Elizabeth Yeampierre

Last updated

Elizabeth Yeampierre
Bornc. 1958
New York City
Nationality Puerto Rican
Education
OccupationAttorney
Known forExecutive director of UPROSE

Elizabeth C. Yeampierre is a Puerto Rican attorney and environmental and climate justice leader. She is the executive director of UPROSE, Brooklyn's oldest Latino community-based organization.

Contents

Early life and education

Yeampierre was born in New York City; growing up, her family lived in multiple different neighborhoods, including Manhattan's Upper West Side, Harlem, and the Bronx. [1] Yeampierre recounts being raised in an "environmental justice community" and the impact it had on the health of her family: her father died from an asthma attack, her mother passed away from lung cancer, and Yeampierre herself suffered a pulmonary embolism. She cites a woman in her community checking on her children as they slept to ensure they were still breathing: "And I realized that, if we couldn’t breathe, we couldn’t fight for justice, that, literally, there wasn’t anything more fundamental than the right to breathe." [2]

In 1980, Yeampierre graduated from Fordham University with a BA in political science. She earned her Juris Doctor from Northeastern University in 1983. [3]

Career

Yeampierre was the first Latina chair of the EPA's National Environmental Justice Advisory Council. [4] In 2014, she helped lead the People's Climate March which took place in New York City. [1]

She founded the NYC Climate Justice Youth Summit to help "young people of color understand the overlap between racial justice and climate change". [5] She has also served as the dean of Puerto Rican student affairs at Yale University. [6]

Yeampierre is currently the executive director of UPROSE, Brooklyn's oldest Latino community-based organization. [7] In 2012, Hurricane Sandy caused extreme flooding in Sunset Park. In response, UPROSE began a community effort to prepare the area for the next disaster caused by the effects of climate change. In 2015, the New York City Economic Development Corporation started accepting proposals on how to develop empty space within the Sunset Park waterfront. [8] Yeampierre was successful in pushing back against proposed commercial development, driven by concern that "her community could be left behind". The plan put forth by Yeampierre and UPROSE "will incentivize the local economy while putting [the community] on a path to resilience". [5]

Climate justice advocacy

That is the history of extraction, of Puerto Rico being the oldest colony in the world, and the fact that things can be done in places where our people live that you can't do in other places. The fact that 23 Superfunds can be on this tiny, tiny, tiny island tells the story of extraction, abuse, toxic exposure, and how corporate American has treated disenfranchised communities.

Elizabeth Yeampierre [9]

PBS describes Yeampierre as a climate justice leader. [2] Yeampierre cites Puerto Rico as the "poster child for climate injustice". [7] She points to the flooding caused by Hurricane Maria in 2017, which disrupted multiple Superfund sites on the island, leading to contamination in the water, soil, and air. [9] Yeampierre criticizes the practice of "disaster capitalism" and does not want corporations and organizations to follow a "come in and fix" approach; instead, she looks to the climate justice movement to provide "support that builds food sovereignty and systems that promote local, livable economies". UPROSE has helped to raise upwards of $800,000 for Puerto Rico, and has also provided solar-powered generators, water filters, and other equipment suitable for handling hazardous materials. [7] In a talk given at UCLA in 2022, Yeampierre stressed that individual communities around the country are bearing the brunt of climate change, and they need to organize as a matter of survival. [10]

Awards and honors

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pomona, California</span> City in California, United States

Pomona is a city in eastern Los Angeles County, California, United States. Pomona is located in the Pomona Valley, between the Inland Empire and the San Gabriel Valley. At the 2020 census, the city's population was 151,713. The main campus of California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, also known as Cal Poly Pomona, lies partially within Pomona's city limits, with the rest being located in the neighboring unincorporated community of Ramona.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">California State Polytechnic University, Pomona</span> Public university in Pomona, California

California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, is a public polytechnic university in Pomona, California. It is the largest of the three polytechnic universities in the California State University system.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nydia Velázquez</span> American politician (born 1953)

