ELP's Mission

The Environmental Leadership Program (ELP) is proud to announce the launch of the Mid-Atlantic Regional Network (MARN). ELP inspires visionary, action oriented and diverse leadership to work for a just and sustainable future.

ELP's primary goal is to train and support the next generation of environmental leaders. We define emerging leaders as newly established environmental practitioners with fewer than 10 years of experience in the field. ELP's Regional Networks enable us to build on our national fellowship to serve a broader constituency of emerging environmental leaders and spark new ideas and solutions to pressing environmental problems in regions across the country.

Recognizing that every sector plays a critical role in environmental progress, ELP recruits participants for its programs from across the field, including nonprofits, academia, government, and the private sector. ELP also strives to create a community comprised of individuals from different racial, ethnic, and cultural backgrounds and to work with emerging leaders who can strengthen partnerships with public health, religious, labor, and civil rights organizations. Nearly fifty percent of the ELP fellows are people of color.

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PROJECT DETAILS

In 2004, ELP brought its unique approach to leadership development from its flagship national fellowship program by expanding the ELP community and launching the ELP Delware Valley Regional Network. Delaware Valley was the first area selected for our Regional Fellowship Program model. Since that time ELP has established three additional regional networks: the New England Regional Network (2006), the Southeast Regional Network (2007) and now the Mid-Atlantic Regional Network (2008). This new regional network will include all of DC, Maryland and Virginia. As a national non-profit, ELP plans to establish regional networks across the country to connect, train, and support up-and-coming environmental leaders to build the capacity of each region's environmental community and its professionals, volunteers, and institutions. Through regional networks, emerging leaders from business, government, higher education, and non-profit sectors will bring their diverse issue expertise to create new relationships, forge collaborations, and advance their individual and collective skills and leadership. Emerging leaders (with fewer than 10 years of experience in the environmental field) were selected as ELP Regional Fellows to receive targeted leadership development and skill training.

With the launch of the MARN, ELP hopes to develop local emerging leaders and strengthen environmental efforts from urban neighborhoods and the suburbs to rural areas throughout Maryland and Virginia. Now in 2008, emerging leaders throughout the DC metropolitan region have new opportunities to develop their skills, build alliances among organizations, and spur diverse, more comprehensive, approaches to environmental work across the region.

Through the Mid-Atlantic Regional Network, ELP:

• Selects emerging leaders as ELP Regional Fellows who participate in community building, skill training, and professional development through our Regional Fellowship Program for Emerging Leaders.
• Sponsors networking events to bring together environmental professionals and volunteers across the region.
• Convenes Regional Issues Forums to discuss key environmental issues facing the DC Metropolitan Region.

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ADVISORY COMMITTEE

Jonathan Essoka, Environmental Engineer, USEPA Region 3, Office of State and Watershed Partnerships
Jonathan Essoka is an environmental engineer within the. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Region 3 Water Protection Division where he permits facilities, evaluates technical reports, and regulates activities with his state counterparts in the District of Columbia. Jonathan's Ph.D research at Drexel University focused on environmental policy, specifically regarding the effects of brownfields revitalization projects upon environmental justice communities. Previously, he served as an engineer within a chemical feed equipment company and as an environmental and computer networking consultant.

Paul Gruber, Director of Federal Services, Shaw Group

Mary Anne Hitt, Executive Director, Appalachian Voices
Mary Anne Hitt, Executive Director, Appalachian Voices Mary Anne Hitt is the executive director of Appalachian Voices, a nonprofit organization that brings people together to solve the environmental problems having the greatest impact on the central and southern Appalachian Mountains. The organization is currently tackling three of the largest threats to the region: mountaintop removal coal mining, air pollution, and the loss of native forests. Previously, she was executive director of both The Ecology Center and the Southern Appalachian Biodiversity Project. She was a recipient of the Len and Sandy Sargent Environmental Advocacy Award at the University of Montana, and was a Whittle Scholar and founder of the campus organization Students Promoting Environmental Action in Knoxville. She currently serves on the board of directors of the Fund for Wild Nature.

Chitra Kumar, Environmental Justice Coordinator, Environmental Protection Agency
Chitra Kumar is Environmental Justice Coordinator for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Prevention, Pesticides and Toxic Substances, which deals with pesticides, chemicals manufacturing, and pollution prevention. She also leads development of outreach and technical assistance materials and provides training for an innovative $4 million grant and technical assistance program that supports community-based partnerships to reduce toxic pollution, Community Action for a Renewed Environment (CARE). Since its first year, in 2005, Chitra has been the youngest member of a core team working across all EPA stovepipes to build this unique environmental and health improvement program. Previously, Chitra was a policy analyst for EPA's Office of Air and Radiation in Washington, DC, where she designed and analyzed market-based regulatory programs to improve air quality and served as Special Assistant to the Assistant Administrator of Air and Radiation while she was a Presidential Management Fellow - part of a selective, two-year rotation program in federal government. In addition, Chitra designs, teaches and coordinates volunteers to provide computer courses for youth members of the non-profit, Earth Conservation Corps, in Washington, DC, and mentors a Corps member.

Dale Manty, Senior Project Officer, USEPA Office of Sustainability

Lois Schiffer, General Counsel, National Capital Planning Association

Danielle Solomon Nkojo, Principle, DKH Property Consultants

Anthony R. Sarmiento, Executive Director, Senior Service America

Lee Paddock, Associate Dean for Environmental Law, George Washington Law School

FINANCIAL SUPPORT

FOUNDATION SUPPORT

INDIVIDUAL DONORS

Invest in Mid-Atlantic's next generation of environmental leaders! Make a gift online through our secure online donation page or mail your tax-deductible contribution to:

 Environmental Leadership Program
 1609 Connecticut Ave, NW 
 Suite 400 
 Washington, DC 20009

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