Richard Moore is a senior adviser and special projects coordinator at the Southwest Network for Environmental and Economic Justice (SNEEJ). His talk is titled “Environmental Justice: Victories, Challenges and Future Possibilities.” He is a national leader within the environmental/economic justice movement with more than 40 years of experience as a community organizer.

During his long career, Moore has founded and worked in a variety of community-based organizations around such issues as welfare rights, police repression, street gang activity, drug abuse, low-cost health care access, child nutrition and the fight against racism, including the struggle for environmental and economic justice. He is a founding member SNEEJ, where he served as executive director for 19 years before becoming taking on his current role. SNEEJ is a bi-national organization comprised of more than 60 community-based organizations working in communities of color in six southwestern states and northern Mexico.

Moore is a frequent lecturer on environmental/economic justice issues, having given talks at Colorado State University at Colorado Springs, Howard University, Stanford University and University of Michigan, among others. He has co-authored many articles focused on the long struggle of communities of color fighting for justice.

In October 1991, his commitment to multiracial and multi-issue community organizing and his recognition of the interconnectedness of local, regional, national and international issues made him an important member of the planning committee for the First National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit. He later served as a chair of the National Environmental Justice Advisory Council to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. In addition, he served on the board of the Alston-Bannerman Fellowship Program from 1998 to 2002.

Moore has served as co-chair of the Congressional Black Caucus’ National Environmental Policy Commission, and on the planning committee of the inter-agency working group on environmental justice (EJ IWG). The group’s role is to guide, support and enhance federal environmental justice and community-based activities and identify projects where federal collaboration can support the development of healthy and sustainable communities.

Moore has traveled to many African, European, Asian and Latin American nations to conduct workshops and training sessions as well as to represent U.S. governmental and non-governmental organizations. In recognition of his lifelong work, he received the 1991 Alston-Bannerman Award, a prestigious acknowledgment of his efforts in community organizing. In 1995, he received the City of Albuquerque’s Human Rights Award for his commitment to human rights at the local, national and international level. In 1997, he received the Tides Foundation’s Jane Bagley Lehman Award for public policy for his significant contribution to environmental and social justice policy. And in 2005, he received the Leadership for a Changing World Award from the Ford Foundation for his continuing leadership on issues of environment and economic justice.

Of Puerto Rican descent, Moore has resided in New Mexico since 1966.