Breaking Green Ceilings

Traveling from New Jersey to North Carolina, Frances was able to experience urban city living as well as life in a rural area surrounded by hog farms. Through that, she and her family remained tight knit as her mother inspired her from all angles. With the house matriarch as a teacher and enthusiastic environmentalist, Frances was able to get the support she needed to obtain a BA in Sociology & Anthropology, Environmental Studies & Science Minor, from Spelman College, and currently working on a PhD in Society & Environment at UC Berkeley.

With her degree, she has charged into the realm of scientific research in a noble effort to make positive material changes in peoples’ lives, particularly indigenous and communities of color who have been marginalized and silenced for centuries.

Frances’ current PhD dissertation focuses on Gulf Coast women of color’s climate justice activism and strategies to resist environmental racism while navigating contradictory relationships with energy and petrochemical industries. It is titled, “Post-Apocalyptic Environmental Politics: Women of Color, Climate Justice and State-Corporate Crime in Louisiana.”

Ethnography is a branch of anthropology and the systematic study of individual cultures. In contrast with ethnology, ethnography explores cultural phenomena from the point of view of the subject of the study. Described as community based research, or participatory action research, this is a feminist research method that focuses on non-invasive and minimal-extractive methods, empowering the community to be hands on and involved in every step of the process.

Frances’ life work is shaped by environmental justice geographies including Carolina hog and chicken farms, Jersey urban landscapes, and Louisiana petrochemical-plantation corridors. She currently lives and teaches on Indigenous land known as Bulbancha (i.e. New Orleans, Louisiana) that is historically home to the Chitimacha, Choctaw, Houma, Atakapa-Ishak and various other African and Creole Indigenous peoples, which is at high risk to experience adverse climate change effects.

Frances is incredibly inspirational and knowledgeable. From sharing the importance of mentorship and navigating imposter syndrome, to empowering everyday people to claim the title “activist”, to describing the different impacts of climate change for different people in varying locations, this week’s episode of Breaking Green Ceilings is going to leave you motivated and inspired to do your part.

Follow Frances Roberts-Gregory

1. Website
2. LinkedIn
3. Instagram

Related Resources

1. On Being the (Only) Black Feminist Environmental Ethnographer in Gulf Coast Louisiana
2. I do not drive in the South...And here’s why
3. Diversity and Environmental Grantmakers: A Summer Love Story

We're back! Here are some highlights:

• Video for season 2 and season 3 episodes are on our youtube page - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdv_elfXXh0fbb_s6QYLZHg
• Still sticking to an every other week schedule
• First episode comes out on July 6th so lookout!

Let's connect!:

• IG - @breaking_green_ceilings
• Website: breakinggreenceilings.com

Dr. Sri has a really interesting story about how he found himself on a path into environmental conservation and eventually water equity after starting as a construction engineer. When I reached out to Sri he was the leader of the water program at the Environmental Policy Innovation Center. Since then, he took a new and exciting opportunity at the Environmental Consulting & Technology, Inc., as the Director of Water Equity and Climate Resilience. Over the past several years, Sri’s work has addressed national water issues such as affordability, aging water infrastructure, extreme weather impacts, financing, and non-point source pollution.

In this episode, Dr. Sri talks about water equity challenges in the United States.

Episode Highlights

• In the US, we have almost two million people who do not have access to clean drinking water and indoor plumbing services. The majority of them are indigenous communities and communities of color.
• In its simplest form, water equity means that everyone has access to safe, reliable, and affordable water services. But sometimes, what is safe and reliable is not affordable, or what is reliable and affordable is not safe.
• There are many forms of water inequity in the US - accidents, contamination with water pollutants, too expensive water for low-income community, or mistrust toward the public service.
• Inequities in communities of color include housing issues, capitalistic ways of doing things, some version of private industry, or lobbying.
• We try to work with EPA because certain things have to be done at the federal level.
• Water infrastructure investments. Smaller systems are more resource restricted, but they are also in most need of these funds.
• Six million people in the country do not drink tap water. In many cases these are unjustified fears of mistrust.
• There are certain uses for bottle water. But making that a predominant way of consumption is problematic because there is huge difference in the pricing of bottle water per unit of volume compared to tap water.

Contact information and other Resources:

Dr. Sridhar Vedachalam leads the water program at the Environmental Policy Innovation Center. His work has addressed national water issues such as affordability, aging infrastructure, extreme weather impacts, financing, and non-point source pollution. He currently serves on the advisory board for Water Hub and is a member of the Source Water Initiative led by the Great Lakes Commission and the Water Equity Task Force led by Virginia Health Catalyst. Dr. Vedachalam is also the Editor for Urban Water at the Global Water Forum, a resource for evidence-based, accessible, and open-access articles on freshwater governance. He brings water policy experience from his years in academia, government, and the non-profit sector. He holds a Ph.D. from The Ohio State University.

Breaking Green Ceilings:

Website: https://www.breakinggreenceilings.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/breaking_green_ceilings/

Follow Dr. Sri Vedachlam:

Twitter: https://mobile.twitter.com/drvedachalam

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/srivedachalam/

In the second part of a two part series, we will continue talking about The Whale Child, a book written and illustrated by Indigenous authors Keith and Chenoa Egawa. Keith and Chenoa are siblings and enrolled members of the Lummi Indian Nation and of Japanese heritage.

