Vernice Miller-Travis

Vernice Miller-Travis "is executive director of Groundwork USA, a network of independent nonprofit environmental organizations that help communities use their assets to eliminate environmental poverty and become vibrant, healthier, and safer places to live. As a former program officer of the Ford Foundation, she launched that institution’s environmental justice portfolio in the United States. She was director of the Environmental Justice Initiative at the Natural Resources Defense Council from 1993 until 1999, served on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s National Environmental Justice Advisory Council from 1996 until 2001, and is co-founder of the West Harlem Environmental Action, a 17-year-old community-based environmental justice organization in New York City. The National Black Environmental Justice Network is a preventative health, environmental, and economic justice network with affiliates in 33 states and the District of Columbia. Members include some of the nation’s leading African-American grassroots environmental justice activists, community organizers, academics, researchers, lawyers, public health specialists, technical experts, and authors addressing the intersection of public health, environmental hazards, and economic development within Black communities."

• Advisory Committee, National Vacant Properties Campaign
• Diversity Advisory Committee, Earth Day Network