EMEAC Programs

November 9, 2010





DETROIT FOOD JUSTICE TASK FORCE: While abandoned by major supermarket chains, Detroit, like many inner city communities, has rich social and environmental capital that has been largely untapped or under-utilized in addressing food security for the people in our communities. The Task Force brings together a broad coalition of local growers, social, environmental and media justice organizations, schools, churches, food educators, restaurants, caterers and restaurant suppliers, the City of Detroit, representatives from the Michigan Environmental Council, community activists, residents and stakeholders.

Read more about the Food Justice Taskforce

DETROIT YOUTH FOOD JUSTICE TASKFORCE: With support from the Detroit Food Justice Taskforce, the youth food justice taskforce is working to create opportunities for youth to understand the impact of food related policy such as the 2012 Farm Bill and how it impacts their day to day life.
The Youth Food Justice Taskforce works with community gardens, creates, food just media and educational tools and hosts monthly Food Justice Friday community dinners.
Membership is open to all Detroit area youth with an interesst in healthy eating and having fun. 



DETROIT FUTUREDetroit Future consists of three programs that put the Detroit Digital Justice Principles into practice: Detroit Future Media, Detroit Future Schools and Detroit Future Youth. These three programs collaborate to tell stories about their accomplishments, challenges and realizations, with the goal of making the work transparent and replicable. The Detroit Future DECODE (documentation, evaluation and communications) team synthesizes those stories into a new narratives about Detroit and its future.


GREENER SCHOOLS: The Greener Schools Initiative brings children in Detroit schools closer to nature. We believe that by instilling a sense of interconnectedness and love for the environment our youth can become advocates for their environment and their communities.
This is done through our in-school and after school programs of community gardening, environmental education, preventing childhood obesity and more.

Click Here for Related News: GREENER SCHOOLS







REMEDIA: The Remedia program does media production for East Michigan Environmental Action Council, which is an Environmental Justice non-profit based in Detroit. Remedia empowers community members, youth and adult, with the skills and technological tools to tell their own stories about environmental issues in SE Michigan. These can be public service announcements, music videos, short films, digital art works or documentaries about air quality, water access and affordability, land use or food security. We also have an environmental justice media fellows program where program participants are hired by area justice organizations to meet their media needs around documentation and promotions.

Click Here for Related News: REMEDIA


STAND UP SPEAK OUT: (SUSO) is the advocacy arm of EMEAC. SUSO programs and activities advocate for environmental justice in Southeast Michigan through legislative policy initiatives while encouraging community involvement through our youth and adult education and training.






YOUNG EDUCATORS ALLIANCE: (YEA)The Young Educators Alliance is a small group of young adults (aged 14-24) who come together to identify issues in their environment and work collectively on solutions, using their creativity and personal insight. YEA advocates for healthy environments in Detroit in a way that fosters leadership and holistic development. Young people learn to identify injustices, place them in a historical context, and propose alternatives that involve community input, community organizing, and/or advocacy. The program aims to build a “pipeline for community activism” in which young people come to see themselves as community activists and learn to network and engage with existing communities of activists.






 

Volunteer

November 8, 2010

Thank you so much for your interest in becoming an EMEAC volunteer. If you haven't already, please take a look at each of our programs to get a better idea of where you may want to help us carry out our mission of advancing environmental justice causes in Southeast Michigan.

Several volunteer opportunities are available. Once you've decided on which EMEAC program(s) would be a good fit for you, please take time to fill out the volunteer information form below. The information will be forwarded to our volunteer coordinator Kim Sherobi and she will follow up with you as soon as possible. If you have any questions, contact Kim at (313) 556-1702 x708 or mail at kim@emeac.org.

Once again, thank you for you interest in helping furthering the cause of environmental justice in the community. To view a list of In-Kind donations we're currently seeking, please visit our Wishlist.

