11^th Annual Martin Luther King Jr. Diversity Awareness Week

Monday, January 17:  MLK Day of Service 

Environmental Justice Kick-off Keynote

This MLK Jr. Week kick-off keynote features Jacqueline Patterson, the Founder and Executive Director of the Chisholm Legacy Project: A Resource Hub for Black Frontline Climate Justice Leadership.   Most recently, Jacqueline Patterson, MSW, MPH, served for 11 years as the Senior Director of Environmental and Climate Justice at the NAACP. Patterson has worked on gender justice, racial justice, economic justice, and environmental justice, with organizations including Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, IMA World Health, United for a Fair Economy, ActionAid, Health GAP, and the organization she co-founded, Women of Color United.  She serves on the Boards of Directors for the Institute of the Black World, the American Society of Adaptation Professionals, Greenpeace, National Black Workers Center Project, Bill Anderson Fund and the Advisory Boards for the Center for Earth Ethics and the Hive Fund.

Abstract: The climate crisis is a threat multiplier for racial justice and racial injustice is a threat multiplier for the climate crisis. Though we increasingly see the effects of the climate crisis creeping across society, the most damning evidence is purposefully hidden in the neighborhoods, backyards, and bodies of Black people worldwide. Climate change cannot be combatted without addressing the issue of racial justice and civil rights. We can only honor and uphold Dr. Martin Luther King’s legacy by creating a society that is regenerative and cooperative, and thus protective of our earth and her inhabitants. Only then can we truly declare “liberty and justice for all.”

Environmental Justice and Public Health

This event features a presentation on the topic of environmental justice and public health by Ellen Wells, Associate Professor of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences in Purdue's College of Health and Human Sciences.  

Climate Justice Issues in the Midwest

Friday, January 21: Community Partnerships working towards Environmental Justice

This event will have a panel of local leaders from community centers explain their center and how it relates to health, education, and well being in cases in which resources are limited.  The panel will be moderated by Becca Nixon,  a post-doctoral research with Zhao Ma, a professor of natural resource social science in the Department of Forestry and Natural Resources.

Panel will include representatives from:

• Food Finders
• Grow Local Lafayette
• LTHC Homeless Services
• Hanna Community Center