ANN ARBOR—Alicia Lyttle, Ph.D. candidate in the University of Michigan’s Environmental Justice Program, knows of areas of Louisiana “where environmental injustice runs rampant.”

She has worked with an African-American community that unknowingly located on top of a toxic dump and with residents of “cancer alley” in that state. These challenges confirmed Lyttle’s passion for the cause of environmental justice. With a master’s degree in public health, she searched for a graduate program in her area of interest until she found Michigan’s EJ Program.

“It is unique and has the only Ph.D. program in environmental justice in the country,” said Lyttle, who hopes to become a professor in the field. “It’s designed for students who want to focus intensely on the causes of and solutions to environmental injustice.”

The program, within the School of Natural Resources and Environment, takes an interdisciplinary, problem-solving approach to this issue. Students may specialize in environmental justice at the undergraduate, master’s, and doctoral levels. Twenty undergraduates, nine Ph.D. candidates, and nine master’s students currently are enrolled.

Students examine past environmental research and devise strategies to promote safe, sustainable, and just communities for all people. They may gain experience participating in educational and strategic planning efforts throughout the country that arm urban and rural communities with the tools to improve harmful conditions. The program emphasizes the safeguarding of human rights and the shaping of new environmental policies for the 21st century.

“Graduates typically find internships and employment with government agencies—including, of course, the EPA’s Office of Environmental Justice—nonprofits, and international nongovernmental organizations,” said Bunyan Bryant, a professor in the EJ Program. “We look at the teachings of leaders like Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu and how environmental injustices impact Third World countries, as well as U.S. communities.”

John Callewaert, a Ph.D. graduate of the program, now teaches at Colby-Sawyer College in New London, N.H.. He is training undergraduates to work with community groups on rural environmental problems related to income. “I’m using some of the techniques I learned through field work at U-M to help my students make the community more aware of these problems and to work together on solutions,” he said.

With a background in social ethics, he decided to specialize in environmental justice partly out of a desire to learn the truth. “In 1993, a report came out of the University of Chicago that stated race is not related to the incidence of environmental hazards. That didn’t set right with me so I decided to research this new area and find out just what groups are being environmentally impacted.”

Some graduates are applying their knowledge and expertise to implementing federal policy. Max Weintraub says he is doing that on a daily basis in his position as PCB coordinator for the EPA’s San Francisco office.

“Environmental justice combines the interests of two very American social movements that have evolved over time,” said Weintraub, a master’s program graduate. “The program within SNRE informed me not only of that history but how to apply those lessons to current challenges.”

More information on the Environmental Justice Program is available on the Web site: www.snre.umich.edu/ej/.

Environmental Justice ProgramSchool of Natural Resources and EnvironmentBunyan Bryantwww.snre.umich.edu/ej/