Today we’d like to introduce you to Cami Sockow.
Hi Cami, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
I was born to a working class family in a small town in southeastern Michigan, I had an older brother and three little sisters to come. We lived in the same home until I was 5 and then did not live in a home for more than a year until I was 11, when we moved to Southern Illinois. Between the ages of 5 and 11 were very turbulent in my home, causing us to move to Illinois. Once we had moved to Illinois my mom became a single mother of 5, no small feet. During this time I had stepped in as a caretaker for my little sisters who were all under the age of 5. Throughout my adolescence I struggled with moving away from Michigan and then after we lived in a town in Southern Illinois for 3 years, we moved again, to the home that my sisters now call their childhood home. At the age of 12 I went through some fairly significant medical issues which caused me to be out of school for 3 months, during my freshman year of high school. It was feeling increasingly difficult to be happy with my circumstances. All the while this was happening I was feeling fairly suffocated by christianity, as it was forced for me to be part of the church even though I was not feeling connected to it and had wanted to explore what more life had to offer. This caused conflict between my mom and I and she kicked me out when I was 16. I moved to Michigan to live with my grandma, but because I was not attending school often(and knew I needed to graduate) I had asked my mom if I could move back in with her when I was 17. When I moved back I chose to attend a school 20 minutes away, instead of the high school in which I was attending before I left for Michigan. I barely graduated. In fact I graduated in the suspension room because I was skipping so much, but I did it. At the time of graduation I was not living with my mom again but was house jumping from friends to friends. During my senior year I was somehow conditionally accepted to a state school, it was my ticket to a new life. I failed out freshman year. I worked full time at a Subway and indulged in a way that I now somehow truly think I needed. I lived. In 2007ish I had a moment where I knew the lifestyle I was engaging in was no longer serving me; if I wanted to live a better life than I was given I needed to get back into school and take it seriously. I went to a small community college, and was accepted back to my university in 2008. I graduated in 2012 moving into Environmental Education, I was honing in on my passion. I then went on to be a naturalist in southeastern Minnesota where I taught close to 30 experiential learning courses (geology, fungi, ropes courses, etc.) to children across the region, what a joy! It began my healing journey, and I fell in love with learning. I learned about sustainability at about this time. Up to that point I had been heavily focused on being outside and teaching people how to value and enjoy being outside.During this time I had realized that the poor kids were able to come to the Environmental Learning Center during the winter for a lower cost. I had thought how unfair is this? I do not remember how the word sustainability came into my life, but it shifted my worldview. That was who I was, what I had been waiting for in terms of a ‘career.’ I have always had a fight in me, and this was it. This fighter was cultivated by the fight I saw in my mom as a young child, making sure we had a place to live and food to eat. After teaching in Minnesota I was figuring out what was next (it was a one year position), and moving to Colorado and working a part time seasonal position did not seem appealing to me, so I chose to look into graduate school(at my alma mater).
I went to graduate school, studying Geography, with a focus on sustainability education. It somehow just ‘fell into my lap’ and in a weird way did not feel like a full choice, just the next step. The only kicker was that what I had wanted to study (Sustainability) barely existed, I had to piecemeal my way into getting it; a law class here, health behavior class there, forestry, geography, etc etc. During this time I started working at our sustainability office on campus, my boss was fired 3 weeks after I started. I saw an opportunity to start building something that could be impactful – I began our environmental film series, hosted our first farm to table dinner, and more. I was there for about two years, graduated and landed a job in Georgia. I was a Georgian now! It was the first full time position, in Academic Affairs coupled with a Student Affairs focus(universities basically have 3 administrative divisions: academics, student affairs and finance). I loved it in the beginning, but after realizing the university was not that serious about Sustainability, I became burnt out. Then COVID. I had job security, so I stayed until 2022. I then acquired a job at a non-profit that focused more specifically on climate action. It felt like it was where I needed to be. I was brought on to focus on Minority Serving Institutions, specifically in the Midwest. Since there were few HBCUs (Historically Black Colleges and Universities), I focused more deeply on TCUs (Tribal Colleges and Universities) and was able to spearhead a conference on one of the reservations that focused on building relationships, specifically across differences(in relation to climate action on campus), it was powerful and the need felt even more apparent today than it did in 2024. Once we returned, the funding was dwindling and the focus on building relationships was not center stage; we needed to decarbonize, focus on connecting just other stakeholders with other stakeholders. My work on relationship building took a backseat and shifted more into being the connection point for Indigenous speakers at the conferences, and other touchpoints that were needed across the organization. That coupled with the loss of funding because of the 2024 election, my role was ending. And it did, in August of 2025.
During those roles I had been building a dream that I was somewhat keeping to myself; when I was at the university I had seen first hand the need for more engineers focused on ‘sustainability’ or climate specifically. And I had started taking classes to move forward, I took college algebra, trig, pre-calc – and then left the university for my other non-profit job. So when my job ended last year I had a big decision at my doorstep: fight in a field that is actively being crushed by an administration that does not care about diversity or climate or go back and build something stronger? Well, something stronger it was. I decided to go back to school and get a second bachelors degree in mechanical engineering. I had given myself about 3 months after my job ended to make this decision, as it obviously is not a light one. I am 38, I have plenty of school debt, I have no clue how I am going to pay for this, but it’s a dream and I have never had one, so let’s go. It’s a challenge(to say the least), but I have never felt more equipped for it than now, at this moment. I am just at the beginning of this journey but EVERY signal is green – I could tell y’all all of these but this would be two more full pages! It feels invigorating – going after a dream, shoot even having a dream! How lucky am I. So here I am, in semester two, taking Calculus II and other random pre-reqs before I jump into the dirty of it. It has already been challenging, every day, and it will continue to be!
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Nope, no smooth roads here! And I know I am not alone – I’m inspired EVERY day by people who do not give up on themselves and their dreams, who strive to live their truest fullest self. I also do not think anyone’s road to where they get is smooth, but the ‘win’ isn’t based on the ‘end’ it is based on how you get up over and over again after you fail. In some ways the cards have felt like they are against me since day one but I always come back to – well we gotta get back up and out there – because, what other choice do I have? I refuse to live in misery. I choose myself every day and choose the life I still want to build, every day. I choose me. If I had to call out some struggles it would definitely have been losing my dad and brother when I was young. That coupled with not having a lot of emotional support probably takes the cake, I have spent a lot of time reparenting myself; healing, forgiving, boundaries, joy, validating, reassuring, etc. and that will be life long.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
This is kind of hard to answer because of this big transition but in my past roles I have focused on environmental behavior change, relationship building, equity related work in sustainability, and general advocating for sustainability as a whole. I am known for speaking the hard truth when no one wants to, asking the hard questions that many are thinking but no one is willing to ask, and saying the hard thing even though we have been conditioned to stay silent. I am not scared to speak up for myself, for others, and how we should be treated, how we should treat ourselves, the planet that gives us all, etc
In my future role I hope to be part of lowering our emissions via building decarbonization; our buildings emit close to 30% – there is so much work to do!
What does success mean to you?
Success is happiness. If you are emotionally fulfilled you are successful. If you are spiritually fulfilled you are successful (unless your spirituality includes bigotry). If you are materially fulfilled you are successful (within reason, no one needs 3 cars). If you are intellectually stimulated/challenged you are successful. If you are willing to change your mind you are successful. If you are physically fulfilled you are successful. If you are growing every day, you are successful. If you take care of others, you are successful!
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