Nydia Margarita Velázquez Serrano is an American politician serving in the United States House of Representatives since 1993. A Democrat from New York, Velázquez chaired the Congressional Hispanic Caucus until January 3, 2011. Her district, in New York City, was numbered the 12th district from 1993 to 2013 and has been numbered the 7th district since 2013. Velázquez is the first Puerto Rican woman to serve in the United States Congress.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lois Gibbs</span> American activist

Lois Marie Gibbs is an American environmental activist. As a primary organizer of the Love Canal Homeowners Association, Lois Gibbs brought wide public attention to the environmental crisis in Love Canal. Her actions resulted in the evacuation of over 800 families. She founded the non-profit Clearinghouse for Hazardous Waste in 1981 to help train and support local activists with their environmental work. She continues to work with the organization, renamed the Center for Health, Environment, and Justice (CHEJ).

Environmental justice or eco-justice, is a social movement to address environmental injustice, which occurs when poor or marginalized communities are harmed by hazardous waste, resource extraction, and other land uses from which they do not benefit. The movement has generated hundreds of studies showing that exposure to environmental harm is inequitably distributed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lisette Nieves</span> Puerto Rican businesswoman

Lisette Nieves is an American academic, non-profit leader, and public official. She is the president of the Fund for the City of New York and a Distinguished Clinical Instructor with New York University. In July 2022, she became a U.S. Senate-confirmed member of the board of directors of AmeriCorps.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jenniffer González-Colón</span> Puerto Rican politician and 2024 New Progressive nominee for Governor of Puerto Rico (born 1976)

Jenniffer Aydin González Colón is a Puerto Rican politician who serves as the 20th Resident Commissioner of Puerto Rico. González has served in leadership positions in the New Progressive Party of Puerto Rico (PNP) and in the Republican Party of the United States. These positions included being the chairwoman of the Puerto Rico Republican Party, speaker and minority leader of the House of Representatives of Puerto Rico, and vice-chair of the PNP. González is the youngest person to be Resident Commissioner and the first woman to hold the role.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Helen Rodríguez Trías</span> American pediatrician and activist (1929–2001)

Helen Rodríguez Trías was an American pediatrician, educator and women's rights activist. She was the first Latina president of the American Public Health Association (APHA), a founding member of the Women's Caucus of the APHA, and a recipient of the Presidential Citizens Medal. She is credited with helping to expand the range of public health services for women and children in minority and low-income populations around the world.

Carmen Hilda Valentín Pérez is a former member of the FALN, an armed clandestine group which fought for Puerto Rican independence from the United States during the 1970s and 1980s. She was arrested and charged in 1980 for seditious conspiracy and other charges and was sentenced on February 18, 1981, to 90 years imprisonment. She was incarcerated in a U.S. federal prison and released early from prison after President Bill Clinton extended a clemency offer to her on September 7, 1999.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cathy Bissoon</span> American judge (born 1968)

Cathy Bissoon is a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania. Previously, she was a United States magistrate judge of the same court. She was appointed a district judge by President Barack Obama and was confirmed by the United States Senate in October 2011.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carmen Pola</span> American politician and activist

Carmen Pola is a long-time Puerto Rican politician and community activist in Boston, Massachusetts. She was the first Latina to run for statewide office and the first Director of the Office of Constituent Services, a citywide office formed under Mayor Raymond Flynn.

Maritza Davila is an American politician from the state of New York. A member of the Democratic Party, she represents the 53rd district in the New York State Assembly.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edgardo Miranda-Rodriguez</span> Nuyorican writer and artist

Edgardo Miranda-Rodriguez is a writer at Marvel Entertainment, Editor-in-Chief at Darryl Makes Comics LLC, Art Director/Owner at Somos Arte and Studio Edgardo creative services, and creator of La Borinqueña, an original comic book character that has grown into a cultural phenomenon and a nationally recognized symbol of Puerto Rican patriotism, social justice, and equality.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Miranda Massie</span>

Miranda Massie is an American lawyer who is the founder and director of the Climate Museum, the first museum in the US dedicated to climate change.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">El Puente (coalition)</span>

