July 11, 2025 | Jacqui Patterson
Description:
In the fifth session in our Climate & Health Equity Webinar Series, we explore the critical intersections of housing, energy access, and community engagement through a lens of environmental justice. We are honored to welcome Jacqui Patterson, a national leader in environmental and climate justice. Ms. Patterson is the Founder and Executive Director of the Chisholm Legacy Project, A lifelong advocate for equity, she previously served as the Director of the NAACP Environmental and Climate Justice Program and was recently recognized with a TIME Earth Award for her groundbreaking contributions to climate justice. In this session, she will share insights from her decades of organizing and policy leadership to advance holistic, community-rooted solutions to structural inequities in housing, energy, and health.
Speaker Bios:
Jacqui Patterson is the founder and executive director of The Chisholm Legacy Project: A Resource Hub for Black Frontline Climate Justice Leadership. The mission of the Chisholm Legacy Project is rooted in a Just Transition Framework, serving as a vehicle to connect Black communities on the frontlines of climate justice with the resources to actualize visions. Before the launch of the Chisholm Legacy Project, Patterson served as the founding senior director of the NAACP Environmental and Climate Justice Program for over a decade. During her tenure, she implemented a robust portfolio, which included serving state and local leadership whose constituencies consisted of hundreds of communities on the frontlines of environmental injustice. She also led a team in designing and implementing a portfolio to support political education and organizing work executed by NAACP branches, chapters and state conferences. Since 2007, Patterson has dedicated her career to intersectional approaches to systems change. Over the years, her passion for social justice led her to serve as coordinator and co-founder of Women of Color United; senior women’s rights policy analyst for ActionAid; assistant vice president of HIV/AIDS Programs for IMA World Health, outreach project associate for the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, research coordinator for Johns Hopkins University, and U.S. Peace Corps volunteer in Jamaica.
She holds a master’s degree in social work from the University of Maryland and a master’s degree in public health from Johns Hopkins University.