Speakers

Ingrid Brostrom is the Assistant Director of the Center on Race, Poverty & the Environment based in Delano and Oakland, CA. She has legal and policy expertise in CRPE’s environmental justice practice areas: toxics, climate justice, and land-use, with an emphasis on hazardous waste, oil and gas, and Just Transition. Ingrid was a member of the California Department of Toxic Substances Control’s (DTSC) Community Protection and Hazardous Waste Reduction advisory committee and DTSC’s consultation group for Metal Shredding facilities. Ingrid is also a steering committee member of Californians for a Healthy and Green Economy (CHANGE). Ingrid has taught Environmental Justice at UC Berkeley College of the Law since 2015. Prior to joining CRPE in 2006, Ingrid worked at a variety of environmental non-profits focused on conservation issues.

Gustavo Aguirre Jr is a California native whose parents were farm workers and traveled from the coast to the desert following the seasonal crops. Gustavo engaged in grassroots community organizing and social justice in 2006 as a senior at Foothill High School in East Bakersfield. Gustavo helped organize a walkout in solidarity with high school students across the nation protesting aggressive immigration laws. Prior to joining CCEJN, Gustavo worked as an organizer in Arvin, CA with Global Community Monitoring. Since 2014 and with CCEJN, Gus has coordinated the IVAN Reporting Network in Kern County and has conducted environmental literacy workshops, as well as community science data-gathering projects. Gustavo has participated in various state panels including California Air Resources Board- Office of Community Air Protections – AB 617 Consultation group and Department of Conservations SB 83- Underground Injection Control review panel representing environmental justice communities in the Central Valley.

Greg Karras is an independent consultant with over 35 years of experience as a Senior Scientist for Communities for a Better Environment, providing technical research, analysis, and review of information regarding industrial health and safety investigation, pollution prevention engineering, pollutant releases into the environment, and potential effects of environmental pollutant accumulation and exposure.

​He has extensive experience, knowledge, and expertise in the energy manufacturing sector, including petroleum refining, and in particular the refineries in the State of California. He has served as an expert for CBE and other non-profit groups in efforts to prevent pollution from oil refineries; to assess environmental health and safety impacts at refineries; to investigate alternatives to fossil fuel energy, and to improve environmental monitoring of dioxins and mercury.  He has also served as an expert for the City/County of San Francisco and local groups in efforts to replace electric power plant technology with reliable, least-impact alternatives.

Steve Garey is a retired refinery worker that has spent 25 years working for both Shell and Tesoro in their refineries in Washington State. He served as President of United Steelworkers local 12-591 from 2010 until his retirement in 2015 representing workers in several refineries and related businesses. Steve represented west coast oil workers as a member of the National Oil Bargaining Rank and File Policy Committee during the oil strike in 2015. Since retiring he has served on the executive committee of the Washington State Blue Green Alliance and on the steering committee of the Climate Alliance for Jobs and Clean Energy in Washington.