Our Heroes
Grace Brady
2026 Youth Champion: A young individual who through individual action or organizing larger programs, policies, or legislation has advanced CAM’s mission.
[...] Neuqua Valley High School graduate Grace Brady helped create and write House Bill 4895, which amends the state’s school code so that it requires Illinois public schools to educate students on climate change starting in 2026.
[...] Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed the legislation into law.
“I’m very happy about it. It’s awesome,” Brady, 18, said in a call from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, where she’ll soon be starting her freshman year. She’s majoring in sustainability and environmental science.
As passed, the measure provides that beginning in the 2026-27 school year, “every public school shall provide instruction on climate change.” That instruction, it says, can include but isn’t limited to “identifying the environmental and ecological impacts of climate change on individuals and communities and evaluating solutions for addressing and mitigating the impact of climate change.”
