Tishman Environment and Design Center hosted a special event, Centering Justice: A Conversation with Environmental Justice Leaders.

Our keynote speaker, Dr. Beverly Wright is the Founder and Executive Director of the Deep South Center for Environmental Justice, the first-ever environmental justice center in the United States. Dr Wright is a scholar, advocate, and author and is widely acknowledged as a pioneer in the EJ movement. She is currently a member of the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council. Learn more about Dr. Wright and the Deep South Center for Environmental Justice, https://www.dscej.org.

Following the keynote, Dr. Wright joined Dr. Jalonne L. White-Newsome for an empowering conversation, moderated by Dr. Ana Baptista, co-director of the Tishman Environment and Design Center.

Dr. Jalonne White-Newsome joined the Biden-Harris Administration in June 2022 as the Senior Director for Environmental Justice at the White House Council on Environmental Quality. Under her leadership, the Environmental Justice Team is working to deliver benefits for communities that need them most. Her team works to move forward President Biden’s ambitious environmental justice agenda, including implementing the recently signed Executive Order to Revitalize Our Nation’s Commitment to Environmental Justice for All, releasing the first-ever Environmental Justice Scorecard, advancing the Justice40 Initiative, and launching the White House Campaign for Environmental Justice. Dr. White-Newsome became the first-ever Federal Chief Environmental Justice Officer in 2023. Learn more about CEQ, https://www.whitehouse.gov/ceq.

The high-energy opening performance was by Batalá New York, the premier All-Women, Black-led Afro-Brazilian percussion ensemble, https://www.batalanewyork.org.