Meet the Candidates for WE ACT’s Membership Planning Committee

Meet the candidates below, and then cast your vote here.

 

Joyce Bialik

What is your connection to WE ACT and your community?
I am a member of WE ACT but I don’t remember if I am dues paying. I will check that out. I live on the upper west side (district 7)and participate in community and political activities. I have been very active on the solid waste front and their members have been my main community. I would like to see more black and brown folks participating with the Solid Waste Advisory Boards because so many of our issues are pertinent to environmental justice and we need a greater diversity of voices.

What expertise or experiences will you bring to the Planning Committee?
I’ve done outreach and helped prepare outreach flyers regarding protecting the environment and environmental justice. I head a few environmental campaigns and I am chair of the Manhattan SWAB’s residential recycling and reuse committee and am a member of its NYCHA recycling committee. I am a retired adjunct professor of social work, teaching social welfare policy and human behavior.

What does environmental justice mean to you and how to you see yourself in this movement?
for environmental justice we all must pay attention to how our actions affect communities heavily burdened with sources of pollution. When I outreach about the importance of diverting our food scraps from the trash pile I mention that food scraps comprises about 40% of our trash. diverting it to composting reduces the amount of waste sent to the Covanta incinerator that is polluting New Jersey’s iron bound community. Most of Manhattan’s west side waste is sent to Covanta.

Why do you want to join the planning committee?
I have ideas about policies and programs we should learn about and explore influencing policy makers.

Please share a personal story explaining why you are involved in social change.
I’ve always been involved in social change. This started when I was a peace corps volunteer in India, and has continued in my social work studies and career. Now that I am retired I can pick and choose my social change activities, and that is why I would like to play some role in the WE ACT organization — but not as a leader given that I am Caucasian, but as perhaps an advisor.

 

Tina Johnson

What is your connection to WE ACT and your community?
My history at We Act is that I am a long time member of We Act. I helped to organize the membership steering committee. I was nominated to the Mayor’s Environmental Justice Advisory Board due to my work at We Act. I became an employee at We Act prior to the pandemic. Now that things are opening up and safer, I would like to step up my involment as a member of We Act to show my appreciation for what We Act does and stands for in the memory of Cecil B. Corbin-Marks and in the current life work of Peggy Shepard. The We Act Planning Committe is the way I choose to give back to my community of West Harlem.

What expertise or experiences will you bring to the Planning Committee?
History, Integrity, Caring, Communication, Messaging/Marketing

What does environmental justice mean to you and how to you see yourself in this movement?
Environmental Justice to me is Environmental Justice for the Earth and its people. Without the Earth’s support of human existence, humanity will be lost. This is the greatest existential crisis faced by humanity today.

Why do you want to join the planning committee?
I would like to rejoin the planning committee after having served 1 1/2 terms on previous planning committees. I am highly interested the work We Act is committed to related to environmental justice for the Earth and her people.

Please share a personal story explaining why you are involved in social change.
I am involved in social change because I believe in legacy and the future.

 

Jewel Jones

What is your connection to WE ACT and your community?
I am currently a member of WE ACT and live in East Harlem. I have been a member for several years and I am a former Planning Committee member.

What expertise or experiences will you bring to the Planning Committee?
I believe that I will bring a level of information and knowledge to the Planning Committee in consideration of my prior Planning Committee experiences. I also believe that I bring a level of knowledge of WE ACT in general, due to my many years of membership and attendance at general membership meetings as well as my participation on the Climate Justice Working Group, and my other involvement in WE ACT efforts – such as participation in lobbying days and advocacy, and additionally, as one who took part in, and completed the ECJ leadership training.

What does environmental justice mean to you and how to you see yourself in this movement?
I see environmental justice as efforts made toward righting wrongs experienced by marginalized communities – often Black and Brown communities – as it relates to the environment and climate. I see myself as an advocate, community leader, and person poised to bringing about positive changes in this effort.

Why do you want to join the planning committee?
As one who is a member of the initial group of planning committee members I hope to impart my knowledge along with the experiences involved in the earliest days, weeks and months, of the planning committee – such as all of achievements in working on the policy committee – as an example. Furthermore, I look forward to working with other like-minded WE ACT members of the planning committee in advancing the mission of WE ACT.

Please share a personal story explaining why you are involved in social change.
My introduction to WE ACT, more specifically to the late Cecil Corbin-Mark, was due to my efforts in highlighting an EJ issue in East Harlem involving the relocation of the DSNY Sanitation Garage located at 99th Street. I had been informed that Cecil was one to contact, which is what I did, and, which lead to the beginning of a great working relationship and an even better person journey for me as it relates to developing my personal knowledge and awareness of EJ and the injustices so apparent in my community of East Harlem and other communities of color. The struggle continues!

 

Yvon J. Noel

What is your connection to WE ACT and your community?
I BELIEVE I HAVE GREAT CONNECTION WITH WE ACT, I STUDIED SOLAR ONE , OSHA, PHONE CALL,CAMPAIGN ACTIVITIES I EVEN WENT TO ALBANY TO SUPPORT GREEN ENERGY.

