What inspired you to start fighting for the environment? I was previously the Director of Health in Hartford, and I came to realize that although a lot of diseases were decreasing in frequency, those that were increasing were much more likely to be related to environmental exposures. And that was especially true for low-income communities, as well as communities of color, which were partially exposed to environmental hazards. 

What’s been your journey fighting for the environment? I wrote a 20-page essay about this journey. As a child, I faced a lot of discrimination and racism. I decided to focus my career in medicine on eliminating health disparities, adopting policies that would reduce health disparities, particularly environmental health disparities. As an African-American physician and a public health physician, I saw that so many of the health disparities had to do with the environment, and I became really concerned that there were so few people leading in this area. 

What's the most memorable environmental moment you've been a part of? I founded the Connecticut Coalition for Environmental Justice, so sometimes I am referred to as the dean of environmental justice (EJ) in Connecticut. We mobilized grassroots, low-income people in Hartford, Bridgeport, and New Haven to change policies that led to disproportionate health impacts. During my period of leading the Connecticut Coalition for Environmental Justice, we had many successes. The two most important, I think, are the passing of the first Environmental Justice law in Connecticut, which was at that time one of the leading EJ laws in the country. This was in 2008. The other was getting the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection to reject an air permit from the English Station power plant which was an old, retired power plant that they were trying to bring back online near a housing development in New Haven. There were a lot of children with asthma in this housing development, and the electricity was not needed for New Haven; it was needed for wealthy Fairfield County. So they wanted to bring back this very dirty power plant to provide electricity for Fairfield County, where there were community groups that sprang up in opposition to power plants. They did not want power plants in the wealthy communities that needed the electricity. They wanted the electricity and the pollution to be produced in low-income communities and communities of color; they just wanted to benefit from the electricity that was produced there. They were even opposed to having the high-voltage power lines to bring electricity from out of state, because they said that would block their views of the woodlands. So they opposed that, but wanted the power plants in New Haven, Bridgeport, and the communities of color in Stamford and Norwalk. But not in their communities. So that was the only time that the DEEP, or DEP at that time, has ever rejected an air permit that was recommended by staff; the commissioner of DEEP rejected an air permit that was recommended by staff, and it was the only permit that was rejected based on environmental justice in the history of DEEP.  That's a big one, for sure.  Both of these successes required a lot of work from many people in several organizations working together.

Image: English Station Power Plant in New Haven, Connecticut. The plant opened in 1929 and was decommissioned in 1991, but remains standing as seen on November 1, 2025. Credit: Quintin Soloviev, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons 

How do you simply explain the intersection between public health and the environment? 

What I say is the greatest predictor of where environmental hazards are located in Connecticut, as well as nationwide, is the percentage of people of color in that community. This leads to health disparities for a lot of environmentally related diseases, such as cancer, asthma, ADHD, and so on. We also know, for example, that children who go to school on the downwind side of a highway have lower test scores than those who go to school in the same neighborhood on the upwind side of the highway. Environmental exposures have a severe consequential effect on health, learning, and so on. Unlike many health conditions, health effects that result from environmental exposure can be changed through legislation and other policies.

Why are communities of color so at risk of being impacted by climate change? 

Communities of color are already disproportionately exposed to environmental hazards, and climate change only makes the disparities worse. I created a mnemonic on the health effects of extreme climate change. I'll tell you what it is: the mnemonic is HEATWAVE. The H in heatwave is for direct Heat effects, from heat stroke and other heat-related illnesses. And obviously, if you don't have air conditioning, if you're low income, or if you live in an urban heat island, you're more likely to die from heat effects. The E is for Exacerbation of preexisting heart and lung conditions. People of color are more likely to have preexisting heart and lung conditions, and so are more likely to be affected by the heat, additional heat from climate change due to increased air pollution, and also increased flooding, which promotes mold growth and increases asthma. Also, climate change increases pollen: the amount of pollen, as well as the potency of the pollen, and length of the pollen season. This leads to the next A, which is Allergies. The T in HEATWAVE is for Traumatic injuries—injury to the lungs from inhalation of wildfire smoke, slips and falls, and more. The W is for Waterborne and foodborne illnesses. During flooding, the sewers overflow and those contaminate shellfish. You also have more blue-green algae or red tides to contaminate the water, and you can breathe in toxins from red tide. It can irritate your lungs. So that's food- and waterborne illnesses. The second A, as I said before, is Allergy increases, and the allergy season. The V is in Vector-borne diseases, which are mosquito-borne or tick-borne diseases. So we see more of those: West Nile virus, Lyme Disease, and Eastern equine encephalitis for example; we're seeing malaria in Florida and Texas. We're seeing other vector-borne diseases. Finally, the E is the Emotional and mental health effects of everything I’ve stated. Loss of property from severe weather, loss of people, disruption and displacement, and the overall anxiety around climate change. So those are the major health effects of climate change. 

What gives you hope in your environmental advocacy? What gives me hope is that whenever the country and the world have developed the political will to address major environmental issues, they have been able to do so. When I was growing up, there was a saying that you shouldn't breathe in anything you can see, because the air pollution in our cities was clearly visible in orange and brown. We've been able to substantially reduce those kinds of pollutants, like nitrogen oxides. Then we also had the hole in the ozone layer, and we were able to address that—so we're now reducing the hole in the ozone layer, specifically the upper-level ozone layer, which protects the Earth against radiation from the sun. We used to have acid rain, and that's improving due to the reduction in sulfur dioxides in the air. So whenever the world has decided that they want to address major environmental issues, they have been able to once they've gotten the political will to do so. What gives me hope is that more and more people are concerned about climate change, and even though in the U.S. some politicians aren't, if we organize then we can change the politics. If we change the politics, I think we can address climate change. We're getting more and more new tools to address climate change. We already have the technology to address it. As we develop more effective technologies, we're going to be able to use those technologies to address climate change too. 

If someone cares about the environment but doesn't know where to start, what's one thing that you would encourage them to do? The first thing is to vote. If you're of legal age, find out which candidates support the environment, then vote. The second thing is to let your political leaders know that you care. Specifically, by signing petitions, by calling their offices, and telling them what you are concerned about. It really does matter. Then you can join groups that represent your view; even if you can't participate as much as you would like, you can donate; if you can't donate, you can at least join. All of those things are important. 

If you could say anything to the current leaders here in Connecticut regarding climate change, what would you say? Our health and our economy are being severely damaged by climate change already, and it will only get worse over the next several decades. We can change this to reduce the cost and to reduce the health effects. Because climate change is especially an issue for people of color and low-income people, as we change the policies that contribute to global warming and climate change, we must make those policies a lot more equitable. There must be more resources provided for people who are most affected by environmental exposures and climate change. There also needs to be more funding for environmental justice organizations that promote the interests of those who are most impacted by climate change and environmental hazards, so that they can advocate for the policies that will be most effective for these and all people. 

Interviewed by La'Mya McDonald, summer intern at Sierra Club Connecticut.