Nalleli Cobo

Environmental Activist, Goldman Prize 2022 Winner

At age nine, Nalleli Cobo engaged in community activism for the first time. Growing up across the street from AllenCo Energy, an oil well in her community, Nalleli noticed her health took a turn for the worse. What began as headaches intensified to body spasms and heart palpitations. She worked with her community to create a grassroots campaign called People Not Pozos (wells)
in hopes to permanently shut down AllenCo energy. Nalleli is a co-founder of the South Los Angeles Youth Leadership Coalition, which successfully sued the city of LA for violation of the California Environmental Quality Act and environmental racism. In early 2020 she was diagnosed with stage 2 cancer after almost a year of treatment including surgeries, chemotherapy, and radiation treatments she is officially cancer free. Cobo continues to fight to defend the health, safety, and environment for her community and generations to come.