Cool API environmentalist: Allison Chin

With Allison Chin in front of the Sierra Club office in Washington DC. Photo by Lisa Fouladbash.

Allison Chin is one of my Asian American eco-heroines.  She is the current president of the Sierra Club, the nation’s oldest and most influential grassroots environmental organization. As president, she is the top leader of the Club’s volunteer structure.

Even before I was hired by the Sierra Club, I’d seen her blog on the Sierra Club’s website and thought, “Wow! She’s pretty cool!”

I got to meet Allison Chin when I went to Washington DC for orientation for my new job at the Sierra Club.

Allison stopped by to have lunch with us and shared that volunteerism and an appreciation for the environment have played big roles in her life since she was young.  She is optimistic about Asian Pacific Islander Americans’ growing involvement in the environmental movement, especially as APIs recognize that a healthy environment is important for human health and going green saves money in the long term.

Earlier this month, I was working in the Sierra Club’s San Francisco office, making phone calls alongside volunteers nationwide to urge constituents to thank their congresspeople for voting for the American Clean Energy and Security Act.

By the end of the two hour phone banking period, all the volunteers had logged off the system — except for Allison!  She was still on the line making phone calls, and there was nothing we could do but let her keep going!  Despite her busy schedule, Allison remains a true volunteer.  Talk about inspiring!

– posted by Debbie Chong

Sierra Club honors Asian Pacific American Heritage Month

In honor of May, Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, the Sierra Club’s Scrapbook blog highlights some of the Club’s recent collaborations with Asian Americans and Asians.

Below are excerpts from the Club’s blog entry.  Read the entire post here.

[This spring, Sierra Club President Allison] Chin will address the EPA in San Francisco and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) in Washington, D.C., relating her own story as an Asian American environmentalist and stressing the importance of the Blue Green Alliance. She will also speak at two events in Southern California…
The Sierra Club has long been partnering with Asian Americans. In New Orleans, Delta Chapter activists helped parishioners at the Mary Queen of Vietnam Church form the Mary Queen of Vietnam Community Development Corporation, dedicated to sustainably rebuilding New Orleans’ Viet Village neighborhood…

Viet Village residents gather in the fall of 2007 to celebrate the closing of the landfill and demand state action to clean up toxic debris remaining there. Image and caption source: http://sierraclub.typepad.com/scrapbook/2009/05/club-marks-asianpacific-american-heritage-month.html

Minnesota Inner City Outings leaders run monthly outings for participating youth from the Hmong American Partnership, among other local youth groups…

Minnesota Inner City Outings leaders run monthly outings for participating youth from the Hmong American Partnership, among other local youth groups. Image and caption from http://sierraclub.typepad.com/scrapbook/2009/05/club-marks-asianpacific-american-heritage-month.html.

Club Executive Director Carl Pope met in 2007 with Zhou Wenzhong, the Chinese Ambassador to the United States, in Washington, D.C., to discuss solutions  to environmental challenges in both countries, and how the U.S. and China can learn from one another.

I greatly appreciate the work of the Sierra Club, Sustainable South Bronx, and numerous other environmental and community-based organizations that incorporate and celebrate racial and ethnic diversity in their programs.

– posted by Debbie Chong