 

Become a Member

By becoming an EMEAC member, you will help to protect the environment. Your membership dollars make it possible for us to continue our work for clean and healthy air, water, and land. Your support also helps strengthen our voice in Lansing. We invite you to become actively involved. 

Membership contributions to EMEAC are tax deductible. Make checks payable to EMEAC and mail to:

EMEAC
4605 Cass Avenue
Detroit, MI 48201
or
Start your membership with an online donation via Network for Good

Regular membership dues start at $20.
Students and seniors memberships are $10.

Other amounts are greatly appreciated:
  • $5,000 + - Lifetime member
  • $1,000 - $4,999 - Founding member
  • $500 + a year - Benefactor
  • $100 - $499 - Friends
  • $50 - $99 - Sustainers
  • $10 - $50 - Donor
*For gifts of $50 or more your name will appear on the EMEAC Focus Earth newsletter

All EMEAC members:
  • Receive EMEAC's newsletter, Focus Earth, and other EMEAC publications.
  • Receive Action Alerts on critical environmental issues.
  • Are invited to EMEAC's board meetings and annual public events.
EMEAC is a non-profit, public interest organization founded in 1970 for the purpose of improving the quality of the environment for citizens of southeast Michigan. Today, scientists, lawyers, doctors and other concerned citizens are working together with staff to address environmental issues effectively and professionally. EMEAC provides members with information and opportunities to contribute to these efforts.

 

Contact Us

East Michigan Environmental Action Council

Address:
4605 Cass Avenue
Detroit, MI 48201

Phone:
EMEAC Office:313 556-1702
EMEAC Fax:313 556-1702

Email:
Diana Copeland
Executive Director:
313 556-1702 x700  
Email: Diana

Lottie Spady
Associate Director:
313 556-1702 x701
Email: Lottie
 
Ahmina Maxey,
Associate Director:
313 556-1702 x702
Email: Ahmina

Nukomus Armstrong,
Director of Finance:
313 556-1702 x703,
Email: Nukomus

Patrick Geans-Ali,
Communications Coordinator:
313 556-1702 x704
Email: Patrick

Sanaa Green,
Multicultural Environmental Science and Arts Lab Coordinator
313 556-1702 x705
Email: Sanaa

Siwatu-Salama Ra,
Youth Leadership Coordinator
313 556-1702 x706
Email: Siwatu

Ife Kilamanjaro,
Program Consultant
313 556-1702 x707
Email: Ife

Kim Sherobbi,
Facilities Manager/Volunteer Coordinator
313 556-1702 x708
Email: Kim

Alia Harvey Quinn,
Youth Program Coordinator
313 556-1702 x709
Email: Alia

Alisha Deen Stindler,
Policy Coordinator
313 556-1702 x710
Email: Alisha

Priscilla Dziubek,
Senior Engagement Program Coordinator
313 556-1702 x711
Email: Priscilla

Susana Adame,
Detroit Future Communications Coordinator
313 556-1702 x712
Email: Susana

Charity Hicks,
Food Justice Taskforce Coordinator
313 556-1702 x713
Email: Charity

Ilana Weaver,
Detroit Future Youth Media Assistant Coordinator
313 556-1702 x714
Email: Ilana

Gregg Newsom,
Food Justice Taskforce Communications Coordinator
313 556-1702 x715
Email: Gregg

Adrienne Brown,
Food Justice Taskforce Facilitator
313 556-1702 x716
Email: Adrienne

William Copeland,
Stand Up! Speak Out! Youth Program Coordinator
313 556-1702 x717
Email: Will


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Staff & Board

Staff

     Diana Copeland, Co-Director


    Diana has an extensive background in environmental justice advocacy, environmental project management, and community organizing. Mrs. Copeland earned her BS in Environmental Science and Tribal Natural Resource Policy at The Evergreen State College, watershed management at University of Washington Program in Streamside Studies, and her MS in Environmental Justice at the University of Michigan. She worked in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, connecting community leaders to solve environmental and health challenges in Rio's favelas (autonomous communities) before coming to EMEAC. She has been very active in forming coalitions between environmental organizations, community and environmental justice groups to win environmental justice and health victories. email: Diana
    Ife Kilimanjaro, Co-Director

