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 Dr. Beverly Wright is a professor of Sociology and the founding director of the Deep South Center for Environmental Justice (DSCEJ). For more than a decade, she has been a leading scholar, advocate, and activist in the environmental justice arena. She has created a unique center formerly at Xavier University currently at Dillard University in New Orleans, Louisiana. The DSCEJ is one of the few community/university partnerships that addresses environmental and health inequities in the Lower Mississippi River Industrial Corridor, the area commonly referred to as Cancer Alley.
Dr. Wright provided valuable input into President Clinton's Environmental Justice Transition paper. For her work, she was called to the White House on February 11, 1994, to witness the signing of the Executive Order on Environmental Justice. On April 12, 1994, she was named to the EPA’s National Environmental Justice Advisory Council (NEJAC).
She served as chair of the Second National People of Color Leadership Summit and is the co-chair of the Environmental Justice Climate Change Initiative. Dr. Wright was awarded the Distinguished Alumni Award from State University of New York at Buffalo, Buffalo, New York. She was recently awarded the “Robert Wood Johnson” community health leadership award. She continues to serve as a strong voice of the grassroots environmental justice movement.
Dr. Wright has conducted groundbreaking and significant research in the area of environmental justice and developed a curriculum for use at the elementary school level that is used by the New Orleans Public Schools. She manages Hazardous Waste Worker Training Programs the embrace a work-based curriculum and a holistic approach to learning for young men and women living near Superfund and Brownfield sites resulting in their employment.
On January 11, 1995, Dr. Wright was appointed to the Corps of Engineers’ Environmental Advisory Board and served on the City of New Orleans/Mayor’s Office Environmental Affairs’ Brownfields Consortium. She presently serves on the U.S. Commission of Civil Rights for the State of Louisiana and the city of New Orleans’ Select Committee for the Sewerage and Water Board. She served as Chair of the Second National People of Color Leadership Summit and is the Co-Chair of the Environmental Justice Climate Change initiative. Dr Wright continues to serve as a strong voice of the grassroots environmental justice movement.
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Last updated May 23, 2007
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