Partner Webinar

Justfields: Elevate your Land Reuse Initiatives with New Environmental Justice Funding

Thursday, March 7 | 11:00 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. PST

EPA’s Environmental and Climate Justice (ECJ) Program, created under the Inflation Reduction Act, will infuse a historic $3B investment into communities facing environmental justice concerns. The funding will help underserved and overburdened communities take action and implement initiatives that support the health, wellbeing, and resilience of their neighborhoods. Each of the new funding opportunities includes eligible activities that support land reuse and brownfields redevelopment.

Join this important conversation where we will articulate the intersections between brownfields funding and ECJ funding. Attendees will learn how to effectively leverage ECJ funding to support their communities’ revitalization initiatives and mitigate past environmental injustices. Speakers from EPA’s Office of Brownfields and Land Revitalization (OBLR) and the Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights (OEJECR) will:

Outline available and upcoming ECJ funding including the Community Change Grants and Thriving Communities EJ Subgrants;
Spotlight eligible activities that are particularly relevant to land reuse;
Identify CERCLA 104(k) and 128(a) limitations that can potentially be addressed with ECJ funding;
And consider financial layering opportunities that maximize the potential of redevelopment initiatives and support project momentum.

Meet the moment with us! This level of investment doesn’t come around every day. Join us March 7th to learn more about this invaluable opportunity!

Register Here

Claire Weston Senior Programs Manager

Claire manages CCLR’s EPA cooperative agreements, leading program development, strategy, reporting, and success story preparation. She has extensive EPA grant management experience and oversees workshop/webinar planning, resource development, and partnership cultivation in CCLR’s Technical Assistance to Brownfields (TAB) Provider role. Prior to CCLR, Claire directed public outreach initiatives and coordinated citizen science programs in upstate NY.

Jalisa Gilmore Senior Manager of Environmental Justice Programs

Jalisa is the Senior Manager of Environmental Justice Programs at Groundwork USA. As part of the Climate, Land, and Water team, she is responsible for supporting the implementation of equity-centered strategies addressing legacies of environmental injustice communities across the nation. Jalisa utilizes her background in public health, climate mitigation, community-based participatory research, and environmental justice to support GWUSA’s Brownfields Technical Assistance program. Furthermore, Jalisa is passionate about leveraging green spaces to enhance the environmental health of communities and examining the impact of structural racism on health inequalities. She earned a B.S. in Environmental Sciences from SUNY Albany and an MPH in Environmental Health Sciences from Columbia University, with a specialization in the human health effects of climate change.

Alexandra Gallo Special Advisor

Alexandra Gallo, Special Advisor to U.S. EPA, oversees the Environmental and Climate Justice Community Change Grants, a historic program authorized through the Inflation Reduction Act that will invest $2.2 Billion in grants and technical assistance in disadvantaged communities nationally. She brings several years of developing and implementing innovative models for community transformation, including at the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the State of California. Alex, now based in Washington DC, is a first-generation college graduate with bachelors' degrees from California State University, Fresno and grew up in California’s Central Coast.

Gabrielle Plotkin Grant Specialist

Gabrielle Plotkin, Grant Specialist at U.S. EPA, works on the Environmental and Climate Justice Community Change Grants, specializing in community engagement and grants management. Born and raised in Denver, she is now based in Chicago and graduated with a bachelor’s degree from Northwestern University.

Jerry Minor-Gordon-English Grants Management Team Leader

Jerry Minor-Gordon-English is the acting Grants Management Team Leader in EPA’s Office of Brownfields and Land Revitalization (OBLR) and served as the national lead for the Brownfields Multipurpose, Assessment, Revolving Loan Fund, and Cleanup (MARC) Grant competitions from 2014-2023. Prior to joining OBLR, Jerry worked in EPA Region 1 - New England as a Brownfields Project Officer and coordinated the regional grant competitions. Jerry earned a Master of Public Health degree from Boston University and a Bachelor of Science in chemistry from Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia. She is a charter member and executive board member of the Alpha Alpha Sigma Omega Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated® in Prince George’s County, Maryland. In her spare time, she enjoys traveling, sampling new foods and wines, assembling 1K+ piece jigsaw puzzles, and spending time with friends and family.