This book is a reminder of why we are here, why I am here, and why I am doing this work and this podcast.

In the first part of the episode, we hear more about the role of magic in telling the story and about the inspiration for the book. In the second part of the episode, Keith and Chenoa talk about influences, habits, and advices that helped them in their work and life.

Magic is a part of life. It is also the potential that we all have that somehow gets limited through conditioning and socialization, especially in modern world. We are able to connect to that magic – if we wish to – through our dreams. It comes from the heart, not the mind. But now, we do not even know what the heart is saying any more.

We want you to remember you’re important; this is who you are. You can be what you want to be. But what is your goal? Is it to make money? And, is it to make money at the cost of life? It does not matter if you’re a good engineer; if your job is destructive, you’re destroying the Earth. It is important to bring this reality to our children now and prepare them to what is happening and what is going to happen.

Episode Highlights

• We have stories about whales and orcas. They’re akin. It is not just some kind of idea of magic, but these are parts of our wisdom and understanding over thousands of years.
• If you want to connect with your magic, you have to open something within yourself to remember what is already in you.
• We were inspired to write the story because we saw the power of the birth of our nephew, and what happened during that time.
• We want all children to remember that they are this precious and this sacred.
• And then the environmental message came too, because of where we are now. We thought of all our children and our nieces and nephew, thinking about all of them and wanting to have that hope for them. That’s how the story came about. It came from a dream that my sister had.
• There’s a change of jobs that needs to happen. There’s a change in our conciseness that needs to happen. If you’re doing a job, it needs to have some aspects of caring about the Earth, life, and healing.

Contact information and other Resources:

Keith Egawa is a graduate of the University of Washington’s Creative Writing program and author of the novel Madchild Running. Keith’s extensive work experience in the fields of Child and Family Services and Indian Education Reform has provided him with both inspiration and insight into his subject matter.

Chenoa Egawa holds a BA in International Business and Spanish from the University of Washington. In addition to being a writer, Chenoa is an activist for Indigenous communities and the environment, a ceremonial leader, medicine woman, singer, storyteller, and artist dedicated to bringing healing to our Mother Earth and people of all origins.

Breaking Green Ceilings:

Website: https://www.breakinggreenceilings.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/breaking_green_ceilings/

Follow Keith and Chenoa Egawa:

Instagram: The Whale Child

Facebook: The Whale Child

Website: http://www.swanclan.com/

E-mail: chenoa egawa

Penguin Random House: The Whale Child

Amazon: The Whale Child

Grace Anderson (she/her) is a network weaver, strategist, and dreamer working at the intersection of race, healing and the environment.

While working in the outdoor and environmental sector, she recognized a lack of people of color in that space, not only in leadership, but also in the program. Their stories have not been being told. She soon realized she did not want to spend her time educating white folks. Instead, she wanted to spend her time, resources and energy on people of color and their experiences, moving resources towards what they needed.

In this episode, we will hear about what made her become an independent environmental consultant, and what specific issues she is focused on. She shares her thoughts about DEI, volunteering, and philanthropy, among other things. Her insightful article about the problems related to DEI: “Is DEI work upholding the same systems it seeks to challenge?” is available on her web page.

Episode Highlights

• Nature has played two different roles in my life. Every time I’m outside, I am reminded how small I am in a big system of things and also how powerful I am in a big system of things.
• Now I see my work as just liberation and joy work. My focus has stayed the same; I’m just approaching it differently.
• We’ve been advocating for what we need for so long. And we know what we need. My goal now is to move resources toward that.
• Yes, I think DEI is tricky because it does provide some space, and there is a lot of education that needs to be done. I just think it is so out of balance.
• In 2020, after I left PGM ONE, I was granted a fellowship from the Pisces Foundation alongside Angela Mooney D’Arcy and we are creating a fellowship for folks of color in the environmental space.
• We are creating a framework and infrastructure to have a long-standing fellowship, specifically focused on black and indigenous folks, who need resources and time to create. Another part of it, is acquiring land for people to retreat and rest on.
• I’m genuinely curious and genuinely care about people outside of the work that I do.
• I often volunteer on the scholarship committee because I can see the benefit of other people.
• I would like to distinguish between the people with the money – philanthropist behind the foundation and the people working in that foundation.
• Too often, we look at philanthropy as a solution, and it’s not. People who have the money need to acknowledge where the money came from. No one gets that much money without extraction and exploitation, like slavery and child labor.

Contact information and other Resources:

Grace Anderson (she/her) is a network weaver, strategist, and dreamer working at the intersection of race, healing, and the environment. She is committed to building the capacity of people of color in the environmental space by moving resources toward their dreams and creating structural programming to support their growth.

With over a decade of experience in the outdoor and environmental sector, Grace has worked in several different capacities to uplift and center Black, Indigenous, and People of Color. At People of the Global Majority in the Outdoors, Nature, and Environment (PGM ONE), Grace co-directed the largest gathering of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color who work in connection with the land. Her time in this role significantly deepened her commitment to building and sustaining the networks, dreams, and joy of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color.

Breaking Green Ceilings:

Website: https://www.breakinggreenceilings.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/breaking_green_ceilings/

Follow Grace:

Website: https://www.graceanderson.co/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/amaze_me_grace/