Invited Speakers: Reducing Occupational Injustices as we Reduce Environmental Ones

Matthew Tejada – Director, EPA Office of Environmental Justice

El’Gin Avila – Director of OEH and Equity, BlueGreen Alliance

Donele Wilkins – CEO Green door Initiative

Jon Levy – Professor and Chair of EHS, Boston University

Neil Hawkins– President, Erb Family Foundation

Invited Speakers: Occupational and Environmental Justice work across our ERCs

Kermit Davis, PhD, CPE– Professor of EOHS, University of Cincinnati ERC

Susan Buchanan– Clinical Assoc Professor of EOHS, University of Illinois-Chicago ERC

Adam Finkel– Clinical Professor of EHS, University of Michigan ERC

AM Panel Invited Speaker: Videos 

AM Panel ERC Invited Speaker: Videos 

Occupational and Environmental Justice work across our ERCs

PM Workshop: Video

Interdisciplinary group discussion to address symposium objectives:
”Ignite”- Style Presentations

Description of the workshop: The goal of this workshop was to provide an educational and interesting interactive experience to all symposium participants, and to further the discussion on concepts related to occupational and environmental justice. Participants had opportunities to interact in small working groups that were pre-assigned to maximize cross-ERC interactions as well as interdisciplinary perspectives. Working groups discussed their assigned topics, during which they created a short (5-minute, ~5 slides) “Ignite”-style talk that 1-2 members from each group presented to all participants.

Definitions to consider:
Environmental Justice (EJ): The US Environmental Protection Agency has a working definition of EJ: “Environmental justice is the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income, with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies.”

Occupational Justice (OJ): A widely-accepted definition of OJ has not been offered in the national discussion of occupational health and safety, and is badly needed. A central question is whether these two scopes of justice are separate (i.e., competing for fixed resources) or complementary.

Workshop groups and topics: Each symposium participant was be pre-assigned to one of eight groups, each of which will have a different focus.

Six of the groups focused on OJ in specific industry sectors: (1) Construction (e.g., residential, commercial, civil, etc.) (2) Informal/gig economy or freelance work (e.g., day labor, rideshare drivers, food delivery, etc.) (3) Health care workers (e.g., physicians, nurses, technicians, home health care, etc.) (4) Agriculture (e.g., farming, forestry, fishing, and hunting) (5) Manufacturing (e.g., textiles, metal, petroleum, electronics, etc.) (6) Service (e.g., restaurants, leisure and hospitality, retail, transportation, etc.)

The remaining two groups focused on education-related OJ issues: (7) training future OJ leaders (8) Integrating EJ and OJ in academia and policy