    Ife has worked to strengthen organizations, institutions and efforts by and for black and brown people for the past 20 years. After completing her doctorate in sociology (focusing on race/class/gender relations and philosophy) at Howard University, Ife moved to Detroit to support teaching and learning at Michigan’s only historically black college – Lewis College of Business – as department chair and vice president.  Recognizing a need to support learning at younger ages, she served as principal of an African centered public school academy.  During that time, Ife was part of a team that launched University of Kmt Press, which later gave rise to African International, an online resource for left-of-center analyses of issues facing African people.  Upon leaving her educational leadership post, Ife returned to the grassroots activist realm of her earlier days and assumed various logistical roles during the planning and implementation of the U.S. Social Forum in Detroit.  She continues to participate on the Transition Team of the USSF; serves on the board of directors for the Detroit Black Community Food Security Network; assists local organizations behind the scenes to meet organization and funder-driven goals and reporting requirements; and supports groups and people seeking to do what is just and right toward the transformation of society. She is a mother and grandmother, student of life and history, reiki practitioner and life-learner of herbal medicine and natural healing. email: ife


    Dee Collins, Finance Director


     Dee joined EMEAC in 2012 as Finance Director.  With over 30 years experience in finance and accounting, she has worked for various non-profits in the Detroit Metropolitan area. Dee has also volunteered for numerous churches and non-profits to help with bookkeeping challenges. email: Dee


    William Copeland, Stand Up Speak Out Youth Program Coordinator


    William is an organizer and cultural worker from Detroit. He works as EMEAC's Stand Up Speak Out Youth Coordinator. SUSO works with the Detroit Institute of Technology (Cody HS), Nsoroma Institute, and the city-wide Youth Leadership Team. He is working with a group of Detroit activists to create the Whole Note Healing Collective, breathing this process one step at a time. He served as one of the local coordinators for the 2010 US Social Forum and participated in the 2011 Detroit 2 Dakar Delegation to the World Social Forum held in Dakar, Senegal. If there is an exodus from imperialistic institutions and Western philosophies, he hopes he does not miss the caravan while he is engrossed in video games. email: Will


    Priscilla Dziubek, Senior Engagement Program Coordinator
     
    Priscilla is a community activist involved locally in the international struggle for water as a human right, held in the public trust, as a precious resource.  She is coordinator of our inter-generational gardening program, Gardening Angels, and instructs environmental labs within Detroit Public Schools.  She is a master composter and was instrumental in establishing the Barbara Jordan school garden.  Currently, Priscilla is planning gardening activities for the summer months that will involve both students and community seniors.  email: Priscilla


    Victoria Goff, Detroit Future Communications Coordinator

    Victoria is a long time digital justice activist. She's done extensive online organizing that prioritizes the work of women of color, including co-organizing the very first Radical Women of Color workshop at the Allied Media Conference. She is also a published author with her work appearing in The Guardian, Make/Shift, and Bitch, among others. You can currently find her teaching social media workshops for the Detroit Future Program, or tweeting about everyday life in Detroit Future at @dcommunicates! email: Victoria Goff 

      

     Sonya Green, Multicultural Environmental Science and Arts Lab Coordinator
       

    Sonya, spiritually known as Sanaa Nia-Joy, is an informal educator with the EMEAC Greener Schools program. Prior to returning to Detroit and beginning her role at EMEAC, she worked with youth groups in Washington, DC. She is a graduate of Howard University and a Ecopsychology Masters degree candidate in Naropa University's Transpersonal Psychology department. She is also a Reiki practitioner, Belly Dance instructor and nature lover. All of her work enhances the goal of helping people express their brightest self and have a closer relationship to the earth both of which will be healing for the earth and humanity. email: Sanaa 

