Mariah Hernandez-Fitch

Mariah Hernandez-Fitch joins Acadia Center as the Roger E. Koontz Fellow in Law and Climate Policy. Mariah is from Dulac, Louisiana, and is a citizen of the United Houma Nation. She graduated from Dartmouth College in 2023 with a degree in Film and Media Studies and completed her master’s degree in American Indian Studies at UCLA in 2025. Now based in New Orleans, Mariah is starting her second year at Tulane Law School, where her legal studies are rooted in tribal sovereignty, environmental law, and the relationship between law, policy, land, and cultural continuity.

Her Indigenous, Mexican, and Filipino heritage shapes both her creative work and legal interests. Through film, advocacy, and law, she seeks to uplift Indigenous stories and examine how law and policy affect frontline communities. She was also a fellow with the AMPLIFY Ban Ki-Moon Foundation Indigenous Youth Climate Leaders Fellowship, a program that prepares Indigenous youth to participate in international climate advocacy spaces.