We Can Be podcast - The Heinz Endowments
Society & Culture
It is no understatement to say that Mustafa Santiago Ali is a superhero in the environmental justice world. He earned his stripes serving in the Environmental Protection Agency for more than two decades, becoming a founding member of the Office of Environmental Justice and, most recently, serving as senior advisor for Environmental Justice and Community Revitalization.
As winter 2017 lingered on, Mustafa resigned from the EPA when deep cuts in budget and staff were being proposed. He cited concerns about the dedication of the agency’s new leadership to environmental justice in poor and minority communities. “The shielding of vulnerable communities and minority neighborhoods from the effects of pollution is a crucial function of the EPA,” Mustafa wrote in his resignation letter.
Mustafa’s exuberance for environmental justice has not ceased, however; it is simply redirected in a powerful new way. He’s now a senior vice president with the Hip Hop Caucus, a national, nonprofit and non-partisan organization that connects the hip-hop community to the civic process. He leads the organization’s Climate, Environmental Justice & Community Revitalization programs with unrelenting positivity, style and focused energy.
In this episode of “We Can Be,” Mustafa speaks with particular passion about the Hip Hop Caucus’ “Respect My Vote” campaign and explains why it’s critical that environmental issues be approached holistically.
“Environmental issues are also transportation issues — and housing issues, health issues and workforce issues,” he says.
While at the EPA, Mustafa worked with more than 500 domestic and international communities in his efforts to improve people’s lives by addressing environmental, health, and economic justice issues. Today, using a digital platform, he’s reaching countless more through the Hip Hop Caucus.
Two decades of indefatigable environmental justice work?
No problem. Mustafa is just getting started.
Don’t miss Mustafa Santiago Ali on a spirited episode of “We Can Be.”
“We Can Be” is hosted by The Heinz Endowments’ Grant Oliphant and produced by the Endowments and Treehouse Media. Theme music is composed by John Dziuban, with incidental music by Josh Slifkin.
Love Canal’s accidental environmentalist Lois Gibbs on the movement she sparked & what today’s activists need to know to save our world (S01EP17)
What the Eyes Don't See: Mona Hanna-Attisha & Flint’s lead water crisis. (S01EP16)
The 45 Words that Define Us: Max King on a First Amendment under fire, why we let rights slip away & how we can save them (S01E15)
Born for Storms: Angela Blanchard was a rock during Houston’s Hurricane Harvey & now she’s out to change the world for good (S01EP13)
New Power: Author Henry Timms explains what it is, how to get it & why it’s changing our hyper-connected world. (S01EP12)
Brick by brick: Steve Shelton got his second chance & now he makes certain others have a shot at their own redemption (S01EP11)
Spinning our moral compass: Rabbi Ron Symons on why centuries-old traditions may be the secret to navigating race, wage & immigrant issues. SE01E10
R2-D2, Illah & Ethics: How robotics & AI genius Illah Nourbakhsh was inspired to use his superpowers for good SE01E09
Circles of love: Tammy Thompson draws on her own remarkable journey in her work to break poverty trauma cycles (S01EP08)
Humor, Rap, Poetry & Love: the New Muslim Cool of Hamza Perez (S01E07)
A Story of Two Wilsons: Janis Burley Wilson grew up in an arts-loving family in playwright August Wilson’s hometown, and now she leads his namesake Center for African American Culture. (S01E06)
From Miami to the Midwest: Change Agency’s Betty Cruz has made it her life’s work to make her city a welcoming place for immigrants. (S01E05)
Center for Coalfield Justice’s Veronica Coptis and her fight for one rural America county’s environmental justice (S01EP04)
Actor/writer David Conrad’s long journey home, identity of place, and the key role artists play in shaping our future (S01 EP03)
Kazakhstan candy, a Wisconsin dairy farm, PBS and innovative investigative news: the fantastic journey of PublicSource Exec. Director Mila Sanina (S01EP02)
Post-9/11 vets' unique role in a more perfect union w/ Nick Grimes of Veterans Breakfast Club (S01EP01)
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