**Please note that this webinar has passed but you can find the recording here**
Click here to register for this free webinar on October 1, 2024 at 7:00 PM ET.
The United States will welcome a new President in January. In the run-up to the 2024 U.S. presidential election, Beyond Plastics has released a list of 27 priority policy recommendations for the next U.S. president to reduce plastic pollution. These recommendations pave the way to address the plastic pollution crisis by significantly reducing the production of plastics, thereby limiting their negative impacts on environmental justice communities, human health, climate change, fish and wildlife, and our planet.
We have assembled an all-star panel of experts!
Please join Judith Enck and Jess Conard, Beyond Plastics’ President and Appalachia Director, respectively, Jo Banner, Co-founder & Co-Director of The Descendants Project, Kevin Budris, Advocacy Director of Just Zero, and Dr. Sherri “Sam” Mason, Director of Project NePTWNE at Gannon University via Zoom on Tuesday, October 1 at 7:00 PM ET to learn more about these recommendations, ask questions, and enjoy a lively discussion. You can find the Presidential Policy Priorities document here: https://www.beyondplastics.org/s/presidential-priorities.
OUR EXPERT SPEAKERS
Jo Banner, The Descendants Project
Jo Banner, Co-Founder & Co-Director, The Descendants Project
Jo Banner co-founded The Descendants Project, where she channels her affection and knowledge into challenging systems, primarily legal systems that have exploited the descendants, such as herself, of those enslaved to plantations. She is now working to gain recognition of the burial grounds of the enslaved as sacred sites and aims to protect such sites and their communities from degradation, especially degradation caused by heavy industry. As a resident of Louisiana’s Cancer Alley, Jo champions environmental justice causes and is actively developing strategies to transform land slated for use by pollutant-causing industries into green spaces where communities like hers can thrive. She has spoken before the United Nations and participated in the first Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee to develop an international legally binding instrument on plastic pollution.
Kevin Budris, Just Zero
Kevin Budris, Deputy Director, Just Zero
Kevin is the Deputy Director at Just Zero, a non-profit organization that works alongside communities, policy makers, organizers, and others to implement just and equitable solutions to our waste crisis. Prior to Just Zero, Kevin was a Senior Attorney in the Zero Waste Program at Conservation Law Foundation and previously worked at the National Environmental Law Center, where he brought citizen enforcement lawsuits against polluting landfills and incinerators. Kevin started his legal career as a law clerk in the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut and worked as an associate at Ropes & Gray in Boston. A graduate of the George Washington University Law School and Harvard University, he lives in Providence, Rhode Island.
Jess Conard, Beyond Plastics
Jess Conard, Appalachia Director, Beyond Plastics
Jess Conard is a licensed medical speech language pathologist who was launched into grassroots advocacy following the East Palestine, Ohio train derailment and chemical spill. Jess has championed endorsements for medical safety and air quality monitoring for her community. She continues to seek national policy change for rail safety and amplify initiatives for ecological security. Jess sits on several community and research boards related to her work.
Judith Enck, Beyond Plastics
Judith Enck, President, Beyond Plastics
A dynamic community leader who has spent her expansive career working to protect public health and the environment, Judith began as an environmental advocate and has held top influential positions in state and federal government. Appointed by President Obama, Judith served as the Regional Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency overseeing environmental protection in NY, NJ, 8 Indian Nations, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Judith is a professor at Bennington College, where she teaches classes on plastic pollution and was a Visiting Scholar at the Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University.
Dr. Sherri “Sam” Mason, Gannon University
Dr. Sherri “Sam” Mason, Director, Project NePTWNE, Gannon University
Dr. Mason earned her bachelor’s degree from the University of Texas at Austin. She completed her doctorate in Chemistry at the University of Montana as a NASA Earth System Science scholar. While a Professor of Chemistry at SUNY Fredonia, her research group was among the first to study the prevalence and impact of plastic pollution within freshwater ecosystems. Sam has been featured within hundreds of mass media articles including the BBC, The Guardian, the New York Times, the Huffington Post, and National Public Radio’s All Things Considered and Studio A1. Her work formed the basis for the Microbeads-Free Water Act, which was signed into law by President Obama in December 2015. Similar legislation has been approved or is being considered at various locations internationally.