The School for Environment and Sustainability honors the 30th Anniversary of the “Incidence of Environmental Hazards Conference,” which helped put environmental justice (EJ) on the national radar for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Building on the momentum of the 1990 conference, the University of Michigan soon became the first university to establish environmental justice as an academic field of study.

Looking forward, the Michigan Environmental Justice Summit 2020 will take lessons from the past and look towards the future. The event will highlight the challenges and opportunities now—and for the future—of environmental justice, and how YOU can make an impact and create a more equitable, inclusive future.

As part of U-M’s year-long series “Earth Day at 50,” the university is working with local and regional partners to catalyze a mass movement for climate and environmental justice. Now more than ever, justice must be at the center of today’s movement in order to bring about true transformative change.

Join us for a dynamic discussion with our panel of environmental justice game changers:

Michelle Martinez (MS ’08) SEAS alumna
Panel Moderator
Coordinator, Michigan Environmental Justice Coalition
Detroit-based EJ activist, speaker, writer, and mother

Robert Bullard
Known as the “Father of Environmental Justice”
Named one of 13 Environmental Leaders of the Century (Newsweek, 2008)

Rhiana Gunn-Wright
Policy Director, New Consensus
An architect of the Green New Deal

Charles Lee
Senior Policy Advisor, EPA
EJ pioneer and principal author of the landmark report, Toxic Wastes and Race in the United States

Regina Strong
Environmental Justice Public Advocate,
Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy

Sponsors: College of Literature, Science , and the Arts (Program in the Environment); School of Public Health (Environmental Health Sciences, Department of Health Behavior and Health Education); The Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy; Taubman College (Urban and Regional planning Program); Erb Institute; Office of the President; The Law School (Environmental Law & Policy Program)