Vilas Annavarapu joined the Great Plains Institute in 2024 as the inaugural environmental justice fellow. As a member of the Carbon Management team, he works with communities to deploy equitable carbon management technology and CO2 storage through cooperative community engagement, outreach, research, and advocacy.
Prior to this role, Vilas served as the equity fellow for the Center for Social Entrepreneurship, a barista, and a sixth-grade computer science teacher. He holds a master’s in teaching from the University of Mississippi and is a Jefferson Scholar alumnus of the University of Virginia. Vilas is the co-founder of Riverside Collective, a community cooperative in Jackson, Mississippi, that addresses issues of economic democracy, equitable education, and environmental justice.