Public Interest Law Center of Philadelphia Fourth Annual Symposium on Equality:

Overstudied and Underserved: Uses of the Law to Promote Healthy, Sustainable Urban Communities

8:30 a.m. - 4:45 p.m. at the Arch Street Meeting House, 4th and Arch Streets, Philadelphia, PA

The Thaddeus Stevens Award Dinner

5:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. at the Down Town Club, 6th & Chestnut Streets, Philadelphia, PA

An in-depth look at legal and advocacy tools for protecting minority and low-income communities disproportionately affected by negative environmental impacts, both by stemming further pollution and by crafting a positive vision of their environmental and economic revitalization.

Topics will include:

What is environmental justice, and where do we stand?
How can overburdened communities most effectively organize around environmental justice and public health issues?
How can we foster cross-disciplinary collaborations, incorporating law, public health and medical sciences, and other technical sciences, to inform and energize environmental justice advocacy and litigation?
How can cumulative impact screening tools best be designed and put to use in environmental litigation and the region's regulatory procedures?
How can we get past the false choice between jobs and the environment and create healthy, sustainable, and prosperous communities in historically overburdened neighborhoods?

Featuring keynote speaker Vernice Miller-Travis,
Vice Chair, Maryland State Commission on Environmental Justice and Sustainable Communities; Co-founder of WE ACT for Environmental Justice; member of National Environmental Justice Advisory Council (NEJAC)

Other community leaders and experts from the Philadelphia region and around the country will serve as panelists and speakers, sharing their expertise in order to give us the practical tools needed to drive positive environmental change in disadvantaged communities, including:

Alan Greenberger, Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development and Director of Commerce, City of Philadelphia
Cecil Corbin-Mark, Deputy Director/Director of Policy Initiatives, WE ACT for Environmental Justice
Arthur Frank, Professor and Chair, Department of Environmental and Occupational Health, Drexel University
Julie Becker, Founder and President, Women's Health and Environmental Network
Eileen Gauna, Professor of Law, University of New Mexico
Leslie Fields, National Environmental Justice Director, Sierra Club
Melissa Kim, Director, North 5th Street Revitalization Project, Korean Community
Louis M. Bell, Chief of the Division of General Pediatrics, Attending physician for Infectious Diseases, & Chair of the Infection Control and Prevention Committee, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia

The Symposium is being chaired by Law Center Board Member Donald K. Joseph, Associate Professor of Law at Rutgers Camden, where he teaches poverty law, ethics and professionalism. Mr. Joseph has litigated in diverse matters and was listed in "Best Lawyers in America" for his environmental litigation.
6 CLE Credits (pending approval) will be offered for this portion of the event.C ontinental Breakfast and Lunch will be served.

Followed by a cocktail reception, silent auction & The Thaddeus Stevens Award Dinner
5:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. at the Down Town Club, 6th & Chestnut Streets, Philadelphia, PA

The Law Center is honored to announce that we will present our Thaddeus Stevens Award to environmental justice pioneer and emeritus Law Center attorney Jerry Balter!

The Thaddeus Stevens Award, given out each year to individuals who have made substantial contributions to equality and justice in the issue area examined in that year's Symposium, this year recognizes Jerry's tenacious lawyering on behalf of minority and impoverished communities throughout the Philadelphia region victimized by disproportionate environmental harm.