June 2021 Alumni Update
In this update…
Public Interest Network program updates: Read updates from campaign work across the country.
Alumni news: A baby, a wedding, new jobs and awards!
Group spotlight: Read about what CALPIRG Students were up to this past year.
In memoriam: We remember alum Steve Dixon.
Public Interest Network program updates
Environment Washington Campaign Associate Mandy Apa, third from left, with Gov. Jay Inslee as he signs the bill banning polystyrene foam. Photo Credit: Staff
New law makes Washington seventh state to ban polystyrene
Washington state, a longtime leader in the fight against plastic pollution, just took another big step forward. Sitting in front of a fish tank at the Seattle Aquarium on May 17, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee signed into law a bill banning many types of polystyrene food containers. In addition to banning polystyrene food containers, the bill also bans foam packaging peanuts and coolers, ensures a variety of plastic products will include a certain amount of recycled material, and requires businesses to provide single-use plastic utensils and cups only on request. Read more.
Medical experts estimate that more than 24 million American kids will lose IQ points due to lead exposure — but one of the best ways we can turn the tide on this crisis is by getting the lead out of school drinking water. Photo Credit: Duplass via Shutterstock
Maryland adopts tougher standard for lead in school kids’ drinking water
In 2019, a Maryland PIRG report card gave the state of Maryland a "C" on protecting kids from lead in school drinking water. A new law could help bring that grade up to an "A." On May 18, Gov. Larry Hogan signed the Safe School Drinking Water Act into law. The Maryland PIRG-backed bill requires schools to remediate -- as in reduce if not get rid of -- lead in drinking water taps that test above five parts per billion. State-required testing that Maryland PIRG helped pass has revealed dangerous levels of lead — a potent neurotoxin that's especially hazardous to children — throughout the state. “By requiring testing and remediation and expanding grant funding, Maryland has made big strides to protect our kids from lead in school drinking water,” said Maryland PIRG State Director Emily Scarr. Read more.
In May, Environment Texas staff produced an informational video on the issue for voters and lawmakers. Photo Credit: Staff
A Texas bill would have punished wind and solar for the blackout they didn't cause.
An unwise dependence on gas-fired power plants that were unprepared for excessive cold was the primary cause of the Great Texas Blackout of 2021. Yet a bill filed in the state legislature would have punished wind and solar as culprits. The bill would have saddled renewable power with new costs, damaging the Texas wind and solar industries. Fortunately, when Environment Texas advocates and supporters informed lawmakers of the facts, they listened. A key committee struck the anti-renewable language from the bill. "Wind and solar energy and battery storage are clean, affordable and quick to deploy. They’re booming in Texas, which is great news for our air and climate, as well as for ratepayers," said Environment Texas Executive Director Luke Metzger. "In order to reduce the pollution damaging the health of Texans and heating up our atmosphere, the state should do more to promote renewables, not make it harder for them to operate." Texas is the top producer of wind energy in the country. Read more.
U.S. PIRG Education Fund delivered a letter signed by more than 40 state lawmakers along with 59,000 petition signatures to Whole Foods on May 6. Photo Credit: Raed-Mansour via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0
59,000 supporters, 40 lawmakers tell Whole Foods to put 'planet over plastic'
A massive environmental crisis requires a massive call to action. That's why Environment America Research & Policy Center, along with friends at U.S. PIRG Education Fund and the Student PIRGs, delivered a letter to Whole Foods last month calling on the grocer to phase out single-use plastic packaging in its stores. The letter was signed by 59,000 supporters, including 40 state lawmakers. Once an environmental leader that stopped providing plastic bags to its customers at checkout in 2008, Whole Foods recently earned an "F" for its plastic policies in a report by the environmental group As You Sow. “Nothing we use for just a few minutes should pollute our rivers and oceans for hundreds of years,” said Kelsey Lamp, Protect Our Oceans campaign director for Environment America Research & Policy Center. “That’s why the companies that rely on single-use plastic to package their products must adopt more sustainable packaging options or eliminate packaging altogether. Change is possible and Whole Foods should lead the way to a future where we put the planet over plastic.” Read more.
Alumni News
Weddings & Babies
Aurelia Rose Grandy
Alumni Huddy (Khalsa) Grandy and Mike Grandy welcomed their daughter Aurelia Rose to the world on May 11 on the New Hampshire coast.
