[Communications] MWRD Commissioner Du Buclet Special Black History Month Edition #4

Fri Feb 26 15:59:31 CST 2021

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Lisa Jackson (1962 - Present)
Lisa Jackson made history in 2009 when she became the first African American to serve as the federal EPA Administrator. Jackson’s interest in environmental matters can be traced back the U.S. Love Canal Disaster in the mid-1970. While at the EPA, Jackson made it a priority to focus on vulnerable groups, including children, the elderly, and low-income communities, that are particularly susceptible to environmental and health threats.

Jackson led the EPA to expand its commitment to engaging with and listening to all stakeholders in the decision-making process. She has become the first EPA administrator to focus on reforming the Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976, which regulates the introduction of new or already existing chemicals.

After leaving the
EPA, in May 2013, Jackson joined Apple as their environmental director. At Apple, Lisa Jackson has move social justice to the top of the list for protecting the environment. Apple has a sustainability goal by 2030 of becoming carbon-neutral and achieving a net-zero impact in all operations. With Jackson at the lead, Apple has also embraced an outward-facing leadership role on its social impacts, with a $100 million investment to create a Racial and Equity Justice Initiative.
Shelton Johnson (1958 - Present)
Shelton Johnson, a native of Detroit, Michigan. He served in the Peace Corps in Liberia, West Africa. In 1987 Johnson began his career as a park ranger for the National Park Service.  He has worked in Yellowstone, Washington, D.C., Great Basin, and for the last twenty years in Yosemite National Park.

Johnson is an advocate for bringing minorities to the National Parks and connecting them to the natural world. He claims that "one of the great losses to African culture from slavery was the loss of kinship with the earth". He dedicated his work to this issue when he found the history of Buffalo Soldiers, the African-American regiments of the historically segregated U.S. Army. Johnson is now known for his research and publications on the assignments of the 24^th Infantry Regiment and the 9^th Infantry Regiment to protect the new National Parks in California's Sierra Nevada.

In
2010 Ranger Johnson invited and hosted Oprah Winfrey on her first visit to Yosemite National Park.  This trip comprised two episodes of the final season of her talk show which was also broadcast in over 150 countries. The latter effort was made in order to encourage African Americans to claim their inheritance as owners of our national parks.
Will Allen (1945 - Present)

Will Allen is the son of a sharecropper, former professional basketball player, ex-corporate sales leader and now farmer. The founder and CEO of Growing Power, Inc., he has become recognized as one of our preeminent thinkers on agriculture and food policy and is a leading authority in the expanding field of urban agriculture. What started as a simple partnership to change the landscape of the north side of Milwaukee has blossomed into a national and global commitment to sustainable food systems.

Allen promotes the belief that all people, regardless of their economic circumstances, should have access to fresh, safe, affordable and nutritious foods. Using methods he has developed over a lifetime, Allen specializes in bringing healthy food to under-served communities using a unique growing system he developed himself. He trains community members to become community farmers, assuring them a secure source of good food without regard to political or economic forces.

Growing Power’s expansion can be attributed, in part, to the MacArthur Genius Award that Allen received in 2008, and the half-million-dollar prize that came with it. Allen became a star, and his organization grew radically, from a staff of a dozen or so to 200 people. A widespread recruitment and mobilization of urban agriculture and environmental justice workers ensued. A decade later, many of those workers now lead their own urban farming enterprises.
Contact Information
Our mailing address is:

Metropolitan Water Reclamation District
Commissioner Kimberly Du Buclet
100 East Erie Street
Chicago, IL 60611

Phone Number
312-751-5086
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