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We are thrilled to welcome Dr. Alfonso Cerna-Diaz, Ph.D., P.E., Geotechnical Engineer at AECOM Water Business Unit in Denver, Colorado as our next speaker in this year’s Latinos/Hispanics in STEM: A Career Path Series! This event will be hosted virtually on April 26th from 4 to 5 PM. Learn more and get registered – see you there! |
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This event is presented by LOGRAS, the GoSTEM Program, |
Category: CEE Events
DEI Seminar Recording: The Flint, Michigan Water Crisis: A Case Study in Regulatory Failure and Environmental Injustice
The Flint, Michigan Water Crisis: A Case Study in Regulatory Failure and Environmental Injustice
View the Recording here: https://bluejeans.com/s/@6NK2dKwMfD
Lindsey Butler, Ph.D.
Director of Climate and Health Resilience Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts
ABSTRACT
The Flint water crisis highlights numerous regulatory failures related to federal drinking water regulation, interpretation, and enforcement. The events that unfolded in Michigan, from the initial utilization of a corrosive water source to provide Flint’s drinking water to the inadequate response of numerous regulators, demonstrate how the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) can be wrongly interpreted, implemented, and weakly enforced, leading to dangerous exposure to unsafe drinking water. Our objective is to discuss these regulatory failures in Michigan in 2014–2015 in the context of other reported incidents of U.S. cities with high levels of lead in drinking water. Like the people of Flint, many of the affected residents are living in economically depressed areas with high rates of racial minorities. The recurring trend of unsafe drinking water in communities with this demographic profile qualifies this as an issue of environmental injustice.
BIOGRAPHY
Dr. Lindsey Butler is an environmental epidemiologist, science communicator, and thought leader specializing in the intersection of climate change and human health. She serves as the Director of Climate and Health Resilience at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts (BCBSMA) where her core priorities include reducing the organization’s environmental impact and moving towards carbon neutrality, making information about climate change and health accessible, and advancing environmental justice and climate resilience. Prior to joining Blue Cross, she served as the Deputy Chief of Policy to the Mayor of the City of Boston. Her work at City Hall focused on environmental policy, public health policy, language access, food assistance, developing the green workforce and data driven governance. She holds a Master of Science and PhD in environmental epidemiology from the Boston University School of Public Health.
Latinos/Hispanics in STEM: A Career Path Series
You’re Invited!
Please join us as we welcome Isaac Rodriguez, Ph.D., Co-Founder and Chief Science Officer of SweetBio, Inc. as the next speaker in our Latinos/Hispanics in STEM: A Career Path Series! This event will be hosted virtually on March 1st from 4 to 5 PM.
Learn more and get registered – see you there!
This event is presented by LOGRAS, the GoSTEM Program,
and the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering.
CEE Panel: Integrating Personal and Professional Identities: LGBTQ+ Experiences in the CEE Community
Please join us for a panel discussion on integrating personal and professional LGBTQ+ identities in the CEE workplace. Our panel members, Dr. Chloe Arson (CEE faculty), Dr. Rodrigo Borela (CEE alum, COC faculty), and Dr. Nathan Mayercsik (CEE alum) will share their personal stories, ranging from their time as students, through their job searches, to their experiences in a range of work environments, with insight into how to search for the right workplace, how to integrate personal and professional identities, and how to build a support network.
CEE Panel Discussion
“Integrating Personal and Professional Identities: LGBTQ+ Experiences in the CEE Community”
Tuesday, March 1, 2022•••5:00 pm•••SEB 122
BlueJeans: https://bluejeans.com/190478820/5446
This panel is supported through the Diversity and Inclusion Fellows Program, with support from Institute Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and the ADVANCE Program.
Questions? Please contact Susan Burns (sburns@gatech.edu).
DEI Seminar: The Flint, Michigan Water Crisis: A Case Study in Regulatory Failure and Environmental Injustice
The Flint, Michigan Water Crisis: A Case Study in Regulatory Failure and Environmental Injustice
Lindsey Butler, Ph.D.
Director of Climate and Health Resilience Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts
February 9 – 5:00pm EST
https://bluejeans.com/651229727/3057
ABSTRACT
The Flint water crisis highlights numerous regulatory failures related to federal drinking water regulation, interpretation, and enforcement. The events that unfolded in Michigan, from the initial utilization of a corrosive water source to provide Flint’s drinking water to the inadequate response of numerous regulators, demonstrate how the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) can be wrongly interpreted, implemented, and weakly enforced, leading to dangerous exposure to unsafe drinking water. Our objective is to discuss these regulatory failures in Michigan in 2014–2015 in the context of other reported incidents of U.S. cities with high levels of lead in drinking water. Like the people of Flint, many of the affected residents are living in economically depressed areas with high rates of racial minorities. The recurring trend of unsafe drinking water in communities with this demographic profile qualifies this as an issue of environmental injustice.
