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Submit a guided Letter to the Editor through our website between July 8th and 13th!
Meet the speakers
Kim Gaddy is the Founder and Director of the South Ward Environmental Alliance (SWEA), a grassroots EJ organization of residents and community based organizations part of a growing movement for health equity in front-line communities and healthy community living. Additionally, Gaddy is the New Jersey Environmental Justice Director for Clean Water Action. She has been advocating for communities impacted by industrial pollution and the goods movement system in Newark and across the country for 20 years. Most recently, Gaddy was recognized as the 2021 Russ Berrie Making a Difference Honoree for New Jersey, 2021 Weequahic High School Hall of Distinction, and has been granted many more awards over the years.
Representative Debra Lekanoff represents the 40th legislative district of Washington state. Sworn in to the Washington State House of Representatives in January 2019, Rep. Lekanoff is the only Native American woman to currently serve in the Legislature. In addition to serving in the Legislature, Representative Lekanoff served as Governmental Affairs Director for the Swinomish Tribe. With over 20 years of government relations experience, she engages on a variety of issues at the international, federal, tribal, state, and local levels. She has a broad range of perspectives that allow her to lead on a wide range of policy issues, including but not limited to, environment, natural resources, climate change, education, housing, and agriculture.
Kate, a Master Teacher of 35 years, and her husband, Larry Stauffer, voted Best Electrician in Chester County (2021), are dedicated community members in Malvern, PA advocating for the cleanup of the toxic Bishop Tube site. Very active in GAFTG, DRN, and Malvern environmental advocacy, these individuals collaborate with their community to demand environmental justice from their government officials. Their daughter is a survivor of 3 consecutive tumors, which are suspected to have developed from Bishop Tube toxic fumes. As a result, they have highlighted concerns about the tremendous increase in childhood illnesses and allergies stemming from environmental contributions.
Renada Harris (She/Her) is a graduate of Virginia Commonwealth University, business owner, and fierce community activist. She is part of the Brown Grove Preservation Group that fights industrial gentrification and protect 150 years of community history. Her goal is to engage the general public and various stakeholders around environmental injustice while tactfully navigating cultural differences. She has organized networking events for organizations involved in climate justice and reparative justice. Harris is a member of African American Redress Network (AARN), and International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ), and was a panelist for Reparations 2022, which examined ways to expand U.S. based, racial reparations work, explore collaborations, consider next steps, and discuss avenues of sustainability.
Sen. Sedillo-Lopez is a New Mexico legislator with broad perspectives and passions that she has been using to improve her state’s government since 2019. She taught law at the UNM for 27 years and remains an emeritus law professor. A primary sponsor of the New Mexico Green Amendment, Sen. Sedillo-Lopez fights for her constituents’ environmental rights each day. Additionally, she serves as the executive director of Enlace, an anti-domestic violence nonprofit conducting outreach to Latino immigrant communities, and has also served on the boards of the New Mexico Coalition Against Domestic Violence, Bernalillo County/City of Albuquerque Air Quality Control Board, the Southwest Women’s Law Center, and the New Mexico Hispanic Bar Association.
Meet the Advocacy Panel
In 2018, Kerri Evelyn Harris transformed and invigorated the race for the United States Senate in the State of Delaware. As a citizen, an advocate, a worker, a mother, a veteran, and a queer woman of color, Kerri stands for the people of Delaware and across America. Harris has a vision, but as an organizer, she encourages us to see and imagine not what was, but move toward what could and should be. Kerri continues her work within the state of Delaware and nationwide as she feels it is her duty to fight to improve the lives of her fellow Americans; building coalitions and promoting people-centered policies is her personal mission in life.
Terrance attained his Master’s Degree in Administrative Science from Fairleigh Dickinson University in 2007. Between 2005 and 2010, Terrance was hired as a political operative for the then Mayor and now U.S. Senator, Cory A. Booker, as well as a host of other local, county and state officials. Since then, Terrance has served as a primary or lead consultant for local and international non-profit organizations, such as Clean Water Action, the South Ward Clinton Hill Community Action Group, NewarkDIG. Most recently, Bankston served as the Director for Student Leadership and Engagement & Special Programs at Bloomfield College, which made Terrance’s 5th directorship. Presently, Terrance serves as the Environmental Justice Organizer for Clean Water Action / Clean Water Fund in New Jersey.
David Pringle is a veteran public interest advocate, campaign strategist and organizer. For 30 over years, he’s helped advance precedent setting environmental justice, progressive, green, public health, and democratic reform policies as well as candidates in legislative, regulatory, field, electoral, and judicial arenas at the state, local and federal level on a bi-partisan basis. His current priorities include working with Green Amendments for the Generations to secure the right to clean air and water in state constitutions, NJ Citizen Action on prescription drug pricing reform, and Clean Water Action on climate justice.
