NAACP Environmental Climate Justice Lead Abre’ Conner Named to TIME’s Prestigious 2026 The Closers List

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 27, 2026
Contact: [email protected]

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Today, Abre' Conner, Director of the NAACP's Center for Environmental and Climate Justice, was named to TIME's 2026 The Closers List. The list recognizes extraordinary leaders working to close racial equity gaps and create a better future.

Abre' Conner is a civil rights attorney and a member of the NAACP's Senior Leadership Team, where she leads the organization's environmental and climate justice work. With a career rooted in confronting environmental racism, Conner brings a civil rights lens to the reality that Black communities are disproportionately burdened by poor air and water quality and other environmental hazards. Under her leadership, the NAACP continues to affirm that environmental justice is inseparable from civil rights.

Conner is at the forefront of addressing the dangerous environmental and community impacts of AI data centers, which are routinely sited in or near predominantly Black neighborhoods. Through the NAACP's Stop Dirty Data campaign, she is advancing a first-of-its-kind Frontline Framework developed by the NAACP and its partners to guide advocacy and accountability around data center development nationwide. These facilities emit toxic pollutants and strain local water supplies, disproportionately harming Black families - prompting swift NAACP action in Memphis when xAI began operating an illegal data center.

In addition, Conner leads the NAACP's broader environmental justice campaigns, including Make Polluters Pay and efforts to end dependence on fossil fuels. Her work advances critical state and federal policy reforms, such as transitioning to cleaner mass transit systems. She also oversees the Association's initiatives on water infrastructure, disaster resiliency, and sustainable communities, including the rapid deployment of more than $600 million in aid for residents during the height of the Jackson Water Crisis.

Beyond the NAACP, Conner serves on the American Bar Association's Board of Governors and Earthjustice's Board of Trustees. Her previous roles include staff attorney at the ACLU of Northern California, Directing Attorney at Law Foundation of Silicon Valley, and faculty member in the UC Davis Environmental Policy Graduate Program's Policy Clinic.

See the full list here: time.com/closers

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More details about Abre' Conner:

A native of Lakeland, FL, Abre' served as the Directing Attorney of Health at the Law Foundation of Silicon Valley where she led the litigation, direct legal services work, and advocacy regarding health equity and the social determinants of health that impact historically excluded communities across the Silicon Valley.

Before joining the Law Foundation, Abre' was a staff attorney with the ACLU Foundation of Northern California, where she advocated for the civil rights and liberties of Central Valley and Northern California residents, including an emphasis on issues that impact people of color in rural communities, such as environmental justice.

As a staff attorney at the Center on Race, Poverty, and the Environment in Delano, CA, Abre' primarily worked with migrant farmworkers and in unincorporated communities. She has worked at numerous civil rights entities, including the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights, and on Capitol Hill. She was also an associate in the White House Office of Presidential Personnel for the Obama Administration. 

Abre' served as the elected Assembly Speaker for the American Bar Association Young Lawyers Division, the chief policy officer for the Division, and was an appointed member of the ABA's Commission on Youth at Risk Advisory Board and Children's Rights Litigation Working Group. Under her leadership, the Division adopted a resolution declaring racism as a public health crisis which is now ABA policy. She currently sits on the ABA's Board of Governors, Earthjustice's Board of Trustees, and was appointed to the EPA's first HBCU-MSI Advisory Council.