Jerome Foster II

Jerome Foster II (born May 9, 2002) is an American environmental activist. He is the youngest-ever White House advisor in United States history, as a member of the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council within the Biden administration. Foster advocates for social, economic and environmental justice. Foster was an organizer Fridays for Future in the United States; holding weekly climate strikes at the front gates of the White House for over 57 weeks. He has previously served as a congressional intern for U.S. Representative John Lewis at the age of 16 and served on the Washington DC State Board of Education's Advisory Council at the age of 14.

Foster has helped organize some of the largest climate marches in Washington, D.C., and has spoken at the United Nations High Commission on Human Rights in April 2019 and the United Nations Youth Climate Summit in September 2019.

Early life Jerome Foster II was born in Washington, D.C., on May 9, 2002, by his mother René Foster, and father, Jerome Foster Sr. Foster attended Washington Leadership Academy High School, graduating in June 2020. Foster graduated from high school in June 2020 which was aired on ABC, CBS, NBC, and FOX which depicted his story of placing 3rd at the World Series of Entrepreneurship.

White House climate strikes As a part of Greta Thunberg's School Strike for Climate protest, Foster held weekly climate strikes in front of the White House in Lafayette Square. On September 13, 2019, Thunberg as a part of her trans-American voyage to COP 25 in Santiago, Chile joined Foster's White House climate strikes which drew thousands to the site. Through organizing these climate strikes, Foster met Jane Fonda and has gone on to collaborate with Fonda on her Fire Drill Fridays.

OneMillionOfUs Foster founded OneMillionOfUs in early 2019. Which is an international non-profit youth voting and advocacy organization. It aims to "educate, empower and mobilise a movement of young people to be civically active and engage on the local and global stage through their intersectional youth-focused civic partnerships", OneMillionOfUs has built a large coalition that will provide young people with the tools they need to spur systemic change in their communities, school buildings and political offices. This organization also created a "Uniting Youth Coalition" representing 5 youth social movements: gun violence, climate change, immigration reform, gender equality, and racial equality to have a space on both the local and international level to coordinate events and campaigns between movements.

COP27 Scrutiny on LGBTQ+ Rights In July 2022, Foster and his partner, Elijah McKenzie-Jackson, co-authored a letter to the UNFCCC to call on the United Nations to move COP27 climate summit due to Egypt's "LGBTQ+ torture, woman slaughter, and civil rights suppression" he says after they started looking into logistics of traveling to Sharm El-Sheikh. As Foster is an openly-public bisexual figure, he and his partner "might be targeted" was signed by prominent activists such as Nadya Tolokonnikova, Ahmed Alaa, and Eric Njuguna. The couple are calling the UNFCCC non-action a betrayal of the community and "inherent discrimination." Foster emphasized that, "there are better options of countries in Africa that will still include African voices. People shouldn't be cannon fodder for the climate movement. Cop27 will fail if it's in Egypt because critical voices will be left out."

Politics

District of Columbia State Board of Education At 15 years old, Foster became the sole student representative serving on the District of Columbia State Board of Education High School Graduation Requirements Task Force, working to modernize high school graduation requirements starting with the class of 2030 across the District.

Congressional internship At 16 years old, Foster applied to be an intern for U.S. Representative John Lewis, as described in an interview in late 2020. On Fridays during his internship, he held weekly climate rallies at the front gates of the White House as a part of Greta Thunberg's Fridays For Future movement to advocate for the passage of the Climate Change Education Act which would add environmental education as a core subject in all American schools and provide funding for colleges to further research into the climate crisis.

The White House On March 29, 2021, the White House announced that Foster, at 18 years old, would serve as an advisor on the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council, providing recommendations on environmental injustice. During his time we are a leader credited for the creation of the American Climate Corps, a concept stemming from President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Civilian Conservation Corps leading to by late September 2024, over 15,000 young Americans given clean energy and climate resilience jobs through the program. The initial goal outlined an expand each year by 50,000 through 2031, however in 2025 the program was rescinded.

Personal life Foster has been in a relationship with British climate activist Elijah McKenzie-Jackson since 2021. They announced their engagement on June 11, 2023.

Honors and awards 2025 Trailblazer Award winner at Verdical Group's annual Net Zero Conference World Series of Entrepreneurship D.C. State Board of Education Leadership and Commitment Award Union of Concerned Scientists' Defender of Science Award Audubon Naturalist Society Youth Environmental Champion Award Grist 50! Environmental Fixer Achievement The Root's Young Futurist Achievement Captain Planet Foundation Young Superhero for Earth Award Business Insider Climate Action 30 Achievement TIME Next Generation Leader

Filmography