Desiree established herself as a leader at the intersection of equity and environment while serving as the City of Portland Bureau of Planning and Sustainability’s Equity Program Manager. The first position of its kind in the nation, her work had a national impact in public sector innovation on equity within the sustainability field. In 2016, Desiree was honored by the Obama White House for her work with the community to apply an equity lens to the City of Portland/Multnomah County Climate Action Plan, and in 2017 was recognized by the University of Minnesota Institute on the Environment for innovation in the environmental field.

She founded Kapwa Consulting as a means to use her unique interdisciplinary approach that draws on organizational development, change management, social justice organizing, and systems analysis to support leaders and organizations across the country in advancing equitable solutions throughout the environmental field.