Tendaji Ya’Ukuu
they/them
Co-Founder + Youth and Workforce Development Director
+ Non-profit Executive Director
Tendaji Ya’Ukuu is a tenacious land steward and community builder shaped by lived experience, community work, and study. Raised in the South Bronx (NYC), where food insecurity and environmental injustices were daily realities, Tendaji learned early growing up in lively and deeply connected low-income Black and Latinx neighborhoods the importance of collective care and resilience. Those roots continue to guide their work in Buffalo, NY, where they now steward land and create pathways for neighbors to reconnect with food, soil, and one another.
Tendaji combines technical training with a deep commitment to justice, always centering the voices of those most impacted by disinvestment. Over the past decade, they have organized youth programs, facilitated ecological justice projects, and partnered with community members to reimagine vacant spaces as sites of nourishment and healing. Their land stewardship practices draw on ancestral ecological traditions and personal shadow work, honoring the role of healing in leadership. Whether tending to garden beds, leading neighborhood cleanups, or building new partnerships, Tendaji brings humility, persistence, and imagination to the work of food sovereignty and cultural preservation, striving to ensure that land remains a source of freedom and flourishing for generations to come.
Education
-University at Buffalo, Master’s of Urban Planning Candidate
-University at Buffalo, BA Urban Planning -SUNY Morrisville, AAS Renewable Energy
Professional Development
-Public Allies New York, Fellow, Class of 2018 and 2020
-SUNY Morrisville, College President Citation, Class of 2022
-NALP Certified Landscaper, 2024
-Institute of Nonprofit Practice, RISE Fellow, Class of 2024
-Cooperation Buffalo, Cooperative Changemaker, Class of 2025
-Justice Outside, Rising Leaders Fellow, Class of 2026
-Lowman, C., Miles, M. L., Schmipf, C., & Ya’Ukuu, T. (2025). Using Critical Signaling Theory: A Review of Mission Statements and Racial Representations on Environmental Organizations’ Websites in a Historically Segregated City. Howard Journal of Communications, 1–20.