In today’s episode, Kaseba Chibweth talks with Ashley Valentin Gonzalez (she/her/hers/ella), a first-generation college student and environmentalist from Logan Heights, a neighborhood in San Diego, California. Ashley is majoring in Environmental Studies and minoring in Business Administration and Ethnic Studies at the University of San Diego and is a McNair Scholar working on a research paper on environmental racism and community mobilization in Logan Heights.

With this work, she hopes to demonstrate how the resilience and need of a community through political mobilization will result in rebuilding the neighborhoods that were destroyed and disregarded by policymakers. She also serves in her local community as a Portside steering committee member for the Community Air Protection Program (AB 617), the Community Advisory Council at the Centro Cultural de la Raza, an intern for the Barrio Logan Environmental Health Coalition, and is a Youth On Root Youth Advisory Board Member.

In this episode, we discuss: 

• What is environmental racism?
• The reason why low-income and minority groups live closer to environmental hazards?
• Steps that non-residents can take to help these communities?
• Why should people who are not directly affected by this issue care?

Connect with Ashley using the links below: 
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Connect with Kaseba using the links below: 
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