Connie Tucker

Connie is a native of Alabama and grew up in Florida where she became active for social justice as a student in the late 1960's, emerging as a young leader of that state's Black Liberation Movement. Later, she held administrative posts and help set-up the Office of International Programs at Tuskeegee University in Alabama and in the 1980's lived and worked six years for the United States Agency for International Development and the University of Wisconsin in The Gambia, West Africa. Returning to this country in the late 80's, she became project coordinator for the 21st Century Youth Leadership Training Project in Selma, Alabama.

In 1992, she worked as coordinator of SOC's Southwide Environmental Justice Project, helping to organize its historic regional conference in New Orleans, the largest diverse environmental justice conference to date with 2500 grassroots people attending.

In May, 1993, she became the Executive Director for the Southern Organizing Committee for Economic and Social Justice. As an experienced activist and organizer, Connie focuses on a variety of environmental justice issues including public policy; community involvement; enforcement and compliance; waste facilities; hazardous waste and Superfund sites; pollution prevention, health; community ways of knowing; and a host of others. She has exceptional talents and skills in community organizing, development of new leaders and activists, mentoring youth --- and is also in great demand as a resource to local communities. Connie is known by her peers and co-activists as "a committed leader with a determined spirit."

In addition to being the executive director of SOC, Connie serves on the board of directors of the National Environmental Justice Fund; coordinator for the Region IV Environmental Justice Task Force; and coordinator of the SOC Environmental Justice Project which works across the South, but prioritizes work in eight states in U.S. EPA Region IV. She also serves on the National Environmental Justice Advisory Subcommittee on Waste and Facility Siting, appointed by U.S. EPA Administrator, Carol Browner. Tucker served as a consultant to Clark Atlanta University Public Policy Center's for training and development of environmental groups across Nigeria; and a delegate to the Non-Governmental Organizations= (NGO) Forum for the Fourth World Conference on Women in China. She served on the Atlanta Steering Committee for the Interagency Environmental Justice Working Group national summit and public hearing in compliance with the President's Environmental Justice Executive Order; and other boards and committees.

In 1998, Connie was awarded the prestigious Bannerman Fellowship for long-time activists of color, and the international Resourceful Women's Award for women activists working to achieve social justice and a sustainable future.