House Warming

House Warming Podcast, Episode 012: Building the Foundation for the Future City that We Need to Be with Maria Hadden, Alderwoman of the 49th Ward

In this episode, Sarah Bury talks with Alderwoman Maria Hadden about the environmental legislation she has supported, including an order to assess the cost of bringing back the Chicago Department of Environment.
Alderwoman Maria Hadden was born in Columbus, Ohio, and her parents Skip and Toni taught Maria two foundational lessons. 1) Be curious and ask questions. It’s important to understand how things work and why. 2) Problems that affect any of us, affect all of us. And that if you see something wrong and you’re able to help, you should do what you can to make it right. After graduating from The Ohio State University with a BA in International Peace and Conflict Studies, she moved to Chicago. She chose Rogers Park because of its affordability, welcoming community culture and proximity to the lake. A weekly regular at The Heartland Cafe, in Rogers Park, Maria found community.
Rogers Park was the first place Maria lived in Chicago, where she purchased her first home and where her activism blossomed. When the housing bubble burst in 2007, and the developer of her building fled the country, Maria helped organize her neighbors to save their homes. Maria has been organizing with the community ever since.
Maria has been a leader in the 49th Ward through her advocacy, her art, and her work with Participatory Budgeting in Chicago. She lives with her partner, Natalia, and their rescue dog. Maria is a photographer and artist who leads screenprinting workshops for young people. She took over The Art Patch Project from longtime Rogers Park activist Chris Drew and believes art is an important medium for activism and personal expression.
Before becoming Alderwoman, Maria Hadden was the Executive Director of Our City Our Voice, a national nonprofit organization she founded to enable communities and government across the country to redesign democracy for more empowered and equitable participation. Her expertise in public participation is grounded in grassroots organizing efforts for social change.
Before launching her own organization, Maria was a founding board member of The Participatory Budgeting Project, where she worked for 8 years with communities and government officials in the Midwest and South to create and facilitate democratic processes around public budgets. In this role, Maria has also worked with Aldermen throughout Chicago to design participatory budgeting processes around Aldermanic menu money, school budgets and TIF funds.
​Maria currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Black Youth Project (BYP) 100, and Voqal. BYP is an organization of activists aiming to create justice and freedom for all Black people through the principles of leadership development and inclusivity using Black, queer, feminist lens. Voqal is a nonprofit that uses technology and media to build an educated, empowered and engaged public. Maria also:

• Participated in a cohort on inclusive innovation in America’s Cities for The Aspen Institute where she worked to bridge the gap between innovation in cities and marginalized and underserved communities.
• Is an active member of the New Economy Coalition helping to create deep change in our economy and politics.
• Serves on the Social Capital Committee of the Cook County Commission on Social Innovation.
• Works on the local level with organizations fighting for progressive causes like Network 49 and United Working Families.

The Illinois Environmental Council 2021 City Council Scorecard can be found here: https://ilenviro.org/chicago-scorecard/

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House Warming Podcast, Episode 018: Lobbying for Change: The Veto Session Explained with Jen Walling, Executive Director of Illinois Environmental Council

In this episode, Sarah talks with Jen about the veto session, the lame duck session and her expectation for environmental legislation in those sessions.
Jen Walling has served as the Executive Director for the Illinois Environmental Council since January of 2011, where she oversees the strategic direction and management of the organization and lobbies decision makers on environmental issues. Jen is dedicated to building the power of Illinois’ environmental community to secure policy outcomes that protect the environment.

Over the last decade, Jen has worked to grow IEC staffing five fold, increase the budget and member affiliates, all with a focus on serving and representing IEC’s over 90 affiliated organizations. With the board of directors, Jen worked to secure IEC’s partnership with the League of Conservation Voters, a national organization which has helped IEC network and build on a national level.

Jen has drafted, negotiated, lobbied and passed hundreds of bills in Springfield while working to build the power, expertise and relationships of the entire environmental community. On energy issues, she worked to fix the renewable energy portfolio standards and increase energy efficiency through the Future Energy Jobs Act, and as a steering committee member of the Illinois Clean Jobs Coalition, she is working to pass the Clean Energy Jobs Act. Jen has been a statewide leader in composting policy since 2009, when she worked to pass the first commercial composting law in Illinois. She has fought to protect state parks and natural areas through increasing funding to the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, increasing recreation liability protections and funding stewardship through the Natural Areas Stewardship Act. Through Jen’s leadership, Illinois was the first state to ban microbeads in personal care products in 2013.

Jen holds a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She also received a juris doctorate from the University of Illinois College of Law and is an attorney licensed to practice law in Illinois.

Jen loves to spend her free time with her rescued standard poodle, Sally. She enjoys baking and in 2015, she and Rep. Kelly Cassidy baked fifty different blondie recipes during May in legislative session. She is a compost enthusiast and loves running, yoga and sewing.

The Illinois Environmental Council works to safeguard Illinois—its people, its plants and animals, and the natural systems on which all life depends.

Since our founding in 1975 by a group of dedicated grassroots environmentalists, IEC has led issue advocacy campaigns by allowing environmental organizations to pool their resources and create a higher profile for environmental issues.

Today, IEC represents more than 100 environmental and community organizations and nearly 500 individual members from throughout Illinois.
Website: https://ilenviro.org/
Facebook: @ilenviro
Twitter: @ilenviro
Instagram: @ilenviro
Youtube: @ilenviro

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This episode provides updates on podcast episode releases (every other Monday!) and an announcement describing the first three interviews of the season!

