Introduction

[Jamie Ewing <tanager96@hotmail.com>]

Hello!

My name is Jamie Ewing and I am a third year law student at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock William H. Bowen School of Law.  I am also the president of the UALR Environmental Law Society.  I have an undergraduate degree in Wildlife Management and I went to law school with (and still maintain) the specific intention of practicing environmental law.  I started out more interested in wildlife and natural resources issues, but several papers and classes later, I'm now more interested in public health and welfare.  Before law school, I worked for the Arkansas Natural Heritage Commission and helped to provide the agency's comments during the environmental review process.

Last summer, I was fortunate enough to take a class on Environmental Justice at the Vermont Law School.  I found out in that class that my home state of Arkansas had passed the first environmental equity legislation in the country...nearly ten years ago.  However, I also discovered that there are many flaws in this statute.  (I am currently writing a student comment on this statute that will be submitted for publication in the UALR Law Review.)  Also, at the present time there are few organizations in the state of Arkansas that are available to provide support to communities dealing with environmental injustice.  

I plan to participate primarily as an observer.  I see this as great learning opportunity for me as a student, therefore I may also ask a few questions.  I would like to use this dialoque to learn more about the public participation process and to take that knowledge back to my community.