Anne Rolfes: Bringing buckets of help to fenceline communities
July 2009 ·Anne Rolfes, founder and program director of Louisiana Bucket Brigade (LABB), is known as a leading pioneer of low-cost air sampling, soil testing and health surveys. With these tools, she helps citizens show the link between their health problems and what they see and smell coming from the smoke stacks of oil refineries next door to their fenceline communities.

Wilma Subra: Chemist helping communities find justice in toxic environment
February 2009 ·Wilma Subra started Subra Company, a chemistry lab and environmental consulting firm, in 1981. Her goal was to help citizens and communities understand exposure and health effects of toxins in their environment.

Reverend Roy Malveaux: Baptist minister crusading against toxic terrorism
July 2008 ·Reverend Roy Malveaux is pastor of the Shining Star Missionary Baptist Church in Beaumont, Texas. His demeanor is peaceful and thoughtful, and his voice is calm. But he doesn’t mince words when he talks about toxic pollution from petrochemical facilities and the dangers people who live near them face every day.

Mayor Bill White: Leading the way toward a healthier city, a healthier planet
April 2008 ·CLEAN's new series, Green Mayors of Texas, begins with a profile of Mayor Bill White, who is setting an example for mayors across the country with city initiatives to clean up the air, improve energy efficiency and move Houston toward clean, renewable energy sources.

Dina Cappiello: Reporting the hard facts
March 2008 · Dina Cappiello is an award-winning environmental journalist who follows the story looking for specific, factual information about environmental problems that communities need in order to push for change.

Brandt Mannchen: In the thick of protecting the Big Thicket and other natural resources
February 2008 · Brandt Mannchen is the ultimate volunteer environmental activist working for the local, state and national branches of the Sierra Club. He is chair of the Forestry Subcommittee and the Air Quality Committee of the Houston Regional Group of the Sierra Club. With Lone Star Sierra Club, he chairs the Big Thicket Committee, and is the Air Quality Issue and Forest Management Issue chair.

Jim Tarr: challenging government and polluters to protect public health
January 2008 · Jim Tarr spent a year volunteering in the pediatric ward of M.D. Anderson Medical Center that launched him on his crusade to bring industry and regulatory agencies to the task of preventing pollution. He contends, "There is no insignificant dose of carcinogenic chemical."

Suzie Canales: tenacious activist for environmental justice
December 2007· In her fervor to bring awareness to environmental issues and justice to her Corpus Christi community, Suzie Canales has been accused of almost everything. She also has received the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute’s Award for Outstanding Achievement in Environmental Justice.

Craig Williams: Champion for safe disposal of chemical weapons
November 2007· Craig Williams has been fighting to stop incineration of chemical weapons since 1985. Williams is president and co-founder of Chemical Weapons Working Group (CWWG), an international coalition of citizens groups working for safe and acceptable methods of chemical weapons disposal. He has received many honors for community service and his work to protect the environment and public health including the international Goldman Environmental Prize in 2006.

Bob Randall: Planting a legacy with seeds of change
October 2007· Bob Randall retires in February after twenty years as executive director of Urban Harvest. He will leave behind a legacy of the fourth largest community garden program in North America. From the first garden in 1987 to 135 gardens, Randall says the foundation of growing food locally is teaching people to be creative and sustainable.

John Sullivan: Taking the creative approach to environmental and social issues
August 2007· John Sullivan empowers fenceline communities with information, education and an ability to organize and work for change. He also works with organizations to understand communities. His crea-tive approach is unique and effective.

Lawrence Spence: Beautifying Houston as he teaches love of nature
June 2007· Lawrence Spence is keeping Houston beautiful and teaching children and college students about the environment as his life’s work. The native Houstonian grew up near Buffalo Bayou. “I have a natural affinity for Houston’s ecosystems: the gulf, bayous and piney woods,” he says.

David Crossley: Urban Dreamer; Quality of Life Seeker
May 2007· David Crossley says studying cities is the most interesting thing he’s ever done. It’s not just learning about them that motivates Crossley, he is thoroughly involved in improving quality of life for people who live in the Houston area, this is the mission of Gulf Coast Institute, the organization he founded in 1998.

Neil Carman: on a mission to stop pollution one citizen victory at a time
April 2007·It can sound like a David and Goliath story: citizens take on industry giants to defend their homes and families from toxic pollution. But, with Dr. Neil Carman on their side, citizens have a fighting chance.

Lois Gibbs: reluctant activist leads grass roots opposition to toxic waste sites
November 2006· “I read about Love Canal and expected someone to come knocking on my door asking for money – that’s how I thought I would help,” says Lois Gibbs. No one came, and that’s when Lois Gibbs, founder of Love Canal Homeowners Association, knew it was up to her to get her family and her neighbors out of harms way.

Karen Hadden: Dedicated activist for a safer, healthier planet
October 2006· For the past 20 years, Hadden has been an activist working on a variety of environmental issues. Her projects span preventing a nuclear waste dump near Sierra Blanco to environmental cleanup of the Bergstrom Air Force Base. When the air force base was being converted into an airport, Hadden worked with a group to save and move 40 houses that were scheduled for demolition. “This effort enabled people to have low-cost homes –it was a recycling success,” Karen says.

Hilton Kelley: Standing up for the West Side
September 2006· Hilton Kelley’s dream came true when he became a member of the Screen Actors Guild in 1991 as an actor and stuntman while living in Oakland, California. But the direction of his life changed dramatically when he came back to his hometown while working on a movie, to discover environmental contamination and societal degradation.

