Daylong Event Calls for Grassroots Action and Celebrates Fordham’s Role as EPA Grantmaker

We don’t all have to be scientists to fight climate change, a prominent marine biologist and activist told Fordham students, activists, and members of the Bronx community at Fordham’s Rose Hill campus on April 8.

“I think what the world needs, right now more than ever, are people who can move between different disciplines,” said Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, Ph.D.

“We need people to solve climate problems in business, in engineering, in law, in medicine … all of these things relate to the world and how it’s changing. Everyone needs to know at some fundamental level what’s happening.”

Johnson, a marine biologist and co-founder of the group Urban Ocean Lab, was the keynote speaker of Fordham’s second annual Climate Action Summit. Her speech, on a day when millions of Americans paused to take in a rare solar eclipse, was a reflection of her personal journey and activism taken from her forthcoming book, What If We Get It Right? (Penguin Random House). She also sat for a Q&A session with H. Shellae Versey, Ph.D., an associate professor of psychology at Fordham.

The work she’s done on behalf of communities from New York City to the Caribbean, she said, was always bolstered by a belief that anyone can be a part of the fight–including those who, like her father, were held back by racism, or those like her, “brimming with juxtapositions.”

“I’m a scientist who always intended to have a career in policy. I’m the daughter of a practical school teacher and a wistful artist. I’m cold New York winters and Caribbean heat,” she said.

“I’m working class and Harvard. I’m Black and white. I’m urban and smitten with the wilderness. I’m proof of the American dream—and proof that it is all too rare.”

The notion of taking a leadership role in fighting climate change was also the focus of other activities during the summit, which was organized by Fordham’s Center for Community Engaged Learning. An expo featured community groups, fireside chats, and panel discussions that examined federal funding for community-led solutions, as well as the future of environmental justice in higher education.

Elected Officials Celebrate Fordham’s Role as EPA Grantmaker

A morning press conference featured Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Congressman Ritchie Torres, who praised Fordham for taking on the responsibility of distributing $40 million EPA funds through a grant it was awarded in December. The grant, which will be administered by the Center for Community Engaged Learning, was the direct result of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which was passed in 2022.

No Better Place

“We couldn’t have thought of a better place than Fordham to dispense this [funding]to go to grassroots groups,” said Schumer, who was instrumental in passing the IRA.

Torres added the program is benefiting the Bronx not by accident, but by design. “We designed the Inflation Reduction Act to lift up the lowest-income communities of color, especially the Bronx, which has been Ground Zero for environmental injustice,” he said.

The Bronx Is Not Burning; the Bronx Is Greening

“For a Bronx-based institution to receive $50 million in federal funding to distribute throughout the region is nothing short of staggering and unprecedented. And so, with the partnership of Fordham University, we are writing a new chapter in the story of the Bronx. The Bronx is not burning; the Bronx is greening.”

Also attending the celebration was U.S. Rep. Adriano Espaillat. Others who could not attend sent staff members, including Gov. Kathy Hochul, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, U.S. Rep. Paul Tonko, Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson, City Council Member Oswald Feliz, Westchester County Executive George Latimer, and Ulster County Executive Jen Metzger. See more elected official comments here.

Tania Tetlow, president of Fordham, said the grant, which will see the Center for Community Engaged Learning working with partner organizations from New York to Puerto Rico, epitomizes the mission of Fordham.

“This is so very us, this idea of connecting science with justice, of thinking about how we wake people up to the dangers ahead, and the chances to work together and inspire action and bring hope to an issue that can make us all despair and want to look away,” she said.

Julie Gafney, Ph.D., assistant vice president for strategic mission and executive director of the Center for Community Engaged Learning, thanked those responsible for the funding, community partners, and all those that will be involved in the project.

“Many of you are going to be partners in this work as we move ahead and really reorient Fordham around an initiative of public impact and social responsibility and see how traditional teaching, learning, and research can be leveraged in real-time toward community solutions.”

Below are sentiments they have shared as Fordham begins this critical and historic work.

“This first-of-its-kind effort, that I made sure we amply funded in the historic Inflation Reduction Act, to directly invest in grassroots environmental justice groups is critical to fighting the carbon pollution worsening asthma, driving climate change and increasing the likelihood and severity of devastating extreme weather events,” said U.S. Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer. “This $50 million for Fordham University to fund environmental justice projects is the kind of program that can help our disadvantaged communities effectively fight the pollution that harms them. I am proud of Fordham University and I’m so excited to see how the vibrant network of New York and Puerto Rican grassroots environmental justice organizations access and activate this federal funding. I remain laser-focused on implementing the IRA so that we can ensure it lives up to its transformative potential to clean our air and combat climate change.”

