“I don’t want to witness the end of humanity,” says Mallorey Roe, who has spent the past two months volunteering with 350 Eugene and the Global Climate Strike Coalition to raise public awareness of the climate crisis. “We need many more people to wake up and get involved, to pressure our government. Our future and our children’s future are at risk.” Roe works in the coalition’s media affinity group, promoting the climate strike by contacting media, creating ads, facilitating op-eds, setting up interviews and posting on social media. Born in Dana Point, California, Roe moved with her family to Shelton, Washington, when she was 12. “My father grew up in the Puget Sound area,” she says. “He bought six acres at the south end of Puget Sound with a rocky oyster-strewn beach and beautiful forest.” After high school in Shelton, she majored in elementary education at Western Washington University in Bellingham, where she also met her husband-to-be, Ellis Roe. When he left Washington in 2013 to begin Ph.D. studies in physics at the University of Oregon, she substitute-taught for a year, then joined him in Eugene. She found work at UO Child Care, but, frustrated by the obstacles to resuming her teaching career in a new state, she took up painting with acrylics to relieve stress. “It turned into a more serious hobby,” she says. “I’ve done around 45 paintings.” She continued to paint after finding a job she loved, in customer service at Greenhill Humane Society. The painting in progress on her easel depicts climate activists Greta Thunberg and Jane Goodall meeting at the World Economic Summit in Davos. The finished painting can be seen on Instagram at @themalloreygallery. Mallorey and Ellis were married in 2018. He completed his Ph.D. last month and hopes to find an IT job in Washington, close to both of their families.

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