Annual Environmental Justice Lecture — Inspired by Dr. Steve Wing: The People’s Professor
 

• Corban Addison, Author and Human Rights Advocate (https://www.linkedin.com/in/corban-addison/), March 23, 2023, at Tate-Turner-Kuralt (nextdoor to McGavran-Greenberg; virtual option - register at https://go.unc.edu/EJLecture).
  Attorney Addison will speak about his latest book, Wastelands. BookBrowse describes the plot: “The once idyllic coastal plain of North Carolina is home to a close-knit, rural community that for more than a generation has battled the polluting practices of large-scale farming taking place in its own backyard. After years of frustration and futility, an impassioned cadre of local residents, led by a team of intrepid and dedicated lawyers, filed a lawsuit against one of the world's most powerful companies — and, miraculously, they won.” The nonfiction account includes Steve Wing’s efforts as “a groundbreaking epidemiologist whose work on the health effects of hog waste exposure translates the neighbors' stories into the argot of science.”
   
• Danielle Zoe Rivera, Assistant Professor of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning at the University of California Berkeley, “Policy Barriers to Promoting Active Living in South Texas Colonias”, April 1, 2022.
  This talk will discuss the policy barriers when planning for and designing open spaces in low-income South Texan communities known locally as "colonias." Over the decades, infrastructural improvements have slowly been made to bring water, electricity, and wastewater management to these communities; however, major barriers persist for the creation of open spaces, with significant consequences for environmental planning writ-large in these communities. Here, these barriers are examined against wider concerns regarding rural planning, particularly when seeking parity in access to environmental planning.
   
• Jill Johnson, Assistant Professor of Preventive Medicine at the University of Southern California, “Collaborating with Communities for Environmental Justice”, April 15, 2021.
  Dr. Johnson will present past and current research and action to promote environmental justice, drawing from her experience collaborating with communities in Texas, California, and North Carolina on topics including chlorinated solvents, emerging contaminants in land-applied sewage sludge, and industrial animal operations. Her talk will focus on community-based research on urban oil drilling in Los Angeles. Dr. Johnston's interest in environmental justice research emerged from years spent as a community organizer in South Texas. She received her PhD in Environmental Sciences and Engineering from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in environmental epidemiology also at UNC. [Note: The Lecture was originally planned as an in-person event in April 2020 but deferred due to COVID-19.]
   
• Scott Laney, Epidemiologist with the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), “Resurgence of a disease of antiquity: the ongoing legacy of black lung disease in the United States”, April 4, 2019. Related media coverage: 'I Figured It Was Going To Be A Horrible Death, And It Probably Will Be', NPR, January 23, 2019 (8 min); Coal's Deadly Dust, PBS Frontline and NPR, January 22, 2019 (32 min)
   
• Christopher D. Heaney, PhD, MS, Assistant Professor Environmental Health & Engineering Epidemiology Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, “Power, special interests, and objectivity in science: The case for community-driven epidemiology to combat pollution profiteering”, March 23, 2017 ( ) ( )
   
• Sacoby M. Wilson, MS, PhD, Director, Community Engagement, Environmental Justice, and Health (CEEJH), Maryland Institute for Applied Environmental Health, School of Public Health University of Maryland-College Park, “Beyond Flint: Addressing Environmental Injustice and Health Disparities by Translating Community Engaged Research to Action”, April 18, 2016 (part 1) (part 2)
   

Sponsored by the Epidemiology & Justice Group and the Department of Epidemiology, UNC–Gillings School of Global Public Health.