Prairie Rivers Network is thrilled to introduce our Energy Community AmeriCorps VISTA member, Alayna Moore. Alayna will be serving with Prairie Rivers Network over the next year to support our work in ensuring a just and equitable energy transition for Illinois coal communities.
The Energy Community AmeriCorps VISTA program was announced earlier this summer, with plans to place AmeriCorps VISTA members in nine federally designated energy communities throughout the US, including the Illinois Coal Basin. The program aims to spur economic growth, create jobs, and remediate environmental damage in the energy communities that have long helped power the nation’s economy. Alayna is one of 18 members of the first class that were sworn into service in early December by AmeriCorps CEO Michael D. Smith. The members began their service with a weeklong training in Washington, DC, before starting their service with host organizations, including Prairie Rivers Network.
Alayna grew up in Edgar County, Illinois, before moving to North Carolina to study biology. During her undergraduate degree, she took on projects that had environmental focuses but ultimately ended up in medical labs upon graduation. After a few years of working in a lab setting, the urge to do environmental work was too strong to ignore, and Alayna decided to further her education at North Carolina State University. In May of 2024, she completed her Master’s degree in Climate Change and Society, where she developed an interdisciplinary approach to climate and environmental issues before finding her way to the AmeriCorps as an Energy Communities VISTA. She’s excited to be back in Illinois, serving with Prairie Rivers Network.
Alayna will join others on the PRN energy team who are working closely with coal community leaders and partners to increase capacity and provide support in navigating the clean energy transition. Bolstered by state and federal climate policies, our work with communities includes cleaning up the legacy pollution of the past, including coal ash and abandoned mine lands, as well as exploring new energy opportunities like energy efficiency and solar. Alayna’s service through the Energy Community AmeriCorps VISTA program will help deepen and expand this critical work.
Brought to life by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964, Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA) is a program that hopes to eliminate poverty in the US. Using community-driven solutions, members live and serve in their communities while gaining skills that will better the lives of those around them and help them excel in their own careers.
“This is your job—to guide the young, to comfort the sick, to encourage the downtrodden, to teach the skills which may lead to a more satisfying and a more rewarding life. On your idealism and on your success rests much of our hope for the final elimination of poverty in our American life.” – President Lyndon B Johnson in his remarks to the first VISTA class in 1964.
