Maya Siegel is a Coloradan who advocates for people + the planet, online and IRL. By day, she is the Social Strategist at Lonely Whale, an environmental nonprofit working to drive recycling systems change and develop alternatives to problematic plastics. By night and all hours in between, she is a 22-year-old with a deep love for learning, entrepreneurship, and community-building.
Maya loves dreaming big and investing in projects she believes in wholeheartedly. Some projects she’s proud of include Space to Speak, a digital community for GenZ survivors of sexual assault that helped raise $118K in four months for survivors experiencing domestic violence during the pandemic, August, an inclusive period care startup that reached $1M in revenue in its first year, and Emerging Radiance, a mural and AR experience that won Best Immersive Project at Tribeca in June 2022. Since 2017, Maya has worked in social impact roles within the environmental, menstrual equity, sexual violence prevention, and mental health spaces. She has worked on projects for companies including Google, Bumble, TOMS, and her work has been featured in The Washington Post, HuffPost, MTV, Teen Vogue, and the NYT Upfront.
Maya began translating her organizing skills to the digital space upon joining ThinkOcean in 2018, where she spent two years helping scale and transition the youth network into an international nonprofit. She then spent a year empowering young POC women through her work with Gen Z Girl Gang before starting her own project, Space to Speak, which has become a growing community of survivors and allies reclaiming power and healing together. In April 2020, they helped raise over $118,000 for survivors experiencing domestic violence during the pandemic. Most recently, Maya worked to uplift and create opportunities for BIPOC folks through her work with Intersectional Environmentalist.
Awards:
MURALS winner for Service Learning & Leadership at CSU (2021) • Gurls Talk Ambassador (2021) • 25 Under 25 Social Entrepreneurs (2020) • Youth Expert (2019) • SOYP Youth Delegate (2019) • Girlboss Rally Game Changer (2019) • Environmental Excellence (2018)
Maya is fascinated by the impact technology can have as a tool to address social and environmental issues. She works to ideate and implement content that is valuable to target audiences and hits success criteria defined by companies. Maya has worked with nonprofits, startups, and large companies in marketing, consulting, and outreach roles. She is a natural problem solver that brings creativity, integrity, and passion to every project she works on.
Since 2018, Maya has designed over 30 sites for a clientele of predominantly well-known GenZ leaders and purpose-driven organizations that are challenging the status quo in their industry. Her design for Climate Cardinals was featured in the Washington Post in April 2020.
