), and Climate Careers, a youth employment social enterprise that provides free energy efficiency services to thousands of hard-to-reach residents each year in partnership with Regional Energy Networks. Rising Sun also advocates for high road labor standards tied to climate investments, including building decarbonization, to advance economic equity alongside climate resilience. Julia started at Rising Sun in 2012 serving in multiple roles before becomingCEO in March of 2020, and has led the growth and deepening of Rising Sun's programs over the past 14 years. Julia also has experience designing and implementing income-qualified energy efficiency and healthy homes programs and in economic development, and served as Secretary, Vice-Chair, and Chair of the State's SB 350 Disadvantaged Communities Advisory Group. She's a proud graduate of the Coro Fellows Program in Public Affairs and of Northwestern University.