The National Environmental Professionals of Color Network is a growing community of leaders of color across the USA at work on a vast array of critical environmental issues, from habitat conservation to environmental justice to upstream public health. The EPOC network connects people of color who are engaged in a fundamental cultural shift in today’s environmental movement: from a historically hom
ogenous culture to one that supports people of color thriving & innovating in a variety of positions. EPOC members play unique and valuable roles as change agents bridging the environmental community and communities of color. At a time when there are over 100 million people of color living in the U.S.—a number that is projected to more than double by 2050—EPOC is working to build coalitions that address the diversity crisis at the heart of the environmental movement. EPOC chapters are currently active in Atlanta, Seattle, Portland, New York, Chicago and Washington, D.C., with chapters under development in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Denver, Boston, and in multiple cities in North Carolina. EPOC is a program of the Center for Diversity & the Environment (CDE), a Portland-based nonprofit that racially and ethnically diversifies the US environmental movement by developing leaders, diversifying institutions and building community. Development of the EPOC network helps to ensure that the groundswell of activity across the nation does not happen in isolated pockets, but contributes to a comprehensive and strategic path forward.
