On the Frontlines: Environmental Justice in Louisiana
PANEL DESCRIPTION
This panel will look at how communities across the state are organizing and holding the line on environmental justice in an increasingly unfriendly political climate. The panel will focus on the hard, practical work of building coalitions around issues like industrial pollution, climate risk, and public health—drawing on community organizing, labor advocacy, art, and grassroots science. Panelists will share lessons from the ground on how neighbors, workers, and advocates turn lived experience into collective power, keep people engaged, and push for change even when formal political channels are stacked against them.
Moderated by Alexander LeFebvre
AMY STELLY, CLAIBORNE AVENUE ALLIANCE
Amy Stelly is an artist, designer, planner and teacher. Her body of work includes architectural and urban design, along with abstract painting, drawing, mask-making, photography, poetry, mixed-media and three-dimensional construction.
As a designer and planner, her scope of work includes building and open space design, historic restoration, downtown and neighborhood revitalization, environmental planning, zoning, entitlements, site planning, streetscape and landscape design. Her advocacy work with the Claiborne Avenue Alliance includes spearheading a recent study of community health outcomes for all living or working near urban highways.
Amy has studied and worked with acclaimed masters, including Andres Duany, Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, Douglas Farr and the late Charles Moore. She has lectured on urban gardens and the history of planning and open space in Treme; and she’s written about the value of community engagement and public accountability for The Lens, an online investigative publication.
Amy is a licensed tour guide, specializing in tours that look at the changing urban fabric. She is a native of New Orleans and lives in Treme where her family has resided for four generations.
KELVIN WELLS JR., SIERRA CLUB DELTA CHAPTER
Kelvin Wells Jr. is an environmental and racial justice advocate with experience in coalition building, community engagement, and grassroots campaign development. Through his work with the Sierra Club, he has helped bring together community leaders, organizers, and advocates to advance campaigns rooted in equity and environmental protection. His background also includes policy analysis, political campaign work, and project management, allowing him to connect on-the-ground organizing with broader policy and advocacy goals.
DR. ANGELLE BRADFORD ROSENBERG, SIERRA CLUB DELTA CHAPTER
Dr. Angelle Bradford Rosenberg, Sierra Club Delta Chapter. Medical Scientist by training and education. Chapter Chair and Volunteer Manager, supporting staff and volunteers across the State of Louisiana in our work to end the climate crisis and environmental injustice. Testified in the 2023 U.S. Senate plastic hearing as a resident of a plastic-production state and to speak to the impacts of plastics on health and 2022 Emerging Changemaker of the Year for Sierra Club.