      
    Charity Hicks, Food Justice Task Force Program Co-Coordinator


    Charity is part of the coordination team for the Detroit Food Justice Taskforce (2010). She is a writer, researcher, healer, artist, grower, organizer, and cross-pollinator. She is secretary of one the members of the Detroit Food Justice Taskforce, the Detroit Black Community Food Security Network (2006) and one of its founding members. She is point person on the coordination of the D-Town Farm Annual Harvest Festival every fall started in 2007. She studies and works on spirituality, medicinal herbs, and Afrikan traditional rituals/society/culture. Charity currently is serving with several groups in Detroit which include: Detroit Public Schools Health Council, Detroit Black Community Food Security Network, Detroit Grocery Store Coalition Steering Committee, Detroit Food Policy Council, People’s Water Board Detroit, Future’s Taskforce of the Community Development Advocates of Detroit, Great Lakes Bioneers Detroit, the Green Taskforce Water Sub-committee, Detroit Peoples Movement Assembly group, and others. She is a Master Gardener via MSU Wayne County Extension and a member of the Sierra Club and several national environmental groups. email: Charity  

    Siwatu Salaama Ra, Stand Up Speak Out, Youth Leadership Team Coordinator

    Siwatu grew up in the movement, attending community organizing meetings as a child of a union organizer and one of Detroit's environmental justice pioneers. After graduating from high school Siwatu began her own career as an environmental justice advocate with an internship at the Belle Isle Nature Center where she worked on finding solutions to invasive plant species before joining the Detroiter's Working for Environmental Justice Youth on Patrol Against Pollution Program. In addition to gaining experience with clerical support and grant research at DWEJ, Siwatu became an assistant to the Green Jobs Training Program and conducted environmental justice toxic tours.

    In 2011,  Siwatu joined EMEAC as Youth Team Leadership Coordinator for the Stand Up! Speak Out Program. While at EMEAC Siwatu has attended trainings and conferences around the U.S. and the world on climate change, allied media, youth environmental justice tours while volunteering at the Cass Community Center serving food to the homeless. She played a support role during the 2010 U.S. Social Forum held in Detroit and was a member Detroit to Dakar delegation to the 2011 World Social Forum in Senegal.

    In June of 2011, Siwatu founded EMEAC's Young Educators Alliance (YEA) Team consisting of about a dozen youth and young adults from the city who advocate for environmental and social justice issues facing Detroiters. Since YEA's founding, Siwatu and the team have received the Spirit of Detroit Award for their role in organizing workshops at the 2011 Youth Green Summit, organized a clean up of Cass Park, held a Feed1 Teach1 community dinner to create public awareness around public assistance cutbacks and led workshops at the Seventh Annual High School Social Justice Forum at the University of Windsor in Canada. email: Siwatu 


    Kim Sherobbi, Community Partners and Facility Coordinator

    Ms. Sherobbi is a retired school teacher and community activist. For 26 years, she taught physical education for the Detroit Public Schools. Her involvement in metro Detroit neighborhoods has span for over 20 years. Kim has volunteered for numerous non-profit and government agencies such as Adams Butzel Recreation Center, Reggie Mckenzie Foundation, Money Matters for Youth, Detroit Parent Network, Birwood Block Association and Detroit Impact. She is excited about helping EMEAC build stronger relationships with the community. email: Kim 


    Lottie Spady, Associate Director, Remedia Program Director


    For the past four years, Lottie has been focusing on an immersive community-based transformational environmental justice media program, “Re:Media”. The Re:Media program integrates environmental education, multi-media production, media literacy, green technologies, popular culture, social networking, civic engagement and social consciousness as a means to trigger systemic change on individual and social levels. Participant's tell their own stories and make community educational tools around food justice, air quality, water access and affordability, and land use. Their work is showcased each year at EMEAC's Green Screen environmental film festival. The program has been deployed in SE Michigan to address environmental justice issues and to help make disenfranchised communities visible and vocal.


