Wake Forest University to host 2026 Environmental and Epistemic Justice Initiative Summer Institute in London
Wake Forest University Environmental and Epistemic Justice Initiative (EEJI) will host its fourth annual Summer Institute in London from May 31 through June 4, 2026. Supported by a major grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the institute is designed to support environmental justice reporting and advance public understanding of environmental justice issues.
The institute brings together a distinguished cohort of journalists and public intellectuals whose work explores the complex dimensions of the environmental crisis. Fellows will meet and learn from institute faculty and select guests experienced in environmental and climate change issues. The institute seeks to improve coverage of the environmental justice issues and provide scholars and citizens with stories that inform the public on environmental concerns, particularly in under-resourced communities.
“The Environmental and Epistemic Justice Initiative is designed to deepen public understanding and collaboration between journalists and scholars on climate change and environmental degradation,” said Corey D. B. Walker, Dean of Wake Forest University School of Divinity, Wake Forest Professor of Humanities, and Principal Investigator of the EEJI. “This initiative reflects Wake Forest University’s commitment to Pro Humanitate by creating a dynamic forum for thoughtful collaboration, deeper inquiry, and sustained collaborative scholarship that helps the public better understand environmental justice.”
Award-winning journalist and Institute Director Melba Newsome emphasized the importance of supporting rigorous public storytelling and community-centered reporting. “At a moment when communities around the globe are experiencing the devastating realities of climate disruption and environmental inequity, journalism has a vital role to play in illuminating challenges faced by communities that are too often overlooked or marginalized,” Newsome said.
The 2026 EEJI Institute Faculty:
Andrea King Collier is a journalist and author who focuses on issues of public health and health policy, women’s issues and community outreach. She has worked for over 40 years with communities on issues such as reducing health disparities, climate equity, mental health, infant mortality, prevention of chronic disease, end of life care, childhood obesity, men’s health, women’s health, and HIV/AIDS.
Dr. Yanick Rice Lamb is a professor and former chair of the Department of Media, Journalism and Film at Howard University. She is co-founder of the health website FierceforBlackWomen.com and was previously editor-in-chief of Heart & Soul and BET Weekend magazines; editor at the New York Times, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Essence, and Child magazine; reporter at the Toledo Blade; and a contributing editor of Emerge: Black America’s Newsmagazine.
Justin Worland is a senior correspondent at TIME where he writes about climate change and the intersection of politics, policy, and society. For the last decade, his stories have explored how climate change—both its effects and our response to it—is reshaping the world around us. In 2022, Worland was named the inaugural Climate Journalist of the Year by Covering Climate Now. He is a founding board member at the Uproot Project, a non-profit that works to diversify environmental journalism and is the journalism fellow at the University of Chicago’s Energy Policy Institute.
The 2026 EEJI Journalism Fellows:
Jaha Nailah Avery is an attorney and writer whose work has appeared in Essence Magazine, The New York Times, Rolling Stone, Architectural Digest, Vanity Fair, and more. She recently wrapped production on a season of an investigative podcast (Threshold) focusing on the history of Cancer Alley outside New Orleans, which releases in June 2026.
Nichole Currie is an audio producer and journalist with The Pulse, WHYY’s nationally distributed health and science program and was nominated for the 2025 Health & Science Reporting of the Year Award by the Philly News.
Kani’ya Davis is a recent journalism and mass communications graduate from North Carolina A&T State University, a 2025 PBS News Student Reporting Labs Climate fellow, and an MIT Knight Science Journalism HBCU fellow.
Aissa Dearing is a doctoral candidate in Geography and the Environment at the University of Oxford and wrote a monthly column “Unearthing Justice” for JSTOR Daily on climate and environmental issues for the general public.
Nina B. Elkadi was an Editor-at-Large at Sentient where she primarily investigated pollution and labor. Her work has been published nationally in such outlets as National Geographic and Inside Climate News. She is an incoming MFA student at the University of Iowa’s Nonfiction Writing Program, where she will be an Iowa Arts Fellow.
Britney Hamilton is a national meteorologist with Spectrum News where she covers local weather, severe weather events, and climate phenomena across the county.
Ashley Miznazi is a multimedia climate reporter with the Miami Herald covering how South Florida is adapting to a warmer and wetter world.
