Kimberly Wasserman (Kimberly Wasserman Nieto) is an American environmentalist and grassroots leader As director of the

Little Village Environmental Justice Organization The Little Village Environmental Justice Organization (LVEJO) is a non-profit organization based in Chicago, Illinois. Originally founded in 1994, LVEJO's mission is to achieve environmental justice in the Little Village area of Chicago. LVEJO's ...

(LVEJO), she is a recipient of the 2013

Goldman Environmental Prize The Goldman Environmental Prize is a prize awarded annually to grassroots environmental activists, one from each of the world's six geographic regions: Africa, Asia, Europe, Islands and Island Nations, North America, and South and Central America. ...

for leading the successful lobbying campaign for the passage of the Chicago Clean Power Ordinance that resulted in the closing of the

Crawford Crawford may refer to: Places Canada * Crawford Bay Airport, British Columbia * Crawford Lake Conservation Area, Ontario United Kingdom * Crawford, Lancashire, a small village near Rainford, Merseyside, England * Crawford, South Lanarkshire, a ...

and Fisk coal-fired power plants. Wasserman was raised in Little Village, Illinois. She entered the world of environmental activism in 1998 after her three-month-old son suffered an asthma attack despite having no family history of asthma. After researching the connection between

asthma Asthma is a long-term inflammatory disease of the airways of the lungs. It is characterized by variable and recurring symptoms, reversible airflow obstruction, and easily triggered bronchospasms. Symptoms include episodes of wheezing, cou ...

and

air pollution Air pollution is the contamination of air due to the presence of substances in the atmosphere that are harmful to the health of humans and other living beings, or cause damage to the climate or to materials. There are many different types ...

, she turned her attention to the coal-fired plants in her neighborhood and became involved with LVEJO. LVEJO is an organization that advocates for

environmental justice Environmental justice is a social movement to address the unfair exposure of poor and marginalized communities to harms from hazardous waste, resource extraction, and other land uses.Schlosberg, David. (2007) ''Defining Environmental Justic ...

in Little Village and throughout Chicago. Wasserman started as a community organizer for LVEJO for seven years and has been an executive director since 2005. In 2002, LVEJO first mobilized politically against the emissions coming from the two plants. They organized the collection of signatures to get a referendum on the 2003 City Hall ballot requiring the two plants to either drastically reduce pollution or shut down. While they weren't able to get the immediate support from their aldermen, after a ten-year battle to sway their opinion, they were ultimately successful. On February 28, 2012, it was announced that the Fisk and Crawford plants would be permanently shut down.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wasserman, Kimberly Year of birth missing (living people) Living people American environmentalists American women environmentalists Goldman Environmental Prize awardees 21st-century American women