    Lottie also works with the Detroit Digital Justice Coalition and is on the leadership team for the Digital Media Economy Collaborative. Through these relationships, EMEAC works with community members around the belief that communication is a fundamental human right. We believe that by addressing issues around access, common ownership, participation, and healthy communities, we are working toward digital justice for all.


    A self proclaimed foodist, Lottie has worked in the Detroit Food Justice movement for the last three years, initially as a volunteer with the D-Town Farm and member of the Detroit Black Community Food Security Network. As the associate director for East Michigan Environmental Action Council she began to explore issues related to food security through the Re:Media Program as well.. Lottie is most interested in the cultural story of food, cross-pollinating justice movements and shaping an accurate narritive of Detroit through citizens journalism and community media production. Lottie was instrumental in the formation of the Detroit Food Justice Task Force. Her favorite foods in the spring are arugula, sunflower sprouts, and fresh vegetable omelets eaten outside. email: Lottie 

       

    2012 Board of Directors
    • Hugh McDiarmid Jr. - President. Environmental Journalist
    • Victor Arbulu - Treasurer
    • London Bell - Affirmations, Health and Human Services Coordinator
    • Talitha Johnson - Freelance Writer and PR Specialist
    • Adela Nieves - Vice President, Just Natural Healers and Rise Like Lions Productions
    • Dr. Mike Spencer - University of Michigan, School of Social Work, Associate Dean

       

      Board of Directors

      • Hugh McDiarmid Jr., President. Environmental Journalistd
      • Victor Arbulu, Treasurer
      • Alfred Defreece - Learning Through Internship Coordinator and University of Michigan PhD Candidate
      • Lisa Oliver-King - Executive Director, Our Kitchen Table
      • Dr. Mike Spencer - University of Michigan, School of Social Work Associate Dean
        • Board of Advisors
      • Adele Nieves - 
      • Talitha Johnson  - 

       

      About Us

      EAST MICHIGAN ENVIRONMENTAL ACTION COUNCIL (EMEAC) began as a response in the 1960's to environmental concerns in southeast Michigan. Algae blooms were choking out life in Great Lakes and inland waters. Household and industrial wastes were piling up in landfills. Air pollutants were becoming a health issue in many urban neighborhoods and highways and buildings were covering up wetlands and open areas at the urban fringe.

      Several groups joined together forming EMEAC to consider what they could do to resolve these problems and to influence southeast Michigan's environmental policies. A cornerstone of EMEAC's formation was the belief that informing the public about environmental issues would lead to solutions to environmental problems. Founding members and staff established an organization that would always predicate its public information and advocacy on careful research. With the help of our members' continuing support and enthusiasm, EMEAC will continue to pursue its mission: To empower the Detroit community to protect, preserve and value the land, air and water.  We build community power through enviornmental justice education, youth development and collaborative relationship building.

      For almost fifty years, EMEAC has been working in the legislature, in the courts, in township halls and in schools. We played a role in the enactment of most of Michigan's environmental laws. We have used those laws in court to protect air and water quality, wetlands, natural areas, farmlands and wildlife. We have drafted regulations for local governments and have provided public information and environmental education opportunities throughout southeast Michigan.


      Our Programs Include:

      • STAND UP SPEAK OUT (SUSO)
      • GREENER SCHOOLS
      • MULTICULTURAL ENVIRONMENTAL ARTS & SCIENCES (MEAS) LABS
      • THE UGLIEST SCHOOLYARD COMPETITION
      • THE GARDENING ANGELS
      • REMEDIA
      • DIGITAL MEDIA ECONOMY COLLABORATIVE

      For more programs information, visit EMEAC Programs.
        
      For Staff & Board information, visit EMEAC Staff & Board.