Julie Blechman and David Wyman
Alum David Wyman married Julie Blechman on April 25 at the National Arboretum in Washington, D.C., surrounded by parents, siblings and nephews. Their guest list would have been filled with Public Interest Network alumni and staff if not for the pandemic, though alum Jen Kim managed to sneak an invite by playing violin during the ceremony!
Movers & Shakers
Sarah Blackadar has a new job as special counsel for the National Labor Relations Board.
Rose Garr is now the government affairs director at Climate Action Campaign.
Dave Hamilton has a new position as senior director of federal affairs at Form Energy, Inc.
Michelle Hesterberg has a new job as deputy campaign manager at UnRestrict Minnesota.
Susan Hildebrand is the new mobilization director at RepresentUs.
Jill Johnson was promoted to vice president of government affairs at Atlanta BeltLine.
Emily Kane Carroll is moving to California later this year to attend the Stanford School of Medicine MSPA Studies program.
Ted Mathys won the 2021 Kenyon Review Short Fiction Contest for his short story “Tallgrass.”
Amber McReynolds was recently nominated by President Biden and confirmed by the U.S. Senate as an independent member of the Board of Governors of the United States Postal Service.
Daniel Vice was promoted to assistant general counsel at the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.
Group Spotlight
CALPIRG Students, a year in review: 10k students registered to vote, 2.8k volunteers, 10 campus plastic bans, 1 student loans bill passed and the beginning of the end of fracking
Some of you, especially those of you who were involved with campus organizing, may be interested in how the Student PIRGs kept up their organizing work in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. There were of course big challenges to overcome when working remotely to engage students in activism, but the CALPIRG Students team took it in stride and made a difference getting young people to vote in the 2020 election, getting us closer to 100% renewable energy, banning single-use plastics and working to save the bees. Find out more by checking out the CALPIRG Students 2020-2021 annual report.
Ria Coen Gilbert, CALPIRG Students Board of Directors Chair, 2021-2022 sums it up like this: “This year has been difficult and challenging for students, staff and administration on college campuses everywhere. While we prioritized public health and safety, we knew that political activism and engagement of young people were going to be critical this year as we faced an election, the threats of climate change, and so much more.
So, we set out to continue our program from behind our screens and opened up our Google Docs. And it worked! This year we engaged record numbers of volunteers and we won or made progress on a number of important issues!
Reflecting on the past year also makes me so hopeful for what we can do in the future! There has been so much progress in the past year, and we’re excited to continue playing our part in advocating a greener, healthier, and more meaningful future for us all.”
In Memoriam
Steve during his days with PIRG.
Sadly, alum Steve Dixon passed away on May 8. Fellow alum Rhett Lawrence, a close friend of Steve’s, shared this tribute with all of us:
NYPIRG and OSPIRG alum, consumer advocate extraordinaire, mediocre surfer, and all-around good guy Steve Dixon passed away on May 8, after a long and cruel struggle with a rare and incurable brain disease. Steve got involved with NYPIRG as a student at SUNY-Albany in the late 90s and spent some time as a campus organizer in 1999-2000. He moved out to Portland, Oregon, in 2000 and became OSPIRG’s Consumer Advocate in early 2001.
Steve left OSPIRG in 2005 to become an organizer with Oregonians for Health Security. He ran some political campaigns and served a stint as a Committee Administrator in the Oregon Legislature in the late 2000s. He did some more legislative work in New York in the early 2010s and then moved to San Francisco in 2011 to work for Consumers Union and be closer to surfing. He moved back to Portland in late 2013 and did more political organizing and some legislative staffing for a few years before his disease began to take its toll.
Through it all, Steve maintained his commitment to fairness, democracy, and fighting for the little guy. In many ways, Steve was dealt an unfair hand in life, but he never let it get him down or keep him from doing the good work. He was also one of the funniest people I have ever known. Steve Dixon was truly one of the good ones and he will be missed a lot by the many people that loved him. Hang ten, Steve-O.
Call for submissions for the next alumni update
Made a career move? New addition to the family? Send in your updates and related photos for the next alumni update! And if you've moved recently, please send us your new postal mailing address so we can keep you in the loop.
