Bradford Seminar: “The State of Environmental Justice: Challenges and Opportunities”
Peggy Shepard, executive director of WE ACT for environmental justice, will present “The State of Environmental Justice: Challenges and Opportunities.” This seminar will be held in-person (PUID holders only) and available via livestream (open to all).
Shepard is co-founder and executive director of WE ACT for Environmental Justice and has a long history of organizing and engaging Northern Manhattan residents in community-based planning and campaigns to address environmental protection and environmental health policy locally and nationally. She has successfully combined grassroots organizing, environmental advocacy, and environmental health community-based participatory research to become a national leader in advancing environmental policy and the perspective of environmental justice in urban communities — to ensure that the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment extends to all. She served as the first co-chair of the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council and was the first female chair of the National Environmental Justice Advisory Council to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. She currently serves as chair of the New York City Environmental Justice Advisory Board as well as on the Executive Committee of the National Black Environmental Justice Network and the Board of Advisors of the Columbia Mailman School of Public Health. Her work has received broad recognition: the Jane Jacobs Medal from the Rockefeller Foundation for Lifetime Achievement, the 10th Annual Heinz Award For the Environment, the William K. Reilly Award for Environmental Leadership, the Knight of the National Order of Merit from the French Republic, the Damu Smith Power of One Award, the Spirit of John Brown Freedom Award, the Dean’s Distinguished Service Award from the Columbia Mailman School of Public Health, and Honorary Doctorates from Smith College and Lawrence University.
This seminar will discuss the challenges which the Environmental Justice movement faces from the attacks on equity, federal and state rollbacks and the loss of federal funding emphasizing the opportunities to create a stronger and smarter environmental justice movement , marking wins at the city and state levels and the possibility created by a new Congress and Administration for greater equity.
This event is part of the David Bradford Energy and Environmental Policy Seminar Series organized by the Center for Policy Research on Energy and the Environment (C-PREE) in the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs and co-sponsored by the High Meadows Environmental Institute (HMEI).
- This event has passed.
Bradford Seminar: “The State of Environmental Justice: Challenges and Opportunities”
Mon, Oct 5, 2026 ・ 12:15 PM - 1:15 PM
300 Wallace Hall; Online via Media Central Live
Peggy Shepard, executive director of WE ACT for environmental justice, will present “The State of Environmental Justice: Challenges and Opportunities.” This seminar will be held in-person (PUID holders only) and available via livestream (open to all).
Shepard is co-founder and executive director of WE ACT for Environmental Justice and has a long history of organizing and engaging Northern Manhattan residents in community-based planning and campaigns to address environmental protection and environmental health policy locally and nationally. She has successfully combined grassroots organizing, environmental advocacy, and environmental health community-based participatory research to become a national leader in advancing environmental policy and the perspective of environmental justice in urban communities — to ensure that the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment extends to all. She served as the first co-chair of the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council and was the first female chair of the National Environmental Justice Advisory Council to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. She currently serves as chair of the New York City Environmental Justice Advisory Board as well as on the Executive Committee of the National Black Environmental Justice Network and the Board of Advisors of the Columbia Mailman School of Public Health. Her work has received broad recognition: the Jane Jacobs Medal from the Rockefeller Foundation for Lifetime Achievement, the 10th Annual Heinz Award For the Environment, the William K. Reilly Award for Environmental Leadership, the Knight of the National Order of Merit from the French Republic, the Damu Smith Power of One Award, the Spirit of John Brown Freedom Award, the Dean’s Distinguished Service Award from the Columbia Mailman School of Public Health, and Honorary Doctorates from Smith College and Lawrence University.
This seminar will discuss the challenges which the Environmental Justice movement faces from the attacks on equity, federal and state rollbacks and the loss of federal funding emphasizing the opportunities to create a stronger and smarter environmental justice movement , marking wins at the city and state levels and the possibility created by a new Congress and Administration for greater equity.
This event is part of the David Bradford Energy and Environmental Policy Seminar Series organized by the Center for Policy Research on Energy and the Environment (C-PREE) in the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs and co-sponsored by the High Meadows Environmental Institute (HMEI).
