ABOUT THE AUTHOR

BJ Cummings founded the Duwamish River Cleanup Coalition in 2001 and is the community engagement manager for the University of Washington’s Superfund Research Program in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health. She has coauthored several community health studies, including the Duwamish Valley Cumulative Health Impacts Analysis and Duwamish River Superfund Cleanup Plan Health Impact Assessment. Cummings served as the Puget Soundkeeper Alliance’s “Soundkeeper” from 1994 to 1999 and as Sustainable Seattle’s executive director from 2016 to 2018.

Cummings holds a master’s degree in environmental geography from UCLA and is the author and producer of numerous articles, books, and documentary films on environment and development issues in the Seattle area and throughout the Americas. Over the past two decades, Cummings has been recognized as a National River Network River Hero, a Sustainable Seattle Sustainability Hero, a King County Green Globe winner for environmental activism, a recipient of Puget Soundkeeper Alliance’s Inspiration Award, and one of Seattle magazine’s ten most influential leaders.