This is a hard moment for the work we care about. The rules that keep our air breathable, our water clean, our workplaces safe, and our government answerable to the people are under real pressure. Agencies are losing the authority to do their jobs. The idea that government should protect people when markets will not is being treated as if it were up for debate. And the communities that suffer most from pollution, unsafe work, and a warming climate are still the last ones invited into the rooms where the choices get made.
I spent my childhood two blocks from a power plant grandfathered out of Clean Air Act protections in Texas and suffered from chronic bronchial infections while multiple family members and friends managed asthma. In law school, I learned to value the regulations and bureaucracy that could be made to protect people’s lives.
So I am honored to join the Center’s work. I began my work in Washington as an environmental lobbyist before working for two members of Congress. I have spent the bulk of my career helping mission-driven organizations get stronger. I build things that let good people do hard work.
I believe the Center’s power comes from a rare combination: rigorous scholarship from our Member Scholars, joined to the lived truth of the people these harms fall on hardest. My job is to make the platform beneath that work as strong as it can be, so the research reaches further, the coalitions hold, and the people most affected are treated as partners, not case studies. When markets fail to protect workers, families, and the environment, government has the power and the duty to step in. This organization has defended that idea where it counts: regulatory reform, worker health and safety, access to the courts, climate justice, and the long work of cleaning up the Chesapeake. I do not take that legacy lightly.
For the next few months, I plan to do more listening than talking. I want to hear from the scholars who anchor our research, the advocates who carry it into the fight, and the readers who follow this work because they believe, as I do, that government can serve the people it is meant to protect. I want you to tell me where you think we should focus. Please feel free to reach out.
Also, please join me in thanking Catalina Gonzalez and James Goodwin for their leadership over the past several months and into the future. I want to thank all the staff and scholars; I am very happy to be joining such a solid team. Finally, thank you all for the work you have already done being part of this community, and for the welcome you have shown me. I am ready to get started!
