hi, i'm audrey!
My name is Audrey Ma and I am a student and a climate activist. I founded the Sustainability Club at my school and was part of a team of students that implemented a food sorting and composting program school wide to reduce my school’s greenhouse gas emissions. The program successfully prevents 30,000 pounds of CO₂ per year from reaching our atmosphere. I am a recipient of the President’s Environmental Youth Award.
I am also the youngest member of the Organizers Committee for Pasadena100, a nonprofit that advocates for the City of Pasadena to transition to carbon free electricity by 2030. I have delivered keynote speeches at rallies, published op-ed pieces in the Pasadena Star News, been a panelist in public climate change panels and spoken at city council meetings.
I like to use different mediums to raise awareness about our looming climate crisis. My climate change poem titled “Save Me a Plum” was awarded a National Gold Medal by the Scholastic Arts and Writing Awards and my climate change videos have won the UN Climate Challenge Competition twice.
I hope to have more schools sort and divert their food waste from the landfills because only then can we make meaningful reductions in methane emissions.
meet our advisory board
Meet the wonderful changemakers that have helped make Sortify happen!
zahra dowlatabadi
Zahra Dowlatabadi is an Iranian American producer, creative strategist, and systems thinker whose career spans senior leadership roles across major animation studios including Warner Bros., Universal Cartoon Studios, Bento Box Entertainment, and Cartoon Saloon. She holds an M.A. from the University of Southern California School of Cinema Television and is co author of Producing Animation, a widely used guide to production strategy and workflow design.
Her current work focuses on climate literacy, youth empowerment, and community based problem solving. As Impact Advisor on Future Chicken, a multi platform eco focused digital universe designed to address climate anxiety in children ages 6 to 10 through hopeful and actionable storytelling, she develops practical narrative tools that help young people understand environmental systems and participate in local solutions. She has also been recognized by the Educators Consortium for Service Learning for advancing service learning initiatives that connect education with civic engagement.
Zahra’s approach integrates systems thinking, narrative strategy, and cross sector collaboration to move ideas from theory into practice. She emphasizes collective inquiry, building on prior knowledge and tested approaches, and creating space for fresh perspectives so new solutions are both grounded and imaginative.
amy hammes
Amy Hammes is the Recycling Specialist for the City of Burbank. She works on building waste reduction programs and increasing public education on recycling realities. Prior to joining the city, she was the Donations Director for EcoSet Consulting where she created an innovative materials reuse and donation program from production set cast-offs. Amy also instituted one of the first food recovery and donation programs from unserved crew catering on these sets. She is a current Board member of the California Product Stewardship Council (CPSC) that works on manufacturer responsibility policy to help in the end-of-life management of problematic products (batteries, sharps, and 1lb propane tanks).
Amy holds an MPA in Sustainability from Presidio Graduate School and a certificate in Recycling and Resource Management from the California Resource Recovery Association (CRRA).
dan thorman
With an enduring commitment to environmental and social governance, Dan Thorman's role as Executive Director at The Collidescope Foundation revolves around empowering impact leaders through collective strength and shared resources. The Collidescope Foundation's work extends beyond traditional boundaries to create a unique ecosystem where profit and purpose intersect, elevating social good initiatives. The Collidescope social enterprise integrates the missions of the Collidescope Foundation and Collidescope B-Corp.
As a Co-Founder of Los Angeles Climate Week, Dan's focuses on leading the charge towards Los Angeles' sustainability targets by fostering cross-sector collaboration and nurturing local climate solutions. Leveraging skills in marketing communications and new business development has enabled LA Climate Week to amplify their collective impact, driving transformative change and setting a precedent for future sustainability endeavors. The 2024 and 2025 Los Angeles Climate Week(s) collaborated with over 300 events with many thousands of registrations and millions of direct collective education hours and massive extended social reach.
Dan's professional career as a media and technology executive with over 25 years of experience in senior management, legal affairs, and financial roles has enabled him to serve the organizations that he supports and runs. He has developed broad experience managing international business and strategic development across a diverse cross-section of functional areas and management.
In prior positions, Dan served as the CEO of Thoughtful Media Group, where he focused on social media marketing and analytics in Asia-Pacific driving many billions of UGC video views and nearly $50 million in revenue from YouTube, and advertising clients including most global media agencies, and direct partners such as L'Oréal, Unilever, Apple/Beats.
Dan also served as a Managing Partner and CFO at Madison Road Holdings, a Los Angeles based branded entertainment company focused on the television market. Madison Road transacted over $25 million into brand integration media from major global advertisers such as Toyota, Microsoft, Sanyo, T-Mobile, P&G, Unilever, and Coca-Cola.
In the pre "dot com" era, Dan was a founder of San Francisco-based Ignition, Inc., a leading design and engineering company of interactive products and data integration solutions for large corporations. Ignition clients included Hewlett Packard, the United Nations, and McKinsey & Company.
Dan has a BS in accounting from George Mason University and passed the Certified Public Accounting (CPA) examination.