Center for Community Action and Environmental Justice (CCAEJ)
PO Box 33124
Riverside
CAUSA
92519
Biographical Sketch: Center for Community Action and Environmental Justice
PO Box 33124 Riverside, CA 92519 (909) 360-8451 (909) 360-5950 fax
Penny Newman
Penny Newman is the Executive Director for the Center for Community Action and Environmental Justice (CCAEJ), a non-profit, grassroots, base-building organization working on environmental health and justice issues in the Riverside San Bernardino area. Penny has been active in environmental justice issues for more than 32 years and lives in the small rural community of Glen Avon, California. Trained as a Speech and Language Pathologist with an emphasis in neuropathology, Penny began her organizing career through the battle to stop exposures from the Stringfellow Acid Pits, California’s worst toxic waste site. Penny has written extensively on environmental justice issues and is featured in several books on environmental justice. Penny is a highly sought after speaker, trainer and advisor locally, regionally, nationally and internationally, conducting workshops around the nation and in China, Russia, India, and Cuba. Penny has appeared on television on shows like Oprah Winfrey Show, and The Today Show, and was featured in the HBO America Undercover documentary movie, “Toxic Timebomb”.
In 2008, Penny received the California Leadership Sabbatical Award from The California Wellness Foundation; was named Woman of the Year by the California State Senate in 2005 for District 32; is featured in the California State Museum exhibit on California’s Remarkable Women; Woman of Acheievement by the Riverside YWCA and the Greater Riverside Chamber of Commerce; as well as Citizen of the Year by the West Riverside Business Association.