Vernice Miller-Travis, Executive Director. 

Vernice has played a key role in helping to advance the concept of environmental justice in local, regional, national and international arenas.  Most recently, Vernice was with Groundwork USA, a network of nonprofit environmental organizations that help communities use their assets to eliminate environmental poverty and become vibrant, healthier, and safer places to live.

As a program officer of the Ford Foundation, she launched their environmental justice portfolio for grantmaking in the United States. She has served as the director of the Environmental Justice Initiative at the Natural Resources Defense Council, and served on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s National Environmental Justice Advisory Council. 

Vernice also served on the EPA’s All Appropriate Inquiry Federal Advisory Committee, which wrote the statutory language for the “Small Business Liability Relief and Brownfields Redevelopment Act” passed by Congress in 2002.  She is also a co-founder of West Harlem Environmental Action, a 20-year-old community-based environmental justice organization in New York City and she is a founding member of The National Black Environmental Justice Network.

Vernice assumed her position as Executive Director on January 7, 2008. The Environmental Support Center is excited to welcome her on board.

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