Senior Consultant
aparna rajagopal (அபர்ணா | she/her) weaves networks, builds bridges, finds through-lines, nerds out on data, and tends the soil where movements for land, justice, and belonging converge.
Through a 20+ year career path that has been anything but linear, she has braided together science, technology, law, and education to nurture thriving communities and ecosystems. She has tracked nuclear waste in the Marshall Islands, argued civil rights cases in courtrooms, conducted groundwater studies in Las Vegas, built disaster management policy in India, spent weeks at a time in the wilderness with teenagers, and taught future educators about justice.
aparna has also written about water rights, equity, leadership, and the law in journals ranging from Harvard Business Review to science publications. Yes, it has been a weird and winding road, but she wouldn’t have it any other way because this is what has equipped her with the adaptability and perspective to serve as a true generalist to support organizations with change. And, as Octavia Butler wrote, “the only true thing is change.”
Before joining TREC in 2025, aparna spent a decade co-leading the Avarna Group, supporting hundreds of organizations across the environmental sector in transforming their cultures, systems, and relationships to land. Through this work, she helped grow a vibrant community of over 6,000 individuals and institutions (including TREC!) who are committed to equity, justice, and belonging. Along the way, she also cofounded PGM ONE, a gathering space for BIPOC leaders in the environmental movement, and Dirt Maidens, a scrappy collective of femme, women, trans, and nonbinary mountain bikers dedicated to inclusive trails and community.
Today, aparna serves as Vice Chair of the Oregon Commission for Asian and Pacific Islander Affairs and sits on the Oregon Environmental Justice Council, bringing her lived experience as a South Asian American and her commitment to just governance to statewide policy conversations.
When she’s not “working,” you can find her in the homelands of the Kalapuya people (Eugene, OR) grinding up gravel roads just to scream down single track trails, going up and down cliffs for fun, making whimsical drawings, and writing her forever-almost-finished book about finding belonging in a land that was never hers to begin with.
At her core, aparna believes in leading with curiosity, compassion, care, collaboration, community, creativity, courage, and coconut water. Lots of coconut water.
