Val Verde, California

Jennifer is a proud mother of three and resident of Val Verde since 2016. Since 2023, an underground fire at the Chiquita Canyon Landfill has been devastating the nearby community, with residents experiencing asthma attacks, heart conditions, cancer, and more. Jennifer and her neighbors have mobilized to demand action through outreach to policymakers, media campaigns, and legal action. In 2025, efforts by community members helped push California to adopt the strongest landfill emissions standards in the country.

Jennifer says: “We are stronger in numbers, and nobody can fight this battle alone. We must lean on each other, support each other, and advocate for each other. My community has become family to me. They push me to keep going, to keep fighting for change, and they remind me that justice prevails! It takes a village, and with that village, anything is possible!”

Waggaman, Louisiana

Gilda is a community advocate who has been pushing back against the River Birch Landfill since she moved to the area in 2021. Gilda and her neighbors formed Concerned Citizens of Waggaman, Louisiana, a group dedicated to raising awareness and demanding accountability from the landfill operator. She believes in clean air and a safe environment for all, and in the power of everyday people to transform and empower communities.

Gilda says: “You have much more power than you think. Change begins when everyday people stand together. You don’t need to be an expert — just care about your community and speak up. One voice joined with others can protect our health, our neighborhoods, and our future.”

Commerce City, Colorado

Laura is the Manager of Environmental Justice Programs at Cultivando, where she’s able to pursue her passion of community organizing and supporting people to advocate for their own interests. Before working at Cultivando, she was an active community member volunteering at her children's school, serving at her local church and being a leader with Coloradans for the Common Good. She was led to landfill activism out of concern for her parents, who live just miles from the Tower Landfill in Commerce City.

Laura says: “If we don't advocate for ourselves, no one will.”

Clinton, North Carolina

Sherri is the Executive Director of the Environmental Justice Community Action Network (EJCAN). Before her current position, she led environmental justice strategy for the North Carolina Conservation Network. Sherri retired from the U.S. EPA’s Office of Environmental Justice in 2015. EJCAN pushed for, and successfully negotiated, a settlement with the operator of the Sampson County Landfill. The settlement will reduce air pollution from the landfill and establish a community-led fund that will be used to advance environmental justice and public health initiatives.

Sherri says: “Community unity can lead to meaningful change for the impacted community. It is important to build trust with the community to be successful.”

Clinton, North Carolina

Kyron is an environmental lawyer currently serving as a project manager at the Environmental Justice Community Action Network (EJCAN). Before deciding to pursue a legal career, he spent more than fifteen years in academia as a physicist, most recently as a professor of physics at Florida A&M University. Kyron became involved in landfill activism after learning how rural communities absorb much of the environmental burden from urban areas.

Kyron says: “The power in coming together is realizing that you are not alone and you can make a difference.”

Corvallis, Oregon

Mark spent his career as an environmental engineer. Now, he uses his expertise to fight against a dangerous and unnecessary expansion of the Coffin Butte Landfill, which already accepts a third of the waste generated in the entire state of Oregon. Mark’s group, Valley Neighbors for Environmental Quality and Safety, has been mobilizing to stop the landfill expansion since 2021.

Mark says: “The sense of community created by a common cause to protect people, the local environment and the climate is a powerful force. Resisting the forces of corporate power and political leaders over residents has helped to build and bond community.”