Fighting to Win

Listen to Charles Utley's inspiring experiences and insights related to Environmental Justice! Utley grew up in Hyde Park, Georgia, a predominantly Black community. Many people worked at Southern Wood Piedmont Co., a company that used creosote and dumped their chemical debris into a stream that bordered Hyde Park. Residents of Hyde Park [are] continually being exposed to contamination; many did not receive enough reimbursement funds to relocate and are still living in the community. Charles Utley is a big proponent of the Polluters Pay Tax. This tax will create an avenue for those harmed by corporate pollution to seek retribution for their suffering. Listen now for more info!!

Jose Franco Garcia has over 15 years of experience with community organizing in the San Diego area. He currently focuses on environmental justice issues and working to ensure that his community is safe & healthy. After graduating from the University of California at San Diego with a B.A. in Political Science, he spent four years as the Community Building director at the Coalition of Neighborhood Councils in San Diego. In 2010, he began work with the Environmental Health Coalition (EHC), where he now serves as organizing director. Listen to CHEJ's organizing director Gustavo Andrade interview Jose and share personal stories and insights behind what it is like to lead an environmental organization. 

Georgette Gomez is a queer, Latina woman rooted in her San Diego community where she grew up with two immigrant parents. She received her degree in Environmental and Natural Resource Geography, and has acquired over 13 years of experience as an environmental organizer at the Environmental Health Coalition. At EHC, she spearheaded a new community plan for Barrio Logan and worked on other important environmental justice campaigns. Georgette left her position as Associate Director for Policy at EHC in 2016 because she was elected as a city council representative. During her time in office, Georgette continued to fight for environmental justice, alongside other issues of equality such as immigrants rights, affordable housing, and universal health care. 

Tune into today's episode to learn valuable lessons in leadership and organizing from formidable activist Olinka Green! To learn more, visit http://chej.org/livingroomleadership/.

Tune into today's episode for a conversation with Gillian Graber, the cofounder and president of Protect PT, a community organization working for security, safety, and quality of life for people in Penn Township. Today, Protect PT’s most recent focus is a fight against a local Injection Well that is threatening the safety of drinking water in the area. To learn more about Graber's journey, visit http://chej.org/livingroomleadership/.

Tune into today's episode for a conversation with Lee Ann Smith, an elementary school librarian turned environmental activist from Asheville, North Carolina! She began fighting against environmental injustice when her son Gabe was diagnosed with rare thyroid cancer at the age of 11. In addition to her son, many community members were getting sick as a result of a toxic waste site that was emitting Trichloroethylene (TCE). Lee Ann Smith looked in the mirror and decided she was the one who needed to take action. Gabe, now a healthy adult living in Iceland, joins his mom on this podcast as they recount their experiences related to fighting to clean up this Superfund site. To learn more about Smith's journey, visit http://chej.org/livingroomleadership/.

Tune into today's episode for a conversation with Darryl Malek-Wiley, an environmental activist with over 30 years of experience! He has been fighting alongside the primarily African-American, low income communities affected by “Cancer Alley” for clean water, air, and land, and to prevent more industrial plants from being built. To learn more, visit http://chej.org/livingroomleadership/.

Tune into today's episode for a conversation with Melissa Mays, Water You Fighting For activist, nicknamed “Champion of the Underdog”, to learn more about her fight against the Flint water crisis. Although Mays has had to deal with the trauma from the consequences of speaking up, it does not stop her, because she believes that this is what she is meant to do. To learn more about Mays' journey, visit http://chej.org/livingroomleadership/

On April 6, 1981, 501(c)(3) paperwork was filed marking the beginning of the Center for Health, Environment & Justice (CHEJ). Lois Gibbs, Founder of CHEJ, celebrates 40 years of founding the organization, and remembers the role everyone played in making it the organization it is today. Tune into today's episode for a conversation with Gibbs about her victory in Love Canal, as well as her contributions to the Superfund bill. To learn more, visit chej.org/livingroomleadership/.

Tune into today's episode for a conversation with Andrea Amico, the Co-founder of Testing for Pease in NH. Amico became an activist after reading about high level of PFAS contamination in a well which supplied drinking water to the Pease International Tradeport, and her family were among those who drank the contaminated water every day. To learn more, visit http://chej.org/livingroomleadership/.