Gracie Israel is a Houston-based community organizer working at the intersection of environmental justice, civic engagement, and leadership development. She currently serves as an Organizer with Bayou City Waterkeeper, where she works to protect clean water, address wastewater infrastructure challenges, and advance environmental equity across the Lower Galveston Bay watershed.

Previously, Gracie served as a Senior Regional Program Coordinator with Texas Freedom Network’s Texas Rising program, where she developed student leaders across multiple college campuses, facilitated political education and leadership development initiatives. Her work centered on building community-rooted leadership pipelines and equipping young organizers with tools for systems analysis and strategic organizing. She grounds her organizing philosophy in relational organizing, recognizing that meaningful engagement begins with trust, care, and authentic relationships. As Texas Freedom Network’s first HBCU Organizer, Gracie helped establish a foundation for Black liberation-centered organizing by creating culturally competent political education programming and strengthening pathways for Black student leadership across Texas. She also co-led large-scale summits focused on HBCU empowerment and criminal justice, covering topics including restorative justice and the socio-economic drivers of incarceration. Gracie additionally served as the first Reset & Rise Fellowship Coordinator for Cognitive Justice, where she created and managed a fellowship for carceral-system-impacted youth. Through this role, she trained fellows in Community Violence Intervention (CVI) strategies while conducting direct outreach, resource navigation, and relationship-building to address root causes of violence and promote community-led safety.