“EPA’s Environmental Justice Thriving Communities Grantmaking program is a vital new program that will advance environmental justice and help communities disproportionately impacted by climate change, pollution, and other environmental stressors,” said U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand. “I am thrilled to see that Fordham University has been selected as the Grantmaker for EPA Region 2, which will allow organizations in New York, other communities within the Region, and Puerto Rico to apply for funds to support a range of different environmental project activities that will help the communities most in need. I am proud to have worked with and supported Fordham University to help secure its selection as a grantmaker and look forward to seeing communities that have long faced underinvestment gain access to federal environmental justice funding.”

“Fordham University’s commitment to environmental justice through its Flourishing in Community program and Climate Action Summit 2024 has been exemplary,” said U.S. Representative Ritchie Torres (NY-15). “By investing $40 million in grants to community-based organizations with a prioritization on marginalized communities, Fordham is not just talking about change — they’re actively implementing it. Initiatives like these, focusing on participatory governance and community-led solutions, are crucial for a sustainable future for the Bronx and the nation. I commend Fordham for their leadership and hope more institutions follow their example.”

“Fordham University’s resounding call to action comes in the form of their EPA Grant, which will facilitate climate justice initiatives for environmentally disadvantaged communities in the Bronx,” said City Council Member Oswald Feliz. We are constantly working to provide accessibility to communities disproportionately affected by pollution and climate change. With Fordham’s Climate Action Summit, we will witness new insights on sustainability and environmental justice for our Bronx community.”

Fordham News spoke with Marena Casey, senior at Fordham College at Rose Hill and president of the collegiate group, called Partners In Health Engage. The group supports the larger Partners In Health, a nonprofit that aims to provide a preferential option for the poor in health care.

Tell us a little bit about yourself, what you’re studying, and how you came into this work.

I’m double majoring in humanitarian and urban studies and minoring in biology. Next year I’ll be doing the Jesuit Volunteer Corps, working at a Native American health center in Oakland, California.

I want to continue working and learning about public health. Partners In Health has been a great foundation for that, and has really helped me better formulate what I’m passionate about and how I can make an impact.

After [Oakland], hopefully I’ll come back to New York or somewhere on the East Coast to get my master’s in public health.

How did your time at Fordham inspire you to go into public health?

I’ve worked at a few organizations [during my time at Fordham]that have dealt with public health. My first internship was at Maternity Care Coalition. I was a health policy and practice intern there, so I got some exposure to advocacy efforts and also the actual practice of implementing public changes to the health systems there. I worked at Sloan Kettering this past semester in their immigrant health and cancer disparity service, where I was able to work with immigrants who are undergoing active treatment, helping to make sure that their basic needs are met. And I think just being in the Bronx and seeing the health disparities here has been a really important and impactful part of my time here.

How did you decide on which topics to discuss with Senator Schumer?

We talked to Senator Schumer about the following three topics: U.S. Bilateral Tuberculosis Appropriations for fiscal year 2020; the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria (GFATM) Appropriations for fiscal year 2020; and the Comprehensive Addiction Resources Emergency (CARE) Act.

Those three [pieces of legislation]we chose out of many that Partners In Health feel strongly about, but we felt that those were very important, especially because tuberculosis has been such an issue recently.  The CARE Act is a federal policy dealing with the opioid crisis—how do we put policies in place and support local groups that are working on combating the crisis? He expressed his support for that and said he was going to fight for them. And that’s also had such an impact in our community in the Bronx. We really wanted to focus on that too and see what he had to say.

How did your meeting with Senator Schumer go, and what did you think of his answers?

For U.S. Bilateral Tuberculosis Appropriations for fiscal year 2020, we were hoping that he would work to help us increase the appropriations from $319 million that we got in 2019 to $400 million for fiscal year 2020. And similarly, for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria, we wanted to increase that funding. The new amount is $1.56 billion for the Global Fund.

A lot of these other meetings have been with just staffers, so being able to actually meet with Senator Schumer was incredible and he really knew his stuff. And he really took the time to listen to us and he was very attentive and answered any questions that we had. I felt that he really would fight as hard as he could for these issues, and he has been such an incredible champion for both global health and federal health care policy in the U.S.

Why should young people care about these issues?

I think young people, especially at Fordham, have so much opportunity to make our voices heard, especially living in New York. And there’s so many great organizations and advocacy efforts to get behind. I think that even if it’s not health that a young person is interested in, any other sector that they feel strongly about, it’s really important to know what policies are in place because it makes such an impact. You can’t really make an impact unless you also try to change the policies that are in place.