The 2015 Elliott-Black Award goes to Dr. Sandra Steingraber for protecting our planet and informing others on how to get active as well. Dr. Steingraber is a biologist, writer, and climate activist who writes about climate change, ecology, and the links between human health and the environment. She is recognized as a two-way translator between scientists and activists and was among the prime movers in the anti-fracking campaign in New York State, which banned hydraulic fracturing because the scientific evidence of fracking’s harmfulness to human life. She is the Distinguished Scholar in Residence in Department of Environmental Studies and Sciences at Ithaca College and has spent much of her off time attending environmental meetings, testifying before governmental bodies, addressing anti-fracking rallies, and being jailed for acts of civil disobedience in defense of Seneca Lake.

Dr. Steingraber has written about her reasons for going to jail, “For those of you who are able and willing, there is much political and personal value in extending one’s civil disobedience witness into jail. Accepting a jail sentence demonstrates seriousness of intent, shows respect for the law, opens a bigger space in the public conversation for all-important media stories, and prevents one from becoming ensnared in protracted legal battles whose outcomes has little connection to our eyes-on-the prize goal of halting gas storage at Seneca Lake.” When released from jail she said to those who came to view her release, “What Colleen and I just did is only a tiny part of the struggle. So, please don’t thank us. Tell us what You are going to do.”

Dr. Sandra Steingraber will receive the Elliott-Black Award during the 2015 AEU Assembly in Stamford, CT. Click here for more information on the AEU Assembly.