Oxy Alumna Awarded Switzer Environmental Fellowship

June 22, 2009
Contact: Rhea Borja, (323) 259-1406

Occidental College alumna Colleen Callahan ’04 has been awarded a prestigious environmental-leadership fellowship from the Robert and Patricia Switzer Foundation. A manager of air-quality policy for the American Lung Association, she will use the $15,000 fellowship to fund her graduate studies at UCLA, where she is pursuing an M.A. in urban planning.

Callahan is one of 20 environmental scientists, scholars and activists who were awarded 2009 Switzer fellowships. The foundation, based in Belfast, Me., identifies and nurtures emerging environmental leaders through fellowships, project grants, professional-development activities and a growing network of environmental leaders and organizations.

An urban and environmental policy major who graduated Phi Beta Kappa, Callahan says that Occidental’s Urban and Environmental Policy Institute gave her the chance to apply what she learned in the classroom in the real world. For instance, she worked at UEPI’s Center for Food and Justice and helped advance Farm to School programs, which link local small farmers and school food programs to improve school nutrition and open new markets to farmers.

“Oxy had a large part to play in my career focus,” she said. “Students were given the opportunity to be agents of change.”

Martha Matsuoka, assistant professor of urban and environmental policy and a 2001 Switzer Fellow, recommended Callahan for the fellowship. She did so in part because of Callahan’s grassroots work to help improve the air-quality for Los Angeles residents, especially for those living near the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles. Heavy industrial and transportation activity makes these two ports the single largest source of air pollution in Southern California, home to the dirtiest air in the country. Matsuoka noted that Callahan is a steering-committee member of the coalition that established the Clean Trucks Program, which aims to cut air pollution from trucks that travel to the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles by more than 80 percent.

“She has been an amazing leader,” said Matsuoka. “In her heart, she is a community organizer. She recognizes air pollution as a critical health and environmental problem and tackles its root causes by addressing land use and working with community organizations to come up with relevant and viable policy solutions. She’s creative, innovative and thoughtful, and has a long future as a leader in the environmental movement.”

At the American Lung Association, Callahan advocates for policies that cut air pollution and global-warming emissions, and works with a variety of neighborhood and clean-energy coalitions to help make Los Angeles a healthier place to live. She is also a founding board member of the Los Angeles Sustainability Collaborative, a nonprofit organization that sponsors research to raise awareness on environmental issues and inform policy making in Southern California.

For more information about the Robert and Patricia Switzer Foundation, go to: http://www.switzernetwork.org . For more information about Occidental College’s Urban and Environmental Policy Institute, go to: http://departments.oxy.edu/uepi .