Finding Mycorrhiza: How My Work On Climate Has Evolved
Climate Success Chat #52 - March 13, 2026
In biology, mycorrhiza is a symbiotic association between a plant and a fungus. This close partnership occurs when the fungus lives on, around, or in plant roots. The plant provides sugars, and the fungus helps the plant absorb water and nutrients like phosphorus and nitrogen. There are even theories that it’s this system that allows the plants to communicate over a vast network, and perhaps even across species.
I see my Climate Success Chat posts as my personal mycorrhiza, allowing me to connect people I care about with topics I believe are important. Yesterday at the Texas Futures Summit, someone asked me why I post and how I decide what I write about. I answered that I believe there’s a role for me to play to help connect people with technical and niche climate topics that they might not hear about every day. I try to make the post informative, actionable, and inspire hope that we can find solutions and everyone can play a connected role. The writing also allows me to absorb information in a way that I wouldn’t be able to do if I didn’t have this outlet.
This week marks the two-year anniversary of sharing my learnings and thoughts related to my personal climate journey. If you’ve been on this journey with me since the beginning, you’ll remember I started with an email to friends and family while completing the Climatebase Fellowship. At the time I was planning to find a full-time role with a climate tech company. I then launched an advisory practice helping mission-driven startups with their go-to-market and fundraising strategies. Along the way, I’ve made many friends who share my view that transforming our society and economy to a more sustainable and regenerative model must be humans’ top priority. My perspective on how to best apply my talents has evolved along the way. The world is a different place than it was two years ago and it will continue to change.
These changes have prompted more people than me to rethink what it means to work on climate. In fact, one of the organizations I’m a member of, Work On Climate, shared a change in their mission at the beginning of the year. As they explained in their post, what started as: “If you cared about the climate, you should find a climate job” needed to evolve into a broader, more systemic leadership that empowers people to address the root causes of the symptoms we see in the climate crisis. The co-founder of Work On Climate, Eugene Kirpichov, also shared his views on an episode of Inevitable if you prefer to listen. People can still work on climate even if they don’t work in climate. That’s what I’m focused on doing now.
I’m excited to have recently started a full-time role doing what I do best: helping a mission-driven technology company partner with its customers by building and delivering high quality digital Customer Success experiences. At Udemy, I am focused on helping people learn new skills as the nature of work rapidly changes. I believe that by doing this, I can have a ripple effect that will have a positive impact on the world. Outside of the work that I’m doing there, I’ll continue to volunteer, write, and advocate to make sure people around me continue to do what they can to live balanced, sustainable, and prosperous lives. Like mycorrhiza, I’m confident that I can connect the roots of a diverse set of people and create value through those interactions.
I’ll keep sharing what I’m learning about energy and sustainability here and would be honored if you continue to follow my posts. I will also remain involved in projects like Texas Futures, building tech to support climate advocacy, and volunteering with orgs like Solar Austin. In another two years, I’m sure I’ll have a whole new collection of projects that I’ve been able to contribute to. As a gardener, I know that a strong root system requires a diverse biome in the soil. Join me in the mycorrhiza for our climate work to create a more sustainable future.