El Puente is a non-profit arts and social justice organization located in the communities of Williamsburg and Greenpoint, Brooklyn, New York. El Puente was founded in 1982 by the late Luis Garden Acosta and co-founded with Eugenio Maldonado, and Dr. Frances Lacerna. Garden Acosta's mission was to stop the epidemic of violence stemming from youth gang/drug activity and street violence. El Puente's initiatives focus on fighting for a wide variety of social justice issues, including racial, environmental, immigration, educational, economic, housing justice, and more. As a renowned Latinx art's and cultural institution, El Puente does most of its activism through various visual and performative art forms.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ayana Elizabeth Johnson</span> Marine biologist, policy expert (born 1980)

Ayana Elizabeth Johnson is a marine biologist, policy expert, and conservation strategist. She is the co-founder of Urban Ocean Lab, a think tank for ocean-climate policy in coastal cities, and the Roux Distinguished Scholar at Bowdoin College.

Encarnación Padilla de Armas was a community leader, organizer, and advocate for the Spanish speaking community in Mexico, Puerto Rico, and the United States. She is also considered to be the "first Latina to achieve national leadership" in the Catholic Church.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michelle Soto</span> American poet

Michelle Soto is a poet, educator, and community organizer in New York City.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marquita Bradshaw</span> American environmentalist and political candidate (born 1974)

Marquita Bradshaw is an American environmentalist, activist, and former political candidate. She was the Democratic nominee in the 2020 United States Senate election in Tennessee, the first African American woman to win a major political party nomination in any statewide race in Tennessee. She lost the general election to Republican Bill Hagerty. She is now the executive director of the environmental and political organization Sowing Justice.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alexa Avilés</span> American politician

Alexa Avilés is an American politician, community activist, and non-profit manager from New York City. She is a member of the New York City Council for the 38th district, which covers Sunset Park along Brooklyn's western shoreline, also covering Red Hook, Greenwood Heights, and small parts of Windsor Terrace, Dyker Heights, and Borough Park neighborhoods in western Brooklyn.

References

  1. 1 2 Kaufman, Adam (April 18, 2023). "'The Environment Is Everything': A Conversation with Climate Justice Leader Elizabeth Yeampierre". Fordham University . Retrieved April 25, 2024.
  2. 1 2 Woodruff, Judy (November 29, 2022). "Elizabeth Yeampierre: Attorney, Climate Justice Leader, Executive Director at UPROSE". PBS . Retrieved April 25, 2024.
  3. ↑ "Elizabeth Yeampierre". University of Texas at Austin . Retrieved April 26, 2024.
  4. ↑ Glodowski, Amanda (July 3, 2013). "Star of Brooklyn: Elizabeth Yeampierre". Brooklyn Reporter. Retrieved April 26, 2024.
  5. 1 2 Burch, Kelly (January 13, 2024). "Meet the female force who halted a major development project to preserve her working-class neighborhood and make it a leader in clean energy". Business Insider . Retrieved April 26, 2024.
  6. ↑ Schulman, Pansy (June 2022). "Perspectives on Climate Justice: Elizabeth Yeampierre". Architectural Record . Retrieved April 28, 2024.
  7. 1 2 3 Dennehy, Kevin (November 8, 2017). "Climate action requires 'local brilliance,' Yeampierre tells YESS summit". Yale University . Retrieved April 28, 2024.
  8. ↑ Gallucci, Maria (October 13, 2022). "A Brooklyn neighborhood's long fight for green jobs is paying off". CanaryMedia.com. Retrieved April 27, 2024.
  9. 1 2 Plough, Alonzo L., ed. (March 10, 2020). Culture of Health in Practice: Innovations in Research, Community Engagement, and Action. Oxford University Press. p. 160. ISBN   9780190071424.
  10. ↑ Braswell, Mary (May 6, 2022). "In the Fight for Climate Justice, Let the People Lead". University of California, Los Angeles . Retrieved April 28, 2024.
  11. ↑ Russell, Cameron (November 30, 2015). "Climate Warriors". Vogue . Retrieved April 27, 2024.
  12. 1 2 "2023 Dale Prize Environmental Justice: Planning Lessons from the Past and Present to Move Forward". Cal Poly Pomona College of Environmental Design . February 28, 2023. Retrieved April 27, 2024.
  13. ↑ "100 Most Influential People in Climate Policy 2022/23". apolitical.co. 2022. Retrieved April 27, 2024.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.