Associate Professor Marccus Hendricks is spending 2023 detailed to the Executive Office at the White House as Senior Advisor for Climate and Community Resilience on the inaugural Environmental Justice team. And, just 3.5 months into his one-year appointment, he has been able to witness President Biden sign an Executive Order that will further embed “environmental justice into the work of federal agencies to achieve real, measurable progress that communities can count on.” The order is part of the Biden-Harris Administration’s whole-of-government effort to confront longstanding environmental injustices and inequities.
Hendricks is excited to see that recommendations made by the inaugural Environmental Justice team were at the center of this executive order and pleased to know that his on-the-ground research and experience with communities from Houston to Baltimore, along with the mentoring he received from long-time researchers, activists and pioneers of the environmental justice movement, have evolved into federal policy.