Leah Thomas is an eco-communicator, aka an environmentalist with a love for writing + creativity, based in Ventura, CA. She’s passionate about advocating for and exploring the relationship between social justice and environmentalism. You could say she’s tryna make the world a little more equal for everyone and a little nicer to our home planet.

She is the founder of eco-lifestyle blog @greengirlleah and The Intersectional Environmentalist Platform, which is a resource + media hub that aims to advocate for environmental justice + inclusivity within environmental education + movements.

Her articles on this topic have appeared in Vogue, Elle, The Good Trade, and Youth to the People and she has been featured in Harper’s Bazaar, W Magazine, Domino, GOOP and numerous podcasts. She has a B.S. in Environmental Science and Policy from Chapman University and worked for the National Park Service and Patagonia headquarters before pursuing environmentalism full time. Learn more about Leah and her mission in this BuzzFeed video.

Engaging the World: Leading the Conversation on Environmental Justice is a series of informed, sustained, and enriching dialogues looking at how environmental toxicity and risk disproportionately impact populations based on race, ethnicity, nationality, and social standing. Environmental Justice brings awareness to these disparities, fighting to ensure that every voice is heard, every challenge is addressed, and every community has a seat at the table for a greener future.

Guest: Leah Thomas
Host: Jon-Barrett Ingels
Produced by Public Podcasting in partnership with Wilkinson College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences at Chapman University.

Dr. William M. Tsutsui is an award-winning historian and teacher, frequent public speaker and media commentator, and a seasoned academic administrator with a record of innovation.  Born in New York City and raised in Texas, he holds degrees from Harvard (A.B. 1985), Oxford (M.Litt. 1988), and Princeton (M.A. 1990, Ph.D. 1995) universities. He began his academic career at the University of Kansas, where over 17 years on the faculty he served as acting director of KU’s Center for East Asian Studies, chair of the Department of History, founding executive director of the Confucius Institute at the University of Kansas, and associate dean for international studies in the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences. From 2010 to 2014, he was dean of Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences and professor in the Clements Department of History at Southern Methodist University in Dallas.  In June 2014, he assumed the presidency of Hendrix College, a top-tier national liberal arts college founded in 1876 and located in Conway, Arkansas.  He is currently Professor Emeritus of History at Hendrix.  During the 2020 to 2021 academic year, he is the Edwin O. Reischauer Distinguished Visiting Professor at the Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies and the Department of East Asian Languages & Civilizations at Harvard University.

Engaging the World: Leading the Conversation on Environmental Justice is a series of informed, sustained, and enriching dialogues looking at how environmental toxicity and risk disproportionately impact populations based on race, ethnicity, nationality, and social standing. Environmental Justice brings awareness to these disparities, fighting to ensure that every voice is heard, every challenge is addressed, and every community has a seat at the table for a greener future.

Guest: Dr. William M. Tsutsui
Host: Jon-Barrett Ingels
Produced by Public Podcasting in partnership with Wilkinson College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences at Chapman University.

Dr. Jason A. Douglas is an assistant professor of public health in the Department of Health Sciences within Crean College of Health and Behavioral Sciences. Leveraging community-based participatory research frameworks, Douglas works with community-based organizations and residents in underserved Black and Latinx communities to investigate social and environmental determinants of public health disparities.

His current research examines COVID-19-related health disparities, food and housing insecurity-related health disparities, the nexus of crime and violence and legal drug retail locations (e.g., tobacco shops, liquor stores), public park and physical activity disparities in underserved communities, and community organizing practices for advancing health and wellbeing. In his community-engaged research, Douglas has developed and adapted innovative participatory methods for public health, including structured observation and neighborhood mapping approaches for examining novel public health challenges.  

Douglas completed his environmental psychology doctoral training at the Graduate School and University Center of the City University of New York, wherein he worked with children from underserved communities in New York City and forest-fringe community residents in Jamaica to examine social and environmental inequities that challenge community health and wellbeing. He then honed his participatory research practice through a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation-funded postdoctoral research fellowship in the Psychology Applied Research Center at Loyola Marymount University, where he worked with a national cohort of community-based organizations to evaluate community organizing strategies and practices for addressing health, education, and built environment disparities in underserved communities. He extended these research practices as an assistant professor in the Department of Environmental Studies at San José State University before joining Chapman University.

Engaging the World: Leading the Conversation on Environmental Justice is a series of informed, sustained, and enriching dialogues looking at how environmental toxicity and risk disproportionately impact populations based on race, ethnicity, nationality, and social standing. Environmental Justice brings awareness to these disparities, fighting to ensure that every voice is heard, every challenge is addressed, and every community has a seat at the table for a greener future.

Guest: Dr. Jason A. Douglas
Host: Jon-Barrett Ingels
Produced by Public Podcasting in partnership with Wilkinson College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences at Chapman University.