Join the Center for Environmental Policy for the William K. Reilly Awards for Environmental Leadership on April 17, 2024, at American University. The winners are Environmental Justice Pioneer, Vernice Miller-Travis and George McGraw, Founder and CEO of DigDeep.  

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Vernice Miller-Travis, Environmental Justice Pioneer and Executive Vice President at the Metropolitan Group
One of the nation’s pioneering thought leaders on environmental justice, Vernice Miller-Travis has vast experience as a civil rights and environmental policy analyst, advocate, and consultant to federal and state agencies, foundations and nonprofits.

Vernice is Executive Vice President and Environmental Justice Lead at Metropolitan Group. She is a co-founder of We ACT for Environmental Justice and was a contributing author to the landmark report “Toxic Waste and Race in the United States.” She has helped build a social movement rooted at the intersection of race, environment, economics, social justice and public health.

Vernice grew up in a bi-national family that was based in both the Bahamas and the historic Harlem community of New York City. She enjoys spending time with family, singing, cooking for loved ones, and engaging in political debates.

George McGraw, Founder and CEO of DigDeep
George McGraw is a leading expert on the human right to water and sanitation in the U.S. and around the world. Mr. McGraw serves as founder and CEO of digdeep.org, the only water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) organization solely focused on the United States. DigDeep develops education, research and infrastructure programs aimed at extending clean, running water to the two million Americans who still lack it. In this capacity, Mr. McGraw works with local government officials, policymakers and utility providers to innovate solutions to water challenges across the nation. Mr. McGraw is also a Water and Power Commissioner for the City of Los Angeles, where he and his fellow board members direct the nation’s largest municipal utility. He is an Ashoka Fellow, a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network, and former Social Entrepreneur in Residence at Stanford University. He holds a Masters in International Law and the Settlement of Disputes from the United Nations University for Peace.
 

 

 

2023 William K. Reilly Awards Presented to Shalanda Baker and Vickie Patton

Shalanda Baker, Director, Office of Economic Impact and Diversity, US Department of Energy, and Vickie Patton, General Counsel, Environmental Defense Fund, were presented with the 2023 William K. Reilly Awards on May, 4, 2023. In addition to the awards presentations, master's students in the School of Public Affairs were awarded scholarships and internships in Mr. Reilly's name. 

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Shalanda H. Baker, Director of the Office of Economic Impact and Diversity and Secretarial Advisor on Equity

Prior to her Senate confirmation, the Honorable Shalanda H. Baker served as the Nation’s first-ever Deputy Director for Energy Justice. Before joining the Biden-Harris Administration, she was a Professor of Law, Public Policy and Urban Affairs at Northeastern University. She has spent over a decade conducting research on the equity dimensions of the global transition away from fossil fuel energy to cleaner energy resources. She is the author of over a dozen articles, book chapters, and essays on renewable energy law, energy justice, energy policy, and renewable energy development. In 2016, she received a Fulbright-Garcia-Robles research fellowship to study climate change, energy policy, and indigenous rights in Mexico. She is the Co-Founder and former Co-Director of the Initiative for Energy Justice (www.iejusa.org), an organization committed to providing technical law and policy support to communities on the frontlines of climate change. Her book, Revolutionary Power: An Activist’s Guide to the Energy Transition (Island Press 2021), argues that the technical terrain of energy policy should be the next domain to advance civil rights. She received her BS from the United States Air Force Academy and JD from Northeastern University School of Law. She obtained her LLM while serving as a William H. Hastie Fellow at the University of Wisconsin School of Law.

 

Vickie Patton, General Counsel, Environmental Defense Fund

Vickie Patton serves as Environmental Defense Fund's General Counsel and leads its U.S. Legal and Regulatory initiatives. For over thirty years, she has worked with partners to protect people from climate and air pollution. Patton began her career in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Office of General Counsel as part of the “class of 1990” – the team of EPA staff hired by Administrator William K. Reilly to implement the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990. At EPA, she received the Gold Medal for Exceptional Service (for outstanding achievement and leadership in forging a landmark agreement on the control of air pollution impacting Grand Canyon National Park), four EPA Bronze Medals (for outstanding initiative and achievement in carrying out EPA air quality protection programs), an EPA Special Achievement Award (for exceptional work and legal counsel on the development of EPA’s policy authorizing tribal air quality programs), and a U.S. Department of Justice Commendation (for outstanding performance in complex litigation). 

At EDF, Patton has successfully advocated for numerous national and state climate and air quality protections anchored in science-based analysis, collaboration, and partnerships; public education and outreach; and strategic litigation. Patton has been involved in a variety of cases in which EDF has participated as a party or amicus curiae including Supreme Court rulings affirming the constitutionality of the particulate matter and ozone national air quality standards, upholding Clean Air Act enforcement against large industrial emitters (Environmental Defense vs. Duke Energy), affirming EPA’s authority and responsibility to address greenhouse gases, and upholding EPA limits on interstate air pollution. It also includes U.S. Court of Appeals cases addressing greenhouse gases and air pollution from numerous sources and the first U.S. Court of Appeals ruling requiring federal agencies to meaningfully consider the societal costs of climate pollution when developing regulatory policies. The EDF legal team won the first legal challenge to efforts by the Trump administration to unravel public health and environmental protections, overturning the administration’s suspension of methane pollution limits for oil and gas activities. EDF’s legal team also blocked a policy by the Trump administration to unlawfully suspend enforcement of pollution limits for diesel trucks and secured a judicial ruling striking down a Trump administration policy to impede reliance on the best available public health science in addressing air pollution and toxic chemicals. Patton also worked with the nation’s largest institutional investors, state treasures, and fiscal management officials in successfully petitioning the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to clarify and explicate the climate risk disclosure obligations for publicly traded companies. She has worked with companies to secure commitments and action addressing climate and air pollution including the first private sector climate commitments in the U.S. to fully decarbonize a major power company and to eliminate tailpipe emissions from new passenger vehicles by 2035. Patton also worked on the historic Clean Air Act Amendments of 2022, incorporated in the Inflation Reduction Act, that reinforce EPA’s authorities and expand solutions to protect the American people from climate and air pollution. 

Patton has received numerous awards and is a co-founder of Moms Clean Air Force, a community of over 1.5 million moms, dads and caregivers united against air pollution to protect children’s health. She serves on the Boards of the Environmental Law Institute, Earthshot and the Initiative on Climate Risk and Resilience Law, and was inducted as a Fellow of the American College of Environmental Lawyers. She graduated from the University of Arizona where she studied hydrology and was a Rhodes Scholar finalist. She received her J.D. from the New York University School of Law where she studied environmental law under Dean Emeritus Richard Revesz.