Beyond Plastics Names New Senior Advisor and Communications Director
Organization Continues to Expand, Add Leadership as Two New Seasoned Professionals Join Judith Enck’s Team to Combat Plastic
For Immediate Release: March 29, 2023
Contacts:
Melissa Valliant, Beyond Plastics — MelissaValliant@Bennington.edu, (410) 829-0726
Judith Enck, Beyond Plastics – JudithEnck@Bennington.edu, (518) 605-1770
Beyond Plastics — a national organization founded by former EPA regional administrator Judith Enck — announced that Dawn L. Henry Esq. and Melissa Valliant have joined the organization as its new senior advisor and communications director, respectively.
"Beyond Plastics is excited to welcome these seasoned professionals to its team of dedicated advocates and experts," said Beyond Plastics president and former EPA regional administrator Judith Enck. "With their impressive experience and passion for fearlessly combating the plastics crisis, Dawn and Melissa will play a valuable role in Beyond Plastics' efforts to implement policies to reduce plastic pollution and curb corporate reliance on this persistent pollutant."
Prior to her new role as Beyond Plastics’ senior advisor, Henry served as commissioner for the U.S. Virgin Islands’ Department of Planning and Natural Resources. She received her Juris Doctor from the University of Oklahoma School of Law before returning home to the U.S. Virgin Islands, where she practiced environmental law for over 18 years. She has experience in fisheries, historic preservation, coastal zone management, fish, and wildlife. Henry also drafted and championed the U.S. Virgin Island’s plastic bag ban. She believes that resilient people build resilient environments and that people must be the focus in safeguarding the environment. As senior advisor, Henry will be helping guide Beyond Plastics in its mission to reduce plastic pollution everywhere through education, outreach, and civic engagement.
Prior to her role as Beyond Plastics’ communications director, Valliant led communications strategy for the plastic pollution campaign at international ocean conservation organization Oceana. She graduated from Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications with a plan to pursue magazine journalism but found herself drawn to environmental advocacy, leveraging her communications abilities to better the world. Valliant had her first letter to the editor published in children’s science magazine Muse at the age of 11 and has since been published in the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and Boston Globe, among others. As communications director, Valliant will be leading Beyond Plastics’ communications strategy, strengthening its role as a leading expert and changemaker in curbing plastic pollution.
About Beyond Plastics
Launched in 2019, Beyond Plastics is a nationwide project that pairs the wisdom and experience of environmental policy experts with the energy and creativity of grassroots advocates to build a vibrant and effective movement to end plastic pollution. Using deep policy and advocacy expertise, Beyond Plastics is building a well-informed, effective movement seeking to achieve the institutional, economic, and societal changes needed to save our planet and ourselves, from the negative health, climate, and environmental impacts for the production, usage, and disposal of plastics.