What expertise or experiences will you bring to the Planning Committee?
COMMUNICATIONIT

What does environmental justice mean to you and how to you see yourself in this movement?
IT’S MEAN A LOT TO ME, AS SOMEONE WHO HAS A B/A ON POLITICAL SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. I BELIEVE I CAN BRING A LOT TO WEACT ORGANIZATION

Why do you want to join the planning committee?
I JUST WANT TO MAKE A DIFFERENT, I BELIEVE THIS IS THE PERFECT ORGANISATION TO PARTAGE MY KNOWLEDGE.

Please share a personal story explaining why you are involved in social change.
MY NAME IS YVON J NOEL I’M FROM HAITI, I WAS GROWING UP UNDER A DICTATOR REGIME I SAW MY PARENT HAVE BEEN FIGHTING AGAINST THE DUVALIER REGIME, WE HAD A LOT FRIENDS AND FAMILY MEMBER, DUVALIER REGIME PUT IN JAIL AND MADE THEM DISAPPEAR.I HAVE BEEN INVOLVE IN POLITICAL FOR A LONG TIME, NOT AMERICAN ORGANISATION.I BELIEVE I CAN MAKE A DIFFERENT WITH WE ACT ORGANISATION.

 

Shail Pandya

What is your connection to WE ACT and your community?
Please see above. Active Harlem resident since early 2006 and have contributed locally (admittedly) limited when compared to the needs and what others have accomplished. This included free meditation classes, park volunteer services, local public school and library funding support etc.

What expertise or experiences will you bring to the Planning Committee?
Considerable experience in planning committees including leading large marketing campaigns and operating large offices (30 to 100 people). Very well organized.

What does environmental justice mean to you and how to you see yourself in this movement?
Very passionate about environmental justice. I am shocked that I did not know that such a great organization was in my community and feel guilty for joining so late. I would love to make real contributable change with regards to environmental justice.

Why do you want to join the planning committee?
My desire to make a change and deeply understand the best way to make a change. Joining the planning committee not only allows me to support the great work done We Act but also engage with other like minded folks and learn from them

Please share a personal story explaining why you are involved in social change.
Interested in environmental change from teenage years leading to education in environmental engineering and 21 years of experience cleaning up blighted and contaminated sites. It is something that has given me deep and sustained joy that my work was able to contribute in a small way in supporting the earth. Over my years a trend I observed and fought against was the biased policies, funding, and quality of work accomplished in socially disadvantaged and colored communities. While subtle it becomes evident if one starts actively looking for the bias. Over the past 5 years have started taking a more active role in making a change which has resulted in my participation in WeAct. Previously taught free mediation classes at the YMCA and the Harlem Library for about 15 years, volunteered in a Bronx school for four years to teach young students on entrepreneurship, and volunteered with various animal support groups

 

Lazelle Williams

What is your connection to WE ACT and your community?
I am a resident of Washington Heights and WEACT is my neighborhood environmental justice organization.

What expertise or experiences will you bring to the Planning Committee?
I served on the initial WEACT Planning Committee, 2016. It was such a honor and a privilege to work closely with WEACT staff, and colleagues to lay the foundation of the first Planning Committee and to see our hard work and input on several policy initiatives be signed into city law.

What does environmental justice mean to you and how to you see yourself in this movement?
I see myself as one on many who hope to see our community healthy, striving, being informed and informing others about the issues concerning environmental justice, climate justice, sustainability and good jobs.

Why do you want to join the planning committee?
I believe in the mission and goal of WEACT. I would like to contribute to the work that WEACT does towards ensuring environmental justice to our community regardless of race, color, national origin or level of income. Laws and policies are usually decided upon without the input from the very real people impacted the most. WEACT is a community based organization that works to ensure that communities of color and low income have a seat at the table where these laws and policies are first discussed and developed.

Please share a personal story explaining why you are involved in social change.
Rather than feeling hopeless and helpless against State and local forces that had decided to impact my Bronx community negatively by building a waste water filtration plant adjacent to my residential complex, I joined forces with local environmental alliances , and together we fought back the plan to the point where the plant was built at another location, i.e. Van Cortlandt Park.

 

Paul Zigler

What is your connection to WE ACT and your community?
A member of the we act organization and I outreach to the community for the elderly and for the homeless and for the kids I give out book bags I mentor to kids that need help I help feed the homeless I help the elderly when they need to go to the supermarket or they need their apartment clean and I do the best that I can as far as leadership in the community. I will bring

What expertise or experiences will you bring to the Planning Committee?
The knowledge that I have dealing with the elderly and the children and homeless and ideas that would suit the community. It means to me

What does environmental justice mean to you and how to you see yourself in this movement?
It means to me helping and dealing with the things that we need to do to make this planet a better place and I feel that I can bring the knowledge that I have dealing with the community and whatever I can do to help make things better.

Why do you want to join the planning committee?
To give my input and to make things better for the community and to do what I can to help planning go along with my ideas.

Please share a personal story explaining why you are involved in social change.
The youth in my neighborhood I sit down and talk to them and I send them to the weact program so that they can get the licenses that they need for construction jobs and all of the programs that weact has to offer.