Meet the Founder
Milka Rodriguez was born in Dominican Republic and raised in New York City. She is an avid traveler who has visited 30 countries worldwide. She founded Globetrotting Dominicana to offer youth climate educations travel programs and cultural and nature immersion experiences abroad. This work has been featured by the Nomadic Network, Nomadness Travel Tribe, NYU Wallerstein Collaborative for Urban Environmental Education, Latin American Coalition of Environmental Educators, Latino World Travelers, Manhattan Neighborhood Network, the Institute of Dominicans in the Exterior, National Dominican Women's Caucus CUNY Startups, and Bronxnet OPEN.
She has a master's degree in Sustainability in the Urban Environment from CUNY the City College of New York and bachelor's in environmental policy, planning, and law from Syracuse University. She has worked on initiatives at the intersection of climate policy and research, economic development, and youth engagement at the NYC Mayor’s Office of Climate and Environmental Justice. She has served as a Civil Society Youth Representative and Steering Committe Member at the United Nations Department of Global Communications (UNDGC) and as a member of the UNDGC Youth Steering Committee and the UN Global NGO Executive Committee engaging youth and NGO’s on issues at the forefront of the UN agenda.
She has worked in the public sector performing community outreach and organizing, education, minority entrepreneur assistance, and climate policy and environmental justice research. These skills have allowed her to high profile social impact programs in coordination with the NYC Mayor's Office, community groups, government agencies, NGOs, and private companies. As a result of her past sustainability work, she won a Youth for the UN Sustainable Development Goals scholarship from Peace Boat US, a Japanese NGO, to travel through Central America to learn about peace and sustainable development. Ms. Rodriguez has served as a Dominican Republic Fellow with FUNGLODE/GFDD where she traveled to Dominican Republic to collect data to support a multi-year research study on watershed management and governance. She's an alumna of the Island Innovation Ambassador program, Peace Boat Youth for the SDGs Scholar, FUNGLODE Dominican Republic Fellow, Senior Environmental Leadership Fellow, Al Gore's Climate Reality Leader, the prestigious CORO Leadership NY program and U. S. Spain Council Young Leaders Program.
