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Paul Mohai

Paul Mohai
Professor
Environmental Justice
Environmental Policy and Planning
Climate + Energy
Cities + Mobility + Built Environment
pmohai@umich.edu
(734)-763-4598

About

Professor Mohai’s teaching and research interests are focused on environmental justice, public opinion and the environment, and influences on environmental policy making. He is a founder of the Environmental Justice Program at the University of Michigan and a major contributor to the growing body of quantitative research examining disproportionate environmental burdens and their impacts on low income and people of color communities. In 1990, he co-organized with Dr. Bunyan Bryant the “Michigan Conference on Race and the Incidence of Environmental Hazards”, which was credited by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as one of two events bringing the issue of Environmental Justice to the attention of the Agency. He is author or co-author of numerous articles, books, and reports focused on race and the environment, including “Environmental Racism: Reviewing the Evidence”, “Race and the Incidence of Environmental Hazards”, “Toxic Waste and Race at Twenty”, and “Which Came First, People or Pollution?”. His current research involves national level studies examining the causes of environmental disparities and the role environmental factors play in accounting for racial and socioeconomic disparities in health. Through a grant from the Kresge Foundation, he is also examining pollution burdens around public schools and the links between such burdens and student performance and health.

Professor Mohai is a past member of the National Environmental Justice Advisory Council (NEJAC) to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (2007-2013). He is currently a member of the Governor’s Environmental Justice Work Group charged with developing an Environmental Justice Plan for Michigan. He is also currently a member of the Advisory Board of the Global Environmental Justice Movement Project (ENVJUSTICE) which is documenting and mapping environmental justice conflicts around the world (http://www.envjustice.org/). Professor Mohai has provided testimony on environmental justice to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1993 and 1999, the U.S. Senate in 2007, and the Michigan Civil Rights Commission in 2016.

Publications

  • Mohai, Paul, and Robin Saha. 2015. “Which came first, people or pollution? Assessing the disparate siting and post-siting demographic change hypotheses of environmental injustice.” Environmental Research. Letters. 10 115008: 1-17.
  • Mohai, Paul, Byoung­Suk Kweon, Sangyun Lee, and Kerry Ard. 2011. “Air Pollution around Schools Is Linked To Poorer Student Health And Academic Performance.” Health Affairs 30(5):  852­862.
  • Mohai, Paul, Paula Lanz, Jeff Morenoff, James House, and Richard P. Mero. 2009. “Racial and Socioeconomic Disparities in Residential Proximity to Polluting Industrial Facilities: Evidence from the Americans' Changing Lives Study.” American Journal of Public Health 99 (S3): S649­S656.
  • Mohai, Paul, David N. Pellow, and Timmons Roberts. 2009. "Environmental Justice." Annual Review of Environment and Resources 34:405–30.
  • Mohai, Paul, and Robin Saha. 2006. “Reassessing Racial and Socioeconomic Disparities in Environmental Justice Research.” Demography 43(2): 383-399.

Research
  • 2015­-2017: Paul Mohai (PI), Byoung­Suk Kweon (Co­PI). School and Air Toxics Risk: Building Michigan School Siting Policy – Kresge Foundation, $196,557.
  • 2011-2014: Paul Mohai (PI), James Boyce (PI); Manuel Pastor (PI); Michael Ash (Co-PI). Collaborative Research on the Correlates and Consequences of Risks from Airborne Toxics: Dynamic Spatial Analysis – National Science Foundation, $338,548.
Education

PhD, Pennsylvania State University (environmental sociology, environmental/natural resource policy)

MS, State University of New York-Syracuse (statistics, environmental science)

BA, University of California-Berkeley (mathematics)

Affiliations
  • Member of the National Planning Committee for the 20th Anniversary Commemoration of the Presidential Environmental Justice Executive Order 12898 (2014).    
  • Member of the National Environmental Justice Advisory Council (NEJAC) to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) (2007-2013).
  • Member of the State of Michigan’s Environmental Justice Working Group, charged with developing an implementation plan for the Governor’s 2007 Environmental Justice Executive Directive (2008-2010).
  • Co-author of the United Church of Christ’s report Toxic Wastes and Race at Twenty with Drs Robert Bullard, Robin, Saha, and Beverly Wright, a 20th anniversary update to  the landmark  report Toxic Waste and Race in the United States, which was credited for bringing national attention to the issue of environmental racism and injustice (2007).
  • Co-organizer with Dr. Bunyan Bryant of the 1990 Michigan Conference on Race and the Incidence of Environmental Hazards, which was credited by the U.S. EPA as one of two events to bring the issue of environmental justice to the attention of the agency (1990).
In the News
SEAS Professor Emeritus Bunyan Bryant releases memoir about environmental justice activism
April 26, 2022

SEAS Professor Emeritus Bunyan Bryant releases memoir about environmental justice activism

Bunyan Bryant, a professor emeritus at the U-M School for Environment and Sustainability (SEAS) and a pioneer in the environmental justice movement, published his memoir...

