UMass Chan to start environmental justice program

Three women stand side-by-side outside university buildings. The woman on the left has blonde hair with bangs, wears black glasses, a black suit jacket, and navy top. The woman in the middle has curly brown hair, wears clear glasses, a burnt orange suit jacket, and white top. The woman on the right has long brown hair and wears black glasses, a grey cardigan, and black top.

Photo I Courtesy of UMass Chan Medical School (From left): Sarah Hutton, UMass Chan Lamar Soutter Library education and clinical services librarian; Kortni Wroten, sustainability and energy manager; and Lynn Hernandez, assistant vice chancellor for diversity and inclusion

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By Mica Kanner-Mascolo

UMass Chan Medical School in Worcester is developing an environmental justice program designed to implement climate action efforts on campus and create a sustainable resource guide.

The program, a collaborative effort of UMass Chan’s Office of Sustainability, the Diversity and Inclusion Office and its Lamar Soutter Library, aims to spread awareness of environmental justice as a social issue and emphasize its disproportionate effects on marginalized communities.

With roots dating back to the civil rights movement of the 1960s, the environmental justice movement gained national attention in 1982 when the residents of Warren County, North Carolina, protested the storing of 6,000 truckloads of toxic soil into the poor, rural, and mostly Black community, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council.

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“It’s usually marginalized communities taking the brunt of all environmental concerns. We hope the program and the forum we’ve created helps alert people about the impacts of environmental injustices on marginalized communities,” Lynn Hernández, UMass Chan assistant vice chancellor for diversity and inclusion, said in a Nov. 18 press release.

The program received a $7,500 grant through Second Nature, a Cambridge-based organization supporting climate action in higher education. UMass Chan plans to create a replicable framework for environmental justice advisory councils and a strategic curriculum pathway to expand the initiative throughout the UMass system’s five campuses.

“Our initial goal is really to make sure people know what environmental justice is, what the prevalent terms in discourse are. The resources we are creating are available to everyone and are really meant to be an introduction to environmental justice and how it impacts the surrounding community,” Sarah Hutton, Lamar Soutter Library education and clinical services librarian, said in the release.

The grant from Second Nature will fund the hiring of a part-time employee through the Office of Sustainability who will coordinate listening tours, raise awareness of the program and resource guide, and coordinate communication between campus and community stakeholders.

“We’re asking the person we hire to look for ways to engage the external community, and to try to solicit information and resources and ways to collaborate with local organizations. There’s an aspect of it that goes beyond the UMass Chan campus. We want it to really be collaborative and informed by the communities that we’re part of,” Kortni Wroten, UMass Chan sustainability and energy manager.

UMass Chan’s grant comes after Clark University received a $10-million donation from Trustee and Philanthropist Vickie Riccardo to establish a School of Climate, Environment, and Society.

Mica Kanner-Mascolo is a staff writer at Worcester Business Journal, who primarily covers the healthcare and diversity, equity, and inclusion industries.