Groundswell Winter 2014 Winter 2014 | Page 27

Trained as a biochemist, Kate Davies has been working in environmental quality and sustainability since the 1980s, when she was manager of the Environmental Protection Office in Toronto. In 2002, she joined Antioch University Seattle, where she is a core faculty member with the Center for Creative Change. The following is an excerpt from her book “The Rise of the U.S. Environmental Health Movement, published in March 2013 by ” Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. The book chronicles the strategies and successes of the movement over its 35-year history. Lorraine Mangione, administrator/AUNE and Donna H. DiCello, PsyD ’96/AUNE Kate Maruyama, MFA ’09/AULA “Daughters, Dads, and the Path Through Grief: Tales From Italian America” In this novel, Greta, an intrusive, sinister doula, has wormed her way into the lives of new parents Michael and Sarah. Every time Michael leaves Harrowgate, he returns to find his beloved wife and baby altered. He feels his family slipping away and, as a malevolent force begins to creep in, Michael does what any new father would do – he fights to keep his family together. “Harrowgate” 47North, 2013 Impact Publishers, 2013 Stories from 50 women, strategically woven throughout the book, offer glimpses into the many aspects of these fatherdaughter relationships that are warm and nurturing, sometimes complicated and conflicted, and always strong and enduring. John B. Cochran, MA ’98/AUNE “Mrs. Wellingcamp and Other Poems” Self-published, 2013 Poems about typical and atypical life experiences, family, and love. Jacqui Morton, MFA ’10/AULA “Turning Cozy Dark” Learn more at environmentalhealthmovement.org Finishing Line Press, 2013 This collection of poems was inspired by the experiences that motherhood brings, physical and emotional, in birth and in loss. It was a semifinalist in the 2012 New Women’s Voices Chapbook Competition. In 1978, a young stay-at-home mom named Lois Gibbs first raised the alarm about the health effects of toxic chemicals leaking from an abandoned waste site in Love Canal, New York. Gibbs and her neighbors faced the scary realization that their children were seriously ill just because of where they lived. They fought the government and won. The disaster at Love Canal marks the birth of the environmental health movement. Although Rachel Carson’s 1962 book “Silent Spring” alerted the public to the health effects of toxics some sixteen years earlier, it wasn’t until 1978 that local activists began to express their concerns and organize collective action. From these humble beginnings, environmental health has grown into the national and international movement it is today. In giving birth to the environmental health movement, Lois Gibbs and other local activists took advantage of the shortcomings of the environmental movement and created a new social movement based on community concerns. Feeling ignored by national environmental groups, their professional advocacy approach and their focus on federal legislation, citizen activists began to speak up for themselves. In particular, they laid claim to the urban environmental health issues ignored by environmentalists. Following in the footsteps of the social reformers of the Industrial Revolution, they took action to improve environmental conditions in America’s towns and cities… - WF GROUNDSWELL.ANTIOCHLA.EDU | J0953_GroundswellR.indd 25 25 12/18/13 11:19 AM