Amira Beaird is currently a rising senior at Spelman College. She is an Environmental Science major, with an extreme passion for environmental policy. Upon graduation, she will receive a bachelor of science degree and will attend a doctoral program, with hopes of going to law school. She is the only girl of four children from Nashville, Tennessee. Environmental policy is a field that is largely overlooked by people of color. This would not be a problem except that pollution of various types affects minorities more that any other group in the world. She believes that minorities are not aware of the environmental injustices purposely placed in their communities. This website just scratches the surface. She hopes it will spark your interest in the health of our communities.

Contact: ABeaird@spelman.edu

Tameka Evon Cooksey

 

Tameka Evon Cooksey is a senior Sociology major with a Criminal Justice concentration; she hails from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Her focus during the Environmental Policy course was “Water Run-off Pollution and Oceanic Pollution.” Her favorite website to visit for data and information was www.oceanconservancy.com. She reviewed the book, When Smoke Ran Like Water: Tales of Environmental Deception and the Battle Against Pollution. Much of her research about local water pollution issues was taken from the Environmental Protection Division of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources. Many of her current event topics were taken from the quarterly publication, BLUEPLANET, published by The Ocean Conservancy environmental organization. Tameka's personal interest in eliminating oceanic pollution stems from her love of sharks and other marine life, the beauty and serenity of the ocean, and the enjoyment found in beach activities. Her organizational affiliations include the Sierra Club, The Nature Conservancy, and the National Wildlife Federation.

Contact: NOCENTspelman@aol.com

 

Tanisha Cowan

Tanisha C. Cowan is a senior Biochemistry major from San Diego, California. In this class, she focused on the topic of environmental justice. Tanisha would classify herself as a “beginner” activist. Her social and political activism and awareness began when she became a member of SASSAFRAS (Sociological Anthropological Sisterhood: Scholar Activist For Reshaping Attitudes at Spelman) in 2002. Since then, her interest in and knowledge of the many social and political issues that exist in this world have increased. Tanisha recommends this class to students interested in the environment or environmental politics/policy whether they are students of the political science department or not.

Contact: tcowan82@hotmail.com

Anastasia Cunningham writes about environmental racism. Her contributions to the web page include a fact sheet on environmental racism and a book review, as well as several web annotations. She is classified as a junior and currently on exchange from Wellesley College. In June 2005, she will receive her B.A. in Political Science and Economics.

Contact: law_chica@hotmail.com

 

Eva Lewis is a graduating Economics major who is a part of the class of 2004. Her research topic is air pollution in Harlem. Her book review discusses the book titled Environmental Movements and the Challenge of Sustainability by Gaia Wager. Her favorite websites include the Center for International Earth Science Information Network, http://www.ciesin.org/index.html, the United Nations Development Programme, http://www.undp.org, and the National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences, http://www.niehs.nih.gov/. Eva's special interests include urban sprawl, air pollution, and transportation racism.

Contact: elewis@spelman.edu

 

 

Della Mulinde is an exchange student at Speman from Lancaster University ,United Kingdom . She is doing BA in Politics and International Relations. Her reaserch topic concerns the transportatation of hazardous waste to developing countries. It has been a pleasure to participate in this class, which I have found enlightening, enjoyable and stimulating. I have been exposed to issues that I never knew existed; it has made me want to look into environmental issues in England. I feel that we neglect the environment because we think it's just about saving the trees. But the environment is where we live, breathe, eat and sleep; it affects each day of our lives. That is why it is so important to be part of the environmental movement in a small or big way.

Contact: dm_nansikombi@hotmail.com

 

Originally from Lancaster, California, Iyanna Newborn’s family now resides in the state of New York. She is a junior Political Science major at Spelman College, with a desire to attend graduate school in public policy and public administration. The topic she decided to work on for class was the effects that one’s local community environment has on health and life. She has studied how air pollution in major urban areas gives children severe asthma. Lead poisoning has a long-term effect on the brain, so children in areas where lead is being emitted into the air are directly affected. Sometimes the government does not want to publicize these problems. She hopes her research will reach people in administrative positions, so that children will no longer spend their lives in the hospitals or die from severe asthma attacks.

Contact: I_newborn@yahoo.com

 

Amanda Warner was born in Bassetere, St. Kitts, and grew up in St. Thomas, Virgin Islands. She is currently a sophomore at Spelman College, where she is majoring in Political Science. The topic that she researched for this class was population growth and development. She chose this topic because sustainable development is such an important thing to work toward, given the burgeoning human population and the impact that the population has on the environment. With equitable distribution of resources, we can all strive toward sustainable development. The book she chose to review for her topic was The Environmental Implications of Population Dynamics by Lori M. Hunter. The websites that she found most useful in researching her topic were www.fao.org, and www.worldbank.org. Amanda has always had a keen interest in environmental issues and would one day like to work as an environmental lawyer.

Contact:amandacw4784@hotmail.com

 

Anita Haynes is currently studying at Spelman as a junior exchange student from Lancaster University in the north of England. She is a Politics and International Relations major. Her area of focus in the project is on the impact of war on the environment. She chose this topic because in our current international system there are many armed conflicts; some receive more attention than others, but all of them affect the environment in some way. She felt it would be interesting to look at how political decision making not only affects our political reality but also our environment. As a Politics and International Relations major, she found it personally interesting to look at how some of the world's most pressing and salient issues are interrelated. Many times countries go to war over environmental issues such as scarce resources. Environmental issues definitely affect relations between states; issues such as global warming and air and water pollution go beyond the boundaries of nation states.

Contact: neets53@hotmail.com

 

Dr. Fatemeh Shafiei is an Associate Professor of Political Science at Spelman College and Fellow at the Southern Center for Studies of Public Policy. She received her Ph.D. from the University of California, Riverside. Her dissertation was entitled Global Ecopolitics: The Looming Crisis and the Role of Transnational Corporations-A Case Study of the Union Carbide Tragedy in Bhopal, India. In 1994, 1995, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, and 2002, and 2003, Dr. Shafiei wrote chapters on "Environmental Policy" for the Georgia Legislative Review, published by the Southern Center for Studies in Public Policy (SCSPP). She teaches courses in the International Relations Track. Her special teaching and research interests are in the areas of women and development and environmental politics. She is project director for the Spelman College/US Environmental Protection Agency Teachers Environmental Institute, an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) funded project. The Institute is designed to inform, promote, facilitate, and expand middle and high school teachers' knowledge in environmental areas. She was project director for the Environmental Justice Summit, an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) funded project. She was a Partnership Leader in the Education for Sustainability Project, a Department of Energy (DOE) funded project, where she planned, developed and conducted curriculum development workshops for Clark Atlanta University faculty. Workshops were designed to help the faculty enhance and develop courses to include environmental content. She served as project director for the Environmental Lecture Series (1994-1996) an EPA funded project. She also planned, assisted and presented at the 1994 and 1995 EPA-CAU Teachers' Environmental Summer Institute that was funded by EPA Region IV. She planned, developed, invited speakers for, and organized The Atlanta Environmental Summit: Linking Priorities From A Minority Perspective held on June 15, 1996.

Contact: fshafiei@spelman.edu