Tracy Carluccio is Deputy Director of the Delaware Riverkeeper Network (DRN), where she works as an environmental advocate since 1989, working throughout the Delaware River Watershed in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York, and Delaware. Carluccio works for the Watershed’s protection addressing water quality, healthy habitats, streams, and communities, and defending its exceptional values, focusing on fracking, clean and renewable energy, shale gas infrastructure and related issues, and PFAS contamination.
Bridget Brady serves as the Communications & Advocacy Coordinator for GAFTG. She joined the Delaware Riverkeeper Network in 2015 and aids in advocacy, policy research, and public outreach for both DRN and GAFTG. She has a B.A. in Environmental Studies and Sustainable Development from Mount Holyoke College.
Meet the Legal Panel
Maya is the Founder of Green Amendments for the Generations and author of the award-winning book, The Green Amendment: Securing Our Right to A Healthy Environment, in which she coined and defined the term “Green Amendment”. She was the lead environmental petitioner in the Pennsylvania Case that restored legal life to PA’s environmental rights amendment. van Rossum is also the Delaware Riverkeeper, leading the watershed based advocacy organization, the Delaware Riverkeeper Network, for over 30 years in its efforts to protect the health of the Delaware River and its tributaries. In partnership with Maya and GAFTG, constitutional amendments have been proposed in 11 states to date, with New York formally passing a Green Amendment in 2021. Her new book, The Green Amendment: the People’s Fight for A Clean, Safe, and Healthy Environment, will be released in Nov. 2022.
Eric has been with the Law Center for twenty-one years and focuses much of his efforts on uranium mining impacts and cleanup in the primarily Navajo communities in Cibola and McKinley counties, and on air quality issues in Albuquerque’s South Valley. He has worked with front-line communities to prevent re-starting uranium mining on Mt Taylor and worked closely with McKinley County residents to demand that the County Commission approve a moratorium on new uranium mining while a study is completed on the disparate impacts of past and possible future mining on the environment and public health. Moreover, in Albuquerque’s valley neighborhoods, he has worked for many years to force the City of Albuquerque and the City-County Air Quality Board to analyze the cumulative impact from industrial facilities upon long-established neighborhoods when weighing approval of new air quality permits.
Kacy Manahan joined the Delaware Riverkeeper Network as a staff attorney in 2020. Her work focuses on challenges to natural gas infrastructure, federal permitting challenges, and state environmental and land use law. Prior to joining the Delaware Riverkeeper Network, Manahan practiced environmental law in a private boutique firm in New Jersey. Manahan also served as a clerk to the Honorable Robert J. Gilson, J.A.D., in the Superior Court of New Jersey, Appellate Division. Manahan graduated magna cum laude from Lewis & Clark Law School in Portland, Oregon, with a Certificate in Environmental, Natural Resources, and Energy Law. She obtained her Bachelor of Arts in Media and Communications from Ursinus College in Collegeville, Pennsylvania. Manahan is licensed to practice in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
Prior to joining PELC, Mr. Ommen practiced in a wide variety of environmental and non-environmental contexts. He began his career in litigation at one of New York City’s most prominent law firms, then moved to the public sector and focused his practice solely on environmental issues, taking a position as an Assistant Attorney General for the New York State Office of the Attorney General in the Environmental Protection Bureau. There, he primarily litigated cost recovery actions, seeking to compel polluting companies to pay for the environmental remediation necessary at their facilities. After four years in the Office of the Attorney General, Mr. Ommen continued his environmental practice at the leading plaintiff-side toxic tort firms, where he successfully obtained recoveries for individuals and municipalities against Fortune 500 companies. Mr. Ommen is a member of the New York State Bar Association and the American Bar Association, Section on Environment, Energy, and Resources.
Grable joined the Delaware Riverkeeper Network as a Staff Attorney in 2020. Prior to working for Delaware Riverkeeper Network, Grable held a fellowship position with the Greater Chicago Legal Clinic where he provided legal representation to local environmental justice communities across a wide variety of legislative and environmental mediums. Grable earned his law degree and a certificate in Environmental and Energy Law at Chicago-Kent College of Law in Chicago, IL. While pursuing his law degree, Grable secured internships with the Greater Chicago Legal Clinic, U.S. EPA Region V Office of Regional Counsel, Baker & McKenzie’s North American Environmental Practice, and the Illinois Pollution Control Board. These internships provided an invaluable opportunity to experience the practice of environmental law from the perspectives of non-profits, federal regulatory agencies, private practice, and state adjudicatory agencies alike. Prior to law school, Grable attended Humboldt State University where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science with an emphasis on the Environment and Sustainability, as well as a minor in Oceanography.
