Climate Inequality CLT: Mapping Community Stories and Environmental Justice Leadership
Friday, March 21, 2025
1-2pm
McEniry 124
Join us for a panel discussion with two of Charlotte’s top environmental leaders to hear about their lifelong dedication to climate justice work and their involvement with Climate Inequality CLT – a public history and community mapping project that explores the past, present, and future of environmental justice in Charlotte. Led by UNC Charlotte professors, students, and a community advisory board of local environmental justice leaders, the project began in 2021 as a museum exhibit collaboration between UNC Charlotte’s Public History program and K-12 CMS teacher fellows at the Charlotte Teachers Institute. Dr. Michael Ewers will also discuss how he and EEGS student research assistants published a Climate Inequality CLT Atlas on the project website this year mapping environmental, health, and socioeconomic indicators across Mecklenburg County, while Dr. Tina Shull and Community Engagement Archivist Adreonna Bennett will discuss an oral history project they are conducting with Charlotte environmental justice leaders.
Speakers
Jennifer Roberts
Charlotte Mecklenburg Climate Leaders Steering Committee Member and Former Mayor of Charlotte, 2015-2017
Jennifer Watson Roberts served as a four-term Mecklenburg County Commissioner, was next elected as the 58th Mayor of Charlotte, and then ran the Communities Program on climate solutions for a national environmental non-profit, ecoAmerica. She has long been a champion of issues related to education, equality, inclusion and environmental protection. She is the only person to be elected to serve as both Chairman of the Mecklenburg County Commission and later as Mayor of Charlotte.
Since the summer of 2021, Roberts has been the North Carolina co-lead for the Carter Center’s Strengthening Democracy Project, along with former NC Supreme Court Justice Bob Orr. By working with a number of coalition partners, this initiative seeks to restore faith in established democratic norms and pave the way for fair, safe and secure elections in the coming years.
As Mayor, Roberts was recognized for her work on sustainability and equality. She introduced a 100% Clean Energy Resolution for the City of Charlotte and led the passage of a non-discrimination ordinance for the LGBTQ community. She is currently on the Steering Committee of the Charlotte Mecklenburg Climate Leaders, NC Climate Ambassadors, ecoAmerica Path to Positive Communities, and the Smart Surfaces Coalition. She serves on the Creation Care committee at two churches, St. Peter’s Episcopal and Caldwell Presbyterian. She is a lifetime member of the Sierra Club and the NAACP.
Before entering elected office, Roberts worked as a high school math teacher, a diplomat with the U.S. State Department, an international banker, and an adjunct professor at UNC-Charlotte. She currently serves on numerous community boards and commissions, including serving as chair of Meck Ed and treasurer of MeckMIN (Mecklenburg Metropolitan Interfaith Network). In addition to her work with the Carter Center, she is the honorary chair of the Re-imagining America Project, a speaker and author, and a consultant on issues ranging from climate change to democratic engagement and leadership.
Roberts is a proud recipient of the Maya Angelou Women Who Lead award, the National Association of Women Business Owners’ Public Policy Leader of the Year award, and Equality North Carolina’s Ally of the Year award, along with dozens of other awards and recognitions. She received her B.A. with highest honors in English from UNC-Chapel Hill, a Masters in European History from the University of Toronto, and a Masters in International Affairs from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, DC. She and her husband Manley live in Charlotte, but can usually be found on the weekends hiking the NC mountains. They have two adult children.
Eboné M. Lockett, M.S., Ed.
Founder and CEO, Harvesting Humanity
Eboné M. Lockett’s Environmental Justice journey began prenatally through the lineage of her melanated skin and unconsciously resurfaced when she witnessed the collapse of her elementary school friend Sandra who died from an asthma attack just feet away from the playground. It never dawned on her then, that the proximity of the neighborhood playground to the neighborhood landfill (just a bridge between and a couple of blocks away) contributed to Sandra’s asthma and ultimately, to her death. Apart from the landfill, the adjacent freeway and the railroad tracks completed the boxed in design of the residential Bellevue Square Housing “Project” where she spent almost a decade of her childhood years in Connecticut resisting a similar fate.
A published poet since the age of 13, Eboné currently serves as CEO of her creative company Harvesting Humanity, LLC and Board Chair of the Rosa Parks Farmers Market in Charlotte’s historic West End. From frontline training to Integrated Arts presentations and exhibits, her efforts have been centrally focused on magnifying, amplifying and co-creating innovative solutions by-and-for, impacted communities. One such way that she is in service to her community is through her company’s Flagship “Solar Sistas Serve” experience which trains young children (especially Black girls who are disproportionately underrepresented) in Solar/Clean Energy and other Climate and Environmental Justice Strategic Solutions.