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Biden announces key appointments to Environmental Justice Advisory Council
Harleen Marwah, a pediatric resident physician at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, is named in the member list.
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The Council offers guidance and suggestions to the White House Environmental Justice Interagency Council and the Chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality. / X/@POTUS
US President Joe Biden on May.23 announced his intent to appoint 12 more members to the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council (WHEJAC), a federal advisory committee established under Executive Order 14008 of Jan. 27, 2021, aiming to address the climate crisis domestically and internationally.
Among the 12 additional members is Harleen Marwah, a pediatric resident physician at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Marwah serves as the founding chair of Medical Students for a Sustainable Future, an organization comprising medical students dedicated to combating and addressing the health impacts of climate change.
Marwah was honored with Health Care Without Harm’s 2020 Emerging Physician Leader Award, which acknowledges individuals in the medical field who demonstrate a strong dedication to sustainable healthcare practices and climate action. She brings expertise in youth engagement and experience at the nexus of healthcare and climate change to the Council.
The forthcoming appointments to the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council also include individuals such as Tye Baker, Anita Cunningham and Lloyd Dean. Baker has held various positions within the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma since 2004. Cunningham has served as director for two organizations dedicated to community resilience in the face of climate disasters since 2020: the North Carolina Disaster Response and Resilience Network and the North Carolina Climate Solutions Coalition. Dean is a distinguished healthcare leader at the national level and serves as Chief Executive Emeritus of CommonSpirit Health, one of the largest healthcare systems in the US.
Carlos Evans, Susan Hendershot, Igalious Mills, Jamaji Nwanaji-Enwerem and Joanne Pérodin are also on the list. Evans currently serves as the Director of the Office of Environmental Quality & Sustainability for the City of Dallas. Hendershot holds the position of president at Interfaith Power & Light, an organization dedicated to engaging faith communities in environmental justice efforts. Mills, a third-generation farmer, serves as the executive director of the International Farmers and Ranchers, an organization that promotes sustainable farming practices and renewable energy initiatives in underserved communities.
Nwanaji-Enwerem works as an emergency medicine resident physician and adjunct assistant professor of Environmental Health at Emory University School of Medicine and Emory’s Rollins School of Public Health. Pérodin holds the role of senior director of Climate Equity at The Climate Leadership Engagement Opportunities (CLEO) Institute.
Additionally, Michael Walton, Donele Wilkins, and Tanner Yess are to be appointed to the Council.
The Council offers guidance and suggestions to the White House Environmental Justice Interagency Council and the Chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality on addressing both present and past instances of environmental injustice. The creation of the WHEJAC represents the initial instance in which a Presidential advisory group has been charged with offering recommendations to the federal government concerning environmental justice.
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