Catherine Coleman Flowers

Catherine Coleman Flowers is an internationally recognized environmental activist, MacArthur “genius” grant recipient, and author. She has dedicated her life’s work to advocating for environmental, climate, and racial justice. primarily equal access to clean water and sanitation for communities across the United States. Founder of the Center for Rural Enterprise and Environmental Justice (CREEJ), Flowers has spent her career promoting sanitation equity, clean water, air, and eliminating health disparities in marginalized, rural communities. In addition, Flowers serves as Rural Development Manager for Bryan Stevenson’s Equal Justice Initiative (EJI), is a member of the Board of Advisors for the Center for Earth Ethics at Union Theological Seminary, and sits on the Board of Directors for the Climate Reality Project and the Natural Resources Defense Council. Flowers is also an advisor to the JPB Foundation and a Practitioner in Residence at Duke University's Franklin Humanities Institute. In 2021 she was appointed a Vice-Chair of the Biden Administration’s inaugural White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council. Flowers was also named Levenick Resident Scholar in Sustainable Leadership at the University of Illinois for spring 2021 and was awarded an honorary Ph.D. in science from Wesleyan University.