Environmental & Social Justice

Foundation News

Webinar: Water Quality and Environmental Justice in the Central Valley

The Switzer Foundation seeks to protect, improve, and sustain our natural environment for the well-being of people and the planet. We have provided funding to 2009 Fellow Carolina Balazs for her ongoing work on historical inequalities in distribution of clean water to disadvantaged communities in California's agricultural Central Valley. Watch our recent webinar with Carolina, and read more about how her work has expanded recently to strengthen engagement between California’s Integrated Regional Water Management (IRWM) and communities facing environmental injustices.
November 19, 2014
Network Innovation Grant Grant

Environmental Justice and Water Management in California

Dr. Carolina Balazs, Post-doctoral researcher at UC Davis, and Mike Antos, Program Director for the Council for Watershed Health in Los Angeles, are involved in California's Integrated Regional Water Management (IRWM) program. This program...
October 23, 2014
Fellow Story

Osha named one of "West Virginia's Wonder Women"

Appalachian women have always been strong figures. These women bring that mountain spirit to everything from technology and manufacturing to activism and law, in every part of the state. West Virginia Focus celebrates them—and expresses Great Expectations for their up-and-coming sisters. ...
October 6, 2014
Fellow Story

Balazs on origins and persistence of drinking water disparities

From the American Journal of Public Health: The Drinking Water Disparities Framework: On the Origins and Persistence of Inequities in Exposure Carolina L. Balazs, PhD, and Isha Ray, PhDAt the time of research, both authors were with Energy and Resources Group, University of California, Berkeley. Contributors
September 24, 2014
Fellow Story

Living in a Toxic Environment

Why is Isella Ramirez’s environmental justice work so personal? She grew up in Commerce and, while she expresses her love for her community, she also knows first-hand what it is like living in a toxic environment. Situated in the midst of a major transportation hub, Isella, her 6-year old niece Citlalih, and neighbors are surrounded by the busy l-710 freeway that accommodates up to 260,000 cars and over 40,000 diesel trucks on a daily basis, rail yards, and blocks and blocks of industries reliant on the freeways and rail yards.
July 30, 2014
Fellow

Rachel Golden

2014 Fellow
Rachel Golden is pursuing a Master of Public Policy degree from the Goldman School of Public Policy and a Master of Art degree from the Energy and Resources Group at UC Berkeley. Through an interdisciplinary approach, Rachel studies how...
Fellow

Shrayas Jatkar

2014 Fellow
Shrayas joined the Equity, Climate, and Jobs team at the California Workforce Development Board in November 2017. His work includes overseeing a major study to the state legislature about economic and workforce development issues linked to...
Fellow

Sarah Lupberger

2014 Fellow
Sarah Lupberger is an expert in locally-led and nature-based solutions, and has worked deeply on climate change, deforestation, sustainable agriculture, landscape management, and environmental governance. She has an MESc from the Yale School of the Environment.
Fellow

Lara Cushing

2014 Fellow
Lara Cushing is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Health Education at San Francisco State University. Her research examines social inequalities in environmental exposures and the combined impacts of environmental exposures and...
Fellow Story

Balazs receives achievement award for diversity and community

The 2014 Chancellor’s Achievement Awards for Diversity and Community have been presented in the categories of Academic Senate and Academic Federation, staff, undergraduate and graduate student, community member — and in a new category, post-doctoral scholar. ...
March 26, 2014