Environmental Justice

Dr. James Johnson, Jr., Co-Chair – Dr. James Johnson is the William R. Kenan Jr. Distinguished Professor of strategy and entrepreneurship and director of the Urban Investment Strategies Center at the Frank Hawkins Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise. His research interests include community and economic development, the effects of demographic changes on the U.S. workplace, interethnic minority conflict in advanced industrial societies, urban poverty and public policy in urban America, and workforce diversity issues.

Dr. Virginia Guidry, Co-Chair – Dr. Virginia Guidry serves as the branch head and environmental justice lead at the Occupational and Environmental Epidemiology Branch at the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services. She also serves as an adjunct associate professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Department of Epidemiology.

Justin Flores- Justin Flores is the Director of the Workers and Jobs program at the Private Equity Stakeholder Project, where he leads PESP's work supporting workers, unions, and other labor groups organizing for better working conditions at private equity-owned companies. Prior to joining PESP, Justin held numerous positions at the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC) from 2009-2022.

Cara Bridges – Cara Bridges Serves as Director of Policy and Strategic Planning, at North Carolina Department of Public Safety. She is responsible for managing the Department's strategic plan, including creating, updating, and tracking implementation. Bridges also manages all Department-level policies.

Demico Guy - A recent graduate of the North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, Demico Guy currently works with Soil and Water Conservation at the North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. He has interned with the UNC-G Center for Housing and Community Studies as a research technician with the North Carolina Conservation Network.

Dr. Tamara Holmes Brothers - Dr. Tamara Holmes Brothers serves as Diversity, Equity, Accessibility, and Inclusion Manager with the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources. She works to design, develop, and implement agency programs, agency DEAI efforts, policies, and the strategic plan, as well as provide executive-level support to the Secretary of Natural and Cultural Resources.

Marian Johnson-Thompson - Dr. Marian Johnson-Thompson is an adjunct Professor of Maternal and Child Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Gillings School of Global Public Health. She has over 25 years of experience in clinical trials and research activities and is active with Susan G. Komen as a Komen Scholar since 2018, a Komen Advocate in Science (AIS) for over 5 years and serves on the AIS Steering Committee.

Justin Duncan – Justin Duncan is serves as the Director of Partnership, Engagement, and Inclusion at the North Carolina Department of Adult Corrections. Justin previously served as energy and sustainability manager at the North Carolina Department of Public Safety as well as the University of North Carolina at Pembroke.

Marilynn Marsh-Robinson – Marilynn Marsh-Robinson is the Director of Partnerships and Outreach at the Environmental Defense Fund. Marilynn is responsible for collaborating and leading aspects of EDF's zero-emission vehicle transportation strategy, identifying potential partners, nurturing shared dialogue, developing opportunities to leverage common work, and implementing tactical joint efforts and helping develop, guide and execute organizational priorities to facilitate deployment of zero-emission vehicles in North Carolina.

Evin Grant – Evan Grant serves as the N.C. Department of Administration’s Policy Director, developing and assisting in implementing policies and procedures for departments, initiatives, and task forces across the State of North Carolina. He also collaborates on statewide Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion program development, initiatives, and training and advises on employment, non-public education, technology, and more.

Naeema Muhammad – Naeema Muhammad is the Senior Advisor at the North Carolina Environmental Justice Network. Naeema worked on the Community Health and Environmental Reawakening (CHER) in which she served as a community organizer working with communities dealing with waste from industrial hog operations.

Torre Jessup – Torre Jessup serves as the Chief Deputy and Deputy State Chief Information officer at the North Carolina Department of Information Technology. Jessup leads the Department’s Internal Operations Division and focuses his efforts on providing enterprise application and infrastructure services to state agencies, local governments and universities across North Carolina.

Daisha Wall - Daisha Wall currently serves as Community Science Manager at CleanAIRENC. In previous roles, Daisha was a Stormwater Specialist and Educator for a municipal stormwater partnership, a Legislative Assistant for an environmental council in Seattle, as well a Donor Communications Assistant for a non-profit with the focus of providing clean water to those in need.

Sharon Martin – Sharon Martin serves as the Deputy Secretary for Public Affairs at the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality. Prior to joining DEQ she worked in media in various capacities for more than two decades. Her experience includes writing, producing and on-air appearances for local public radio, local television news, CNN and documentary television shows.

Sherri White-Williamson - Sherri White-Williamson is the Executive Director of the Environmental Justice Community Action Network (EJCAN). White-Williamson also serves as the Director of Environmental Justice Strategy at the North Carolina Conservation Network where she focuses on incorporating consideration of environmental justice in NCCN's policy and outreach efforts. She retired from the U.S. EPA's Office of Environmental Justice, where she served in many roles including Manager of the Interagency Working Group on Environmental Justice established under Executive Order 12898 and Designated Federal Officer to the National Environmental Justice Advisory Council.

Jennifer Mundt – Jennifer Mundt serves as the Assistant Secretary of Clean Energy Economic Development for the North Carolina Department of Commerce where she leads efforts to secure clean energy economic and workforce opportunities for North Carolina, including offshore wind. She served as the Senior Policy Advisor in the Department of Environmental Quality and prior to that Jennifer worked for more than a decade as a nonpartisan senior legislative analyst for the North Carolina General Assembly.

Dr. Rebecca Witter - Dr. Rebecca Witter is an Associate Professor of Sustainable Development at Appalachian State University and co-founding member of the Eastern North Carolina Environmental Justice Collaborative (“EJ Co-Lab”), a university-community partnership that works to achieve knowledge co-production in environmental justice. Witter’s long-term ethnographic and transdisciplinary research examines the interlinkages between well-meaning environmental protection initiatives and human impoverishment and dispossession.

Ebony Pittman - Pittman currently serves as Deputy Secretary for Business Administration at the North Carolina Department of Transportation. In her role, she directs the Department’s Office of Civil Rights, the Office of Historically Black Colleges, and Universities Outreach, Purchasing and Facilities Management. Pittman serves as co-executive sponsor for the Department’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Advisory Group, which works to develop solutions that create a more diverse and inclusive culture within the department.

Dr. Courtney G. Woods - Dr. Courtney Woods is an Associate Professor of Environmental Sciences and Engineering and Master of Public Health Program Director at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Gillings School of Global Public Health. She serves a lead for the Master of Public Health (MPH) program's Environmental Health Solutions concentration and co-lead for the Health Equity, Social Justice and Human Rights concentration, which she helped develop.

Douglas Taggart – Douglas Taggart serves as Interagency Coordinator at the N.C. Department of Military and Veterans Affairs. He has assisted military service members and veterans transition into K-12 teaching careers in public and charter schools with the Troops to Teachers grant program as part of the N.C. Department of Public Instruction.

Tommy Cabe – Tommy Cabe is a Tribal member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians from the Bird Town Community, and as the Tribal Forest Resource Liaison, he is responsible for Forest Management Plan Development on the Trust Lands and on forested Tribal acres. He serves as a liaison in the "agency to agency" relationships with the U.S. Forest Service and the National Park Service for collaboration on Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK).

McKinley Wooten – McKinley Wooten Serves as Assistant Secretary for Tax Processing, Research, and Equity, with the N.C. Department of Revenue. He has served in several senior level positions in state government, including inspector general, deputy secretary of the N.C. Department of Administration as well as director and deputy director of the Administrative Office of the Courts.