New study identifies lessons learned from environmental justice screening tool development and resistance Open configuration options Image
February 1, 2022

New study identifies lessons learned from environmental justice screening tool development and resistance

State-level environmental justice screening tools are being supported by environmental justice advocacy groups in Michigan and across the country, according to a new...

EJ header fall 2021

Meet The Future Of Environmental Justice

For nearly three decades, SEAS has been on the forefront of environmental justice education and research—initially bolstered by the landmark “Michigan Conference on Race...

Former Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder, others charged in Flint water crisis: U-M experts available
January 14, 2021

Former Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder, others charged in Flint water crisis: U-M experts available

EXPERTS ADVISORY University of Michigan experts are available to discuss charges filed against former Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder and several other former state and city...

EJ screening tools
April 27, 2020

Environmental Justice Screening Tools

In 2017, Michelle Martinez (MS ’08), the Statewide Coordinator for the Michigan Environmental Justice Coalition, approached SEAS Professor Paul Mohai with the idea for a...

Michigan Environmental Justice Summit
February 1, 2020

Michigan Environmental Justice Summit 2020

The Michigan Environmental Justice (EJ) Summit 2020 commemorated the 30th Anniversary of the 1990 “Michigan Conference on Race and the Incidence of Environmental Hazards...

Lansing, MI photo by Dave Brenner
January 1, 2020

Two SEAS Faculty Members, two SEAS alums, and one SEAS Student Selected to Serve on State’s First Environmental Justice Advisory Council

Twenty-one Michiganders Selected for the State’s First Environmental Justice Advisory Council LANSING, Mich. – Twenty-one Michiganders have been selected to the state’s...

In the Media
04/13/2022
Paul Mohai
Imperiled by city planners, ignored by Congress, Black people fight for air that won’t kill them (The Grio)
04/11/2022
Paul Mohai
Smokestacks and forgotten residents: Dearborn opens new health department (Bridge Michigan)
03/31/2022
Paul Mohai
Report: Climate change threatens these 29 Michigan chemical sites (Great Lakes Now)
03/16/2022
Paul Mohai
Report: Climate change threatens these 29 Michigan chemical sites (Bridge Michigan)
02/14/2022
Paul Mohai
Michigan's poor and minority communities most impacted by environmental racism (WWMT-TV)
12/30/2021
Paul Mohai
Michigan's poorer, minority neighborhoods become 'sacrifice zones' for increased pollution (Detroit Free Press)
10/26/2021
Paul Mohai
Black and Latinx People Care More About Climate Change Than White People: Poll (Vice)
10/25/2021
Paul Mohai
The modern environmental movement has roots in A2 where the Ecology Center celebrates its 51st year (WEMU-FM)
07/28/2021
Paul Mohai
Environmental injustice and racism in Michigan: A new MLive documentary (MLive)
05/03/2021
Paul Mohai
The Father of Environmental Justice Isn't Done Yet (The Nation)
04/30/2021
Paul Mohai
People of Color More Exposed Than Whites to Air Pollution (U.S. News & World Report)
03/18/2021
Paul Mohai
School siting report, Marathon consent order address concerns about pollution in schools (Planet Detroit)
02/25/2021
Paul Mohai
The origins of environmental justice—and why it’s finally getting the attention it deserves (National Geographic)
02/17/2021
Paul Mohai
Bunyan Bryant
Issues Of The Environment: Commemorating 30 Years Of The Environmental Justice Movement (WEMU 89.1)
01/15/2021
Paul Mohai
Ex-Gov. Rick Snyder pleads not guilty as nine face charges in Flint water crisis (Detroit Free Press)
08/26/2020
Paul Mohai
Issues Of The Environment: Setting School Siting Guidelines To Reduce Environmental Hazards (WEMU)
10/01/2018
Paul Mohai
Here's why UM prof calls Flint water crisis a historic environmental injustice
09/01/2017
Paul Mohai
Bills proposed to improve Mich classroom environment
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