Through her work as a speaker, organizer, and activist, Paula Brooks has devoted herself to educating residents, community and elected leaders, civil servants, and others on environmental justice issues in Indiana. She has led successful campaigns to stop projects that would expose marginalized communities to additional pollution. Her efforts have helped raise awareness of the disproportionate environmental health burdens shouldered by low-income communities and communities of color in Indianapolis and contributed to the inclusion of environmental equity as a key planning criterion of Indianapolis’ first resilience plan. Additionally, Brooks has worked to encourage sustainable design of new infrastructure and advocated for the preservation of urban trees. She is committed to mentoring students interested in careers in environmental justice. Brooks, an Environmental Leadership Program Senior (ELP) Fellow also serves as a co-facilitator of the National Black Environmental Justice Network’s (NBEJN) Climate Change Working Group. She chairs the Equity and Environmental Justice Committee of ReThink, a transportation advocacy organization. She was named a 2021 Hoosier Resilience Hero by Indiana University’s Environmental Resilience Institute (ERI). The Reclaiming Indiana Avenue Planning Initiative goal is to bring residents and stakeholders together to design a community-driven future, one that prioritizes people over projects and seeks to address past harms. Reclaiming Indiana Avenue is an important and rare opportunity to lay the framework to collaboratively chart a new course for the Indiana Avenue and MLK Corridors. https://www.reclaimindianaavenue.org/ https://www.instagram.com/reclaim_indiana_avenue/

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“What did the council decide on item 42?” — answered with the speaker and the moment.

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