Alumni Featured in Environmental Justice Symposium

Edwardo L. Rhodes, Ph.D. 1978, professor of public and environmental affairs at Indiana University and Kent Benjamin, MSPPM 1990, partnership team leader for Innovation, Partnerships and Communication with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency are among the featured speakers for the “The Problem of Environmental Justice,” weekend symposium, Friday, March 30 through Sunday, April 1, 2007.  The symposium will explore how corporate and governmental environmental policies disproportionately impact minority and disadvantaged communities.

The symposium features speakers from government, academia and the nonprofit community who will address topics including global warming, Brownfield redevelopment and emerging technologies —subjects all tied to the theme of environmental justice. In 1994, President Clinton signed an executive order that required federal policy to address environmental justice in minority and low-income populations, and mandated that federal policies and programs could not disproportionately harm those communities.

The event is sponsored by Carnegie Mellon’s Steinbrenner Institute for Environmental Education and Research.  Details, as well as profiles of Rhodes and Benjamin, are available at http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/course/99-521/index.html.  Kent Benjamin serves as President of the Heinz School’s Alumni Association Board.