Susana Almanza, the director of an environmental justice organization in East Austin called PODER, will visit Southwestern on Wednesday, Nov. 14, to give a talk titled “Indigenous Circle of Life.” The talk will begin at 4 p.m. in the Prothro Room on the second floor of the A. Frank Smith Jr. Library Center.

Almanza is a native of East Austin and is a former member of the City of Austin Environmental Board and former Planning Commissioner for the City of Austin. She also has served on numerous committees at the national level, including the EPA’s Title VI Implementation Advisory Committee and has been a leader of the Southwest Network for Environmental and Economic Justice, a network of 60 grassroots organizations in the southwest, western United States and northern Mexico.  

PODER has worked to relocate the Pure Casting facility, which uses numerous toxic chemicals and is located across the street from an elementary school. It also is working on a campaign to get the City of Austin to approve bond funding to help build a new Montopolis Recreation Center & Health Clinic and is partnering with the East Austin Conservancy to help sustain affordable housing in East Austin.

The talk is sponsored by the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, the Feminist Studies Program, and the Environmental Studies Program.