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House Warming Podcast, Episode 016: Allies in Environmental Justice: Frontline Communities and Anthropocene Alliance with Sheelah Bearfoot, Program Manager at Anthropocene Alliance

In this episode, Sarah talks with Sheelah about a grassroots efforts of communities to address environmental justice concerns in both the built and natural environments and how Anthropocene Alliance amplifies and facilitates their work.
Sheelah Bearfoot is a program manager at Anthropocene Alliance (A2) for communities in EPA regions 5,8,9, and 10 and for A2's Rights of Nature initiatives. She graduated with a degree in Genetics and Plant Biology from UC Berkeley in 2016. She's Chiricahua Apache, and worked at the Native American Health Center in SF for two years as a diabetes educator before starting a master's in Environmental Health Science at Hopkins, where she continued her focus on Indigenous health disparities. In her spare time, she loves reading scifi, hiking, and undermining colonialism.
On its website, Anthropocene Alliance describes itself thusly:
Anthropocene Alliance (A2) has 125 member-communities in 35 U.S. states and territories. They are impacted by flooding, toxic waste, wildfires, and drought and heat — all compounded by reckless development and climate change. The consequence is broken lives and a ravaged environment.
The goal of A2 is to help communities fight back. We do that by providing them organizing support, scientific and technical guidance, and better access to foundation and government funding. Most of all, our work consists of listening to our frontline leaders. Their experience, research, and solidarity guide everything we do, and offer a path toward environmental and social justice.
Supported by outstanding partner organizations with expertise in engineering, hydrology, public health, planning, and the law, A2 leaders have successfully halted developments in climate-vulnerable areas; implemented nature-based hazard mitigation strategies; organized home buyouts; and pushed for clean-ups at superfund sites, toxic landfills, and petrochemical plants.
We support everyone we can, but our special priority is people who have suffered the worst environmental impacts for the longest time; that usually means low-income, Black, Latinx, Native American and other underserved communities.
A2's website: https://anthropocenealliance.org/
Donate here: https://anthropocenealliance.org/donate/
During the episode, Sheelah refers to Citizens' Resistance at Fermi Two (CRAFT).
CRAFT's A2 page can be found here: https://anthropocenealliance.org/citizens-resistance-at-fermi-two/
CRAFT's own website can be found here: https://www.shutdownfermi.org/

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House Warming Podcast, Episode 019: Chicago Environmentalists and Cleanup Club Chicago with Katherine Tellock and Miranda Carrico, Co-Founders of Chicago Environmentalists and Cleanup Club Chicago.

In this episode, Sarah talks with Katherine and Miranda about founding their group Chicago Environmentalists and Cleanup Club Chicago.
Katherine Tellock is a citizen activist who wants to dedicate her life to fighting climate change. She strongly believes that an environmentally sustainable society is the best long-term economic and social decision, and is within reach for all people. Having grown up next to an EPA superfund site, she has always cared about the environment and been acutely aware of the impact of industrial pollution. However, she didn’t get heavily involved in environmental issues until spring 2020, when she started tackling litter through Friends of the Chicago River's Summer Challenge. She eventually started Chicago Environmentalists group with Miranda, as well as Cleanup Club Chicago. She took the CCC sustainability leadership training in 2021, and for her final assignment, she is running the Guerrilla Recycling Reporting (GRR) Project. It aims to hold property owners accountable for violating the recycling ordinance and change the way the policy is enforced. She also completed the Climate Reality Leadership Corps training, and wants to get more involved in environmental legislation.

She currently works as a Business and Brand Developer for Block Bins composting service, and has a bachelor's degree in Economics and Spanish from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She currently lives in Irving Park with her very sweet cockapoo. In her free time, she enjoys true crime, volleyball, and comedy shows.

Over the past ten years, Miranda Carrico has transitioned toward a "Zero Waste" lifestyle and has become very familiar with Chicago's sustainability scene; especially related to recycling and waste reduction. Miranda is passionate about educating individuals on actions they can take to lessen their environmental impact, as well as advocating for sustainable business practices and environmental legislation. She became more involved in Chicago’s larger environmental scene after teaming up with Katherine on the first Cleanup Club event. This led to brainstorming ways to improve environmentalism in Chicago and the creation of Chicago Environmentalists. She is Co-Founder of Chicago Environmentalists, Assistant Director of Cleanup Club Chicago, and completed the Climate Reality Leadership Corps training in 2021.

Miranda works in healthcare and has been a Chicagoan for over 10 years, residing in Lakeview. When she's not finding creative ways to reduce waste, she enjoys traveling, exploring the city via bike and by foot, making "mixtapes," and spending time with her husband and dog, Greta von Goof.

Chicago Environmentalists provides a forum for discussing topics like zero waste living, recycling, composting, environmental justice, renewable energy, eco policy, local businesses, wildlife conservation, environmental news, events, and more. As of March 2022, the combined total membership of these groups was about 5,500 and growing.

Chicago Environmentalists Website: https://www.chicagoenvironmentalists.org/
Cleanup Club Chicago Website: https://www.chicagoenvironmentalists.org/cleanupclubchicago
Facebook: @Chicago Environmentalists
Instagram: @chicago_enviro

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