Environmental & Social Justice

Sara Mersha (2010) is the Director of Grantmaking and Advocacy for Grassroots International. Born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Sara worked for 12 years as Lead Organizer and then Executive Director of Direct Action for Rights and Equality (DARE), a grassroots group serving low-income communities of color in Providence, RI. After serving as Visiting Faculty in the Ethnic Studies Department of Brown University, she began a master's degree at Brown's Center for Environmental Studies.

"I was excited about the idea of creating a project with people in my own state," she said. She approached Ethan Mitchell and Susannah McCandless, an Addison County couple that she knew offered help to the local farm-worker community, and through them met some of the region's Mexican laborers. Read the full story

When he became chief, many people wondered whether Mr. Cook, a skilled manager of Apple's operations, could ever rival the visionary influence of Mr. Jobs on Apple products. Instead, it appears Mr. Cook could make his earliest and most significant mark by changing how Apple's products are made. ''I want to give credit to Tim Cook for this,'' said Dara O'Rourke, associate professor of environmental and labor policy at the University of California, Berkeley. ''He's admitting they've got problems.''

Associate Professor Rachel Morello-Frosch M.P.H. '93, expert in environmental health and justice, has been honored with a 2012 Chancellor's Award for Public Service, in the area of Research in the Public Interest. She was selected for her high-level, rigorous research that contributes to the public good, her outstanding commitment to empowering underserved communities and building community partnerships, and her dedication to educating the next generation of scholars. Read the full story

As a doctoral student at UC Santa Cruz studying the impact of the North American Free Trade Agreement, Ann Lopez was touched by the struggles of migrant workers and the relatives they left behind in Mexico. In response, she founded the Center for Farmworker Families in 2008 to provide education and economic assistance and advocacy. But the Felton resident and San Jose City College environmental science professor knew little about the business of operating a nonprofit so she turned to the International Humanities Center for help in handling donations and accounting services.

Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition (SVTC) representative Dustin Mulvaney, an Assistant Professor at San Jose State University, works with SVTC to see that materials in computers and solar panels are safely handled and recycled. Mulvaney said First Solar is required to handle PV modules in a way that minimizes any accidental cadmium leakage at other sites. Most likely, he added, the biggest occupational hazard First Solar has encountered on the AVSR1 site is “workers being cut by broken glass.”

After compiling data from 21 Silicon Valley companies, Wilson and his co-authors Heather Madison and Steven Healy discovered that 57 percent of the companies surveyed did not have a confined space safety plan in place other than to call the fire department. As a result, the companies resort to calling 911 in the case of any confined space emergency. “The employers need to take responsibility for having a way to rescue their employees in the event of a confined space emergency before the firefighters arrive,” Wilson said.

“By next September and October there will be 22 new community gardens, school gardens and library gardens because of this work,” said Hugh Hogan, executive director of the North Star Fund, which helps allocate the grants to nonprofit groups. “Only 2% of this area is green open space.” Read the full article