Join Cape Fear River Watch and Special Guests to talk about PFAS (like GenX) from many perspectives including health, policy and community impact. Our esteemed guests will be: Toxicologist Dr. Jamie DeWitt, Clean Cape Fear’s Emily Donovan, Haw Riverkeeper Emily Sutton, NC Black Alliance’s La’Meshia Whittington, and filmmaker Elijah Yetter-Bowman.

May 1 from 9-11 AM via Zoom and FB Live. Register Here: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZ0kcO-rqDwvEtEpmMaakri7TKhOvQA2urph?fbclid=IwAR2-eIVqUtqf3I3xMRmCrJXOl61P9iq9LjSCEAjWEXayRXntYxFYqBo0xBs

Special Guests:

La’Meshia Whittington- La’Meshia Whittingtonis a Professor in the Division of Sociology at Meredith College. She is also the Deputy Director for Advance Carolina and the Campaigns Director for the North Carolina Black Alliance. She is the co-convener of the NC Black & Brown Policy Network, former National Democracy Campaigner for Friends of the Earth, former Chairwoman of the FRENC Fund Administration, Founding member of Democracy Green, member of the Burke Women’s Fund in Western NC and the former NC spokesperson on fair courts for The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. Professor Whittington leads the work on intersectional democracy and environmental justice, she was a co-author of NC Senate Bill 673, prioritizing environmentally contaminated communities-of-color in voting rights, and a co-author in several Pro-Democracy North Star legislation bills. Professor Whittington is a member of the NC PFAS Team anchoring AFFF legislation, and a convener of the Black Firefighters Fighting PFAS Collective. Professor Whittington has created and co-convened national, regional, and statewide tours and workshops on environmental justice, namely chemical contaminants, and dirty corporations. Professor Whittington continually works with the Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University, DHHS and government agencies to ground community needs and strategies in alleviating health disparities in Black and Brown communities. Professor Whittington led the development of a statewide map to highlight the intersection of environmental justice contamination zones and the frequency in which they are located within gerrymandered Black majority voting districts. Professor Whittington is a community liaison for the National Academies of Science, Engineering & Medicine for the Guidance on PFAS Testing and Health Outcomes national study. She is a petitioner in two active petitions to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, for more information: PFAS and 1,4 Dioxane. Professor Whittington is an Afro-Indigenous woman from North Carolina, hailing from a former environmental justice settlement: The Kingdom of the Happy Land. She received her education at Western Piedmont Community College and Meredith College.

Jamie Dewitt PhD, DABT- Jamie DeWitt is an Associate Professor in the Department of Pharmacology & Toxicology of the Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University. Her laboratory’s research program focuses on functional effects of environmental chemicals on the immune system and its interactions with the nervous system during development and adulthood. With respect to PFAS, Dr. DeWitt has published numerous primary research articles and review articles, two book chapters, and edited a book on their toxicity. Her laboratory is currently assessing the immunotoxicity of emerging PFAS that are of concern in NC.

Elijah Yetter-Bowman- Elijah is a documentary filmmaker and UNC graduate raised in Wilmington, NC with a passion for problem solving. For nearly four years he has been following the PFAS crisis, first inspired by the 2017 Star News article. His focus is fusing STEM and the arts to share complex ideas in simple ways.

Emily Sutton- Emily Sutton joined the staff of Haw River Assembly in 2016, managing citizen science projects to watchdog against sediment pollution and monitor the tributaries and main stem of the Haw River. As Riverkeeper, she is now leading the fight against pollution in the Haw River on many fronts, including emerging contaminants, Jordan Lake nutrients, and sediment pollution. Emily grew up paddling rivers in the Midwest, and moved to North Carolina to received her B.A at Appalachian State University in Sustainable Development, where she studied Agroecology, Watershed Ecology, and Outdoor Education. Emily lives in Chatham County, NC.

Emily Donovan- Emily is co-founder of Clean Cape Fear–a grassroots community group formed in 2017 in response to discovering DuPont/Chemours contaminating North Carolina’s air, soil, water, and food supply with toxic PFAS for over 40 years. Her work has helped elevate NC’s PFAS contamination crisis to the national stage. She has testified before Congress twice regarding PFAS contamination. She created a lobby day effort in Washington, DC for local community members and participated in a Washington Post Live panel discussion with actor Mark Ruffalo and lawyer Rob Bilott. She helped organize and co-host two screenings of the movie, Dark Waters, in Wilmington and Raleigh featuring special guest, Mark Ruffalo–both events resulted in NC’s Attorney General suing DuPont/Chemours for natural resource damages and NC’s General Assembly filing a historic amount of PFAS bills during the 2021-2022 legislative session. Locally, she helped secure reverse osmosis filling stations for 49 public schools impacted by PFAS contamination in Brunswick and New Hanover counties. She is a member of the leadership team for the National PFAS Contamination Coalition and sits on various community advisory boards and coalitions working to address PFAS contamination. She frequents Washington, DC and Raleigh, NC pressuring lawmakers and regulators for quicker responses to our growing PFAS public health crisis. Emily lives in Brunswick County with her husband, David, and boy/girl twins. She’s been a resident of Brunswick County since 2009.