Eddie Ahn is the executive director of Brightline Defense, an environmental justice nonprofit focused on policy and legal advocacy, and Brightline also provides direct services ranging from youth leadership to low-income tenant empowerment to job training programs. In December 2021, Eddie was inducted into the State of California’s Clean Energy Hall of Fame for his work in equity and clean energy.

A self-taught artist, Eddie will have an upcoming graphic memoir, Advocate, published by Penguin Random House in April 2024 (his current comics work can be viewed on instagram @ehacomics). His art is also installed on 10 utility boxes throughout San Francisco, and he has also been honored as a Cartoonist-in-Residence at the Charles M. Schulz Museum in Santa Rosa.

In addition to his work for Brightline, Eddie has served on three commissions for local and state government agencies related to environmental policymaking. In 2017, Eddie was appointed to the SF Commission on the Environment, which sets policy for the SF Department of Environment and advises the City and County on environmental matters. In 2018, he was appointed to the SF Bay Conservation and Development Commission (BCDC), a state planning and regulatory agency with regional authority over the Bay Area. In June 2020, he was appointed to the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC), which plans and finances transit in the nine Bay Area counties. In 2022 and 2023, he was elected by his peers to serve as President of the SF Commission on the Environment.

Prior to being a nonprofit attorney, he was an AmeriCorps member, teaching public speaking and arts workshops in Oakland’s Chinatown. While working toward his law degree, he continued to teach art and public speaking workshops for youth and worked for the Assembly Judiciary Committee in Sacramento.