Jim Blackburn: protecting the environment a labor of love
August 2006· Jim Blackburn has made it his life’s work to protect the unique natural beauty and wildlife habitat of the Houston area, as well as the health and well-being of the people who live here. One of the first environmental consultants and environmental attorneys in the country, Blackburn in the 1970s immersed himself in learning about the environment and since then has worked tirelessly to protect it.

Tom “Smitty” Smith: organizer and lobbyist for the people and the planet
June 2006· The current issue is coal-fired power plants. Tom Smith, known as Smitty, is passionately informing Texas legislators, gubernatorial candidates and citizens about the air pollution, global warming gases and costs of the 17 proposed power plants and the cost-effective alternative – clean, renewable energy. Smitty says this is clearly the most important issue of our time.

Brian Yeoman: compassionate futurist
May 2006· Brian Yeoman creates situations to help people see environmentally and socially responsible possibilities within themselves and their organizations. “The big principles are simple like: Treat all living things with respect and dignity; recognize that sharing is not a weakness; and light belongs to people, all of the people,” Yeoman says.

Diane Wilson: unreasonable woman, tireless activist
April 2006· Wilson was helping her father on his shrimp boat by the time she was eight years old. She was the first woman to captain her own boat in Lavaca Bay. It is Wilson’s passion for water, the bay and shrimping that has given her the courage and energy to face large multinational corporations to save the bay and to stand up for people and the environment around the world.

Jane Blaffer Owen: Passionate visionary for a better world
March 2006· Owen has spent much of her life as a savior of nature. In New Harmony, Indiana she works to preserve nature, beauty and history, as well as provide a spiritual and intellectual refuge for artists, writers and educators.

Juan Parras: Fighting for Environmental Justice
October 2005· From environmental injustices to basic human rights, Juan Parras is no stranger to the good fight. For more than 30 years, Parras has been a voice for low income minorities through his work as an international union representative, anti-pollution activist and as a community outreach coordinator.

Dan Phillips: weaving dreams from discarded things
August 2005· The dream of being a builder and a fascination with garbage dump discoveries were the seeds that took root and became a life’s work for Dan Phillips. “In 1996, we decided to get on with living our fantasy before it was too late,” Phillips says. He and his wife, Marsha, mortgaged their house and started The Phoenix Commotion, a business for building affordable houses from free, salvage and recycled materials.

Texas Representative Lon Burnam: Standing up for the environment
July 2005· Texas needs more people in government who stand up for the environment. Lon Burnam is doing his part, and he would like more people to join him. “I’m absolutely an environmentalist,” he says. His record of service in the Texas House of Representative from District 90 in Fort Worth since 1997 shows it.

Houston Architect Designs Healthy Green Homes
April 2005· For three decades, Williams has been pioneering “green” architecture in Texas. Motivated in the mid-70s by a deep concern for how commercial architecture seemed to value profit and appearance over quality-of-life construction, he questioned whether he wanted to stay in the field. His love of the outdoors inspired him to consider ways to build in harmony with nature. Now he is considered one of the leading experts in green residential architecture, i.e. earth-friendly, healthy, high-performance homes.

John Porretto- working towards a sustainable future
March 2005· Why would an institution dedicated to promoting health operate in a sick building? Why should public funds support facilities that are inefficient and costly to operate? About a decade ago, University of Texas Health Science Center's John Porretto began asking these questions. The eventual answer was a forward thinking-approach to building design that culminated in the opening of the UT Houston Nursing and Student Community Center in October of 2004.

Sue McDonald- Environmental Crusader
December 2004· Today McDonald is crusading to inform the public about the hazards of chemicals in food and water (including packaging materials), in household products, clothing, personal care products, plastics and building materials. And she has some good news: “You find that by going through this journey and cleaning up your environment you can get your health back.”

Cath Conlon: Bringing Life to the Land
November 2004· Cath Conlon has created a magical oasis a mere hour’s drive from the third largest city in the country. Carved out of the land, yet intrinsically a part of it, Blackwood Educational Land Institute offers its Houston-area visitors a sense of peace and tranquility rarely found in daily life.

Winifred Hamilton: shining a light on Houston’s environment-related health issues
October 2004· “If you are not healthy, all the money in the world does not matter,” says Winifred Hamilton, PhD, director of Baylor College of Medicine’s Environmental Health Section. Hamilton knows. She has been inspired by her own health challenges to work toward increasing public awareness about the connection between health and the environment.

Henry Kelly, scientist and activist improving lives with science and technology
September 2004· Henry Kelly, PhD, president of the Federation of American Scientists (FAS), believes science and technology can help solve the earth’s problems. To affect the solutions and changes needed to sustain this home to more than six million people – nine billion by 2050 – science and public policy need to come together.

Charlotte Brody: crusading to reduce body burden of toxic chemicals for all people
August 2004· Charlotte Brody, a dedicated activist, has been involved in the creation of Health Care Without Harm. Now an international organization, it works to make health care more environmentally responsible and sustainable.

Peter Altman, environmental campaigner
July 2004· Peter Altman is a very active and effective environmental activist. For more than two decades he has worked diligently to promote sustainable energy, clean jobs and a clean environment.

Roger Rasbach, architectural designer,environmentalist, visionary
June 2004· Roger was well known as an advocate for energy conservation and care for the environment. His most recent efforts in Houston include The Houston Challenge, supporting plans for Houston to be energy efficient by following the rules of energy conservation.