VICKSBURG, Miss. (VDN) — Sacoby Wilson, Ph.D., a nationally recognized environmental health scientist and environmental justice advocate, and a Vicksburg native, has been honored for his career dedicated to confronting practices and policies that harm frontline and fenceline communities. Dr. Wilson is the recipient of a $250,000 unrestricted cash award.
Wilson, a professor in the Department of Global, Environmental and Occupational Health at the University of Maryland School of Public Health, has spent more than 25 years researching how industrial practices, pollution, and climate change disproportionately affect people of color and residents of low-income neighborhoods. He also founded and directs The Health, Environmental and Economic Justice Lab, known as T.H.E. EJ Lab.
His work spans exposure science, environmental health disparities, community-engaged research, air and water quality, the built environment, industrial animal production and climate change. Collaborating with grassroots groups, health practitioners, agencies and policymakers, he has spotlighted hazards and inequities in planning, zoning and development practices that affect vulnerable communities.
Wilson’s research has documented air pollution from industrial hog farms in the Carolinas, inadequate sewer and water infrastructure in underserved black neighborhoods, and cumulative pollution burdens in Maryland’s industrial corridors and the Chesapeake Bay region.
“For generations, people of color and low-income communities have been marginalized and invisibilized, their neighborhoods used as dumping grounds for industrial hazards and pollution,” said Dr. Wilson. “These toxic exposures can harm people across their life course, and climate change will make these conditions and health inequities worse. Many communities distrust well-funded academic institutions, having endured decades of broken promises from researchers who fail to understand their lived experience. My work deploys science of the people, for the people and by the people. It is built on trust, respect, transparency and open communication, and uplifts the principle of representative justice. It’s about applied, action-oriented science for justice and social change.”
A pioneer in community science, Wilson co-developed hyperlocal air quality monitoring networks with community-based organizations and local governments to measure pollutants in overburdened neighborhoods. He also helped create mapping tools such as the Maryland Environmental Justice Screening Tool and the Mid-Atlantic EJSCREEN, which visualize environmental justice scores at the census tract level.
By involving residents in data collection and analysis, his work has advanced environmental justice science, expanded community-led research, strengthened advocacy for air quality standards and influenced state and federal policy. Wilson also directs the Mid-Atlantic Climate Action Hub, which provides grants, training and advocacy for communities disproportionately affected by climate change.
In 2023, Wilson founded the nonprofit Center for Engagement, Environmental Justice and Health INpowering Communities, known as CEEJH INC, to expand on his university-based work. The group is now a national leader in addressing environmental inequities through advocacy, summits, education programs and engagement with policymakers.
“Sacoby is honored for his scholar activism, his commitment to addressing the burden of environmental, climate and energy injustices on vulnerable populations, and his deep concern for humanity,” said Teresa Heinz, chairman of the Heinz Family Foundation.
Wilson is among the recipients of the 30th Heinz Awards, created to honor the memory of the late U.S. Sen. John Heinz. Since its launch in 1993, the program has recognized 186 honorees with more than $32 million in awards.
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