Jihan Gearon and the Black Mesa Water Coalition.
Jihan Gearon
Gearon, Executive Director of the Black Mesa Water Coalition (BMWC), has campaigned for social change, better environmental policies, and a greener planet for years.
The group, based in Flagstaff, AZ, is dedicated to “transitioning out of extreme energy in the form of coal fired power plants and into clean, renewable sources of energy and jobs.”
Young Navajo Nation and Hopi Nation members founded the BMWC in 2001 to protest the use of groundwater and aquifers by Peabody Western Coal Company.
The group’s major victory was the 2005 closing of the Mohave Generating Station in Laughlin, Nevada. It was a coal slurry pipeline that Gearon says was “a ridiculous use of water.”
In 2011, Black Mesa hired Gearon, an enrolled member of the Navajo Nation to manage administrative, public, and board of director relations.
Prior to the BMWC, she worked for the Indigenous Environmental Network, the Environmental Justice & Climate Change Initiative, and the Center for Story-Based Strategy, which uses the power of narratives to harness social change.
What BMWC does. Follow on Twitter, Facebook.
Gearon, who is black and Navajo is profiled on I love Ancestry, a site about Afro Natives.
