MELDI’S RESEARCH ON DIVERSITY AND GREEN JOBS REACHES THE PRESIDENT OBAMA’S TRANSITION TEAM

When a team of environmental justice activists needed data on diversity and green jobs to present to President Obama’s environmental transition team they turned to MELDI. MELDI’s research on diversity trends in environmental organizations and our preliminary findings on worker characteristics desired by employers advertising green jobs was presented to the transition team. The data was quite influential in helping the president’s transition team to formulate policy in this arena. The impact was readily apparent when the new head of the Environmental Protection Agency, Lisa Jackson, pledged to increase the diversity of the EPA’s workforce in her first public address. That address was given at WE ACT’s conference held in New York from January 29-30th, 2009.

As one student who worked on putting together the database from which the information on green jobs was taken said, “It is very exciting to see all the hard work used to make an impact. It is difficult to see how the big picture fits together sometimes when we are spending hours on end looking for information.” In addition to the MELDI Program Director, Dorceta E. Taylor and Program Coordinator, Latonia Phillips, several students worked on the green jobs project last year. We received invaluable help from: Sarah Barjum, Sidney Brown, Yukari Higuchi, Sarah Lashley, Marcia McDade, Alexandria Teague