Chester, PA & Environmental Justice

Jennifer Horney is Professor and Founding Director of the Epidemiology Program and Core Faculty at the Disaster Research Center at the University of Delaware. Her research focuses on measuring the health impacts of disasters.

She is currently a member of the Board of Scientific Counselors for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Center for Preparedness and Response, a member of the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine’s Gulf Research Program Enhancing Community Resilience (EnCoRe) committee, a member of the NORC/CDC Technical Workgroup on Improving Processes for Identifying and Reporting Disaster-Related Deaths, and a member of the Publications Board of the American Public Health Association.  

Dr. Horney has led interdisciplinary research projects funded by many federal agencies and was part of the public health response to Hurricanes Isabel, Charley, Katrina, Wilma, Irene, and Harvey where she conducted rapid assessments of disaster impacts on individual and community health. She has also provided technical assistance to public health agencies globally around disasters, emerging infectious disease outbreaks, and pandemic influenza planning and response.

Dora Williams community and civic engagement began when she became a volunteer
for the parent-based homework help program at McCullough Middle School in 1996.
Although originally from Magnolia, North Carolina, she has lived in the Route 9 area of
New Castle for most of her life. Dora currently resides in Rose Hill Gardens, where she
has lived for the past 30 years.

As part of a Rose Hill Garden Civic Association activity, she secured assistance for
residents in need of new roofs and more up to date energy efficient heaters as well as
home weatherization. Through her outreach work at New Castle Prevention Coalition
(NCPC), she serves as a community advocate for the Rose Hill Gardens Civic
Association and the Route 9 Corridor. Dora’s commitment to environmental and social
justice led to NCPC becoming an affiliate of Delaware Concern for Environmental
Justice and other organizations that focus on social equity. Dora and her outreach
provided 3500 Covid 19 test kits to residents and established a regular community
vaccination site in partnership with a local pharmacy.

Dora learned the value of community by growing up around other advocates and she
thanks them for their mentorship.

Echo Alford is an artist, parent, and community organizer with the Clean Air Council, based in Delaware County, They are a life-long resident of the community and are passionate about protecting their home and neighbors from the effects of pollution, climate change, and exploitation from the fossil fuel industry. They have over 5 years of experience as a community organizer, including working with Save the Chester Water Authority, Marcus Hook Area Neighbors for Public Health, The Philly Liberation Center, and with local vaccine outreach and food distribution campaigns during the Covid-19 pandemic. Since joining The Council they have been developing and implementing an education and outreach campaign regarding pollution from infrastructure along the industrialized I-95 corridor in the Marcus Hook, PA area. This work includes research, creating educational and outreach materials, organizing community members to attend relevant local meetings and submit public comments, and working with partners such as Johns Hopkins university to collect and utilize air quality data to advocate for health and safety measures. 

Kearni Nichelle Warren is a determined organizer and activist across multiple local and global issues. She is also an author and speaker. Hailing from Chester, Pennsylvania, she has mentored youth in her hometown and honored community elders through the Caregiver Society, an intentional and inclusive community supporting caregivers’ spiritual, mental, and physical needs which she created in partnership with the Presbytery of Philadelphia and her local church in 2018 after the death of her mother. A long-time SEIU Healthcare Pennsylvania union member and leader, she has been fighting on the state and federal levels for living wages and worker rights for home care workers. In 2021, she shook up the political establishment in Chester as a first time candidate, drawing almost 20% of the votes in a three-way race against a longtime incumbent. She is the Philadelphia Area Organizer for Energy Justice Network, currently advocating against incineration in Chester, PA, Camden, NJ and Philadelphia. She is a class of 2022 Environmental Leadership Senior Fellow, and a 2021 graduate of the national political training program, Emerge PA. Because of her passion for public health, she has been appointed as a co-leader on the Health Equity Action Team (H.E.A.T.) for the Pennsylvania Department of Health Office of Health Equity and she is a member of the Delaware County Sustainability Commission Zero Waste Subcommittee assisting with the first-ever Delaware County Sustainability Plan where she lives. Kearni is a certified Zero Waste Associate with the prestigious Zero Waste USA and an alumna of Eastern University where she majored in Business Administration.