BIOGRAPHY
Dr. Lindsey Butler is an environmental epidemiologist, science communicator, and thought leader specializing in the intersection of climate change and human health. She serves as the Director of Climate and Health Resilience at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts (BCBSMA) where her core priorities include reducing the organization’s environmental impact and moving towards carbon neutrality, making information about climate change and health accessible, and advancing environmental justice and climate resilience. Prior to joining Blue Cross, she served as the Deputy Chief of Policy to the Mayor of the City of Boston. Her work at City Hall focused on environmental policy, public health policy, language access, food assistance, developing the green workforce and data driven governance. She holds a Master of Science and PhD in environmental epidemiology from the Boston University School of Public Health.
DEI in CEE: Transportation As a Means to Deepen or Bridge Divides
Thank you for attending yesterday’s eye-opening seminar by CEE alum Jacob Tzegaegbe.
You can view the abstract for Jacob’s seminar, Transportation As a Means to Deepen or Bridge Divides here: Seminar Announcement – DEI in CEE – Jacob
If you were attend this week, the recording is available here. The discussions that follow the seminar are not recorded in order to protect the privacy of our attendees.
Learn more about the DEI in CEE Seminar Series here.
Learn more about Jacob Tzagaegbe:
Spring 2013 Graduate Reflection Speech
Fireside chat with Jacob and Dr. Amekudzi-Kennedy-40 Under 40
100 Black Men of Atlanta Discussion
DEI in CEE — Jacob Tzegaegbe, Via Transportation (TOMORROW 1/26/22 @ 5:00pm on BlueJeans)
Seminar Announcement – DEI in CEE – Jacob Tzegaegbe
Transportation as a means to deepen or bridge divides
Jacob Tzegaegbe Director of Expansion Via Transportation
January 26 – 5:00pm EST
https://bluejeans.com/962491375/4154
ABSTRACT
The built environment does not exist by chance, nor is it impartial. Today’s streets are a result of yesterday’s policy, deliberate decision making, and/or deliberate inaction. Thus, transportation is as much a tool to connect as it is to divide people from communities, amenities, and opportunities. In this talk, we’ll look at the impact of transportation over time and how it has been used (purposefully or with good intentions) to divide, displace, and discriminate. You may even learn that to see evidence of this type of division you may have to look no further than your nearest street sign.
Latinos/Hispanics in STEM: A Career Path Series
You’re Invited!
We are thrilled to welcome Prof. Andrés J. García, Ph.D., F.B.S.E., Executive Director of the Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience and Regents’ Professor at Georgia Tech as our first speaker in this year’s Latinos/Hispanics in STEM: A Career Path Series! This event will be hosted virtually on Feb. 1st from 4 to 5 PM.
Learn more and get registered – see you there!
This event is presented by LOGRAS, the GoSTEM Program,and the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering.
CEE 4801: DEI in CEE Course
Dear CEE community,
Happy new year! May 2022 bring you everything that you wish for and beyond.
As the Spring semester is approaching, I would like to bring your attention to a new seminar-based course entitled “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in Civil and Environmental Engineering,” which will be offered in Spring 2022. The course is open to undergraduate students, but interested graduate students are invited to sign up for a special problem (CEE 8900) with me. We will alternate talks with roundtables. The talks will be remote and open to the whole CEE community. The roundtables between the talks will be reserved to students enrolled in the class. We will be meeting as a cohort every Wednesday 5pm-6pm. The syllabus is attached, and here is the schedule of the talks:
01/19: “LGBTQ+ (in)visibility in engineering”, Dr. Michael Falk, Johns Hopkins University
01/26: “Transportation: a means to enhance or alleviate discrimination”, Jacob Tzegaegbe, Expansion at Via
02/09: “How environmental justice changed after the Flint catastrophe”, Dr. Lindsey Butler, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts
02/23: “Gender equity in energy access”, Dr. Paulina Jaramillo, Carnegie Mellon University
03/09: “Accessibility to urban infrastructure for physically disabled persons”, Maria Sotnikova, Atlanta Regional Commission
03/30: “Assessing and improving climate on engineering campuses: UCLA case study”, Dr. Scott Brandenberg, University of California in Los Angeles
04/13: “Diversity and inclusion in civil and environmental consulting”, Bing Zhang, Kimley – Horn
The scope of the course and a detailed syllabus for the writing assignments will be discussed during the first lecture (on 01/12). Please email me if you have any question. Very much looking forward to seeing you in the DEI in CEE forum!
Best regards,
Chloé Arson, Ph.D., M.ASCE (she/her/hers)
Georgia Institute of Technology
Associate Professor, School of Civil & Environmental Engineering
Adjunct Associate Professor, School of Earth & Atmospheric Sciences
Tel: (+1) 404-385-0143
Web: http://arson.ce.gatech.edu
Georgia Institute of Technology
Associate Professor, School of Civil & Environmental Engineering
Adjunct Associate Professor, School of Earth & Atmospheric Sciences
Tel: (+1) 404-385-0143
Web: http://arson.ce.gatech.edu