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Paul Mohai

Professor
Environmental Justice
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
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
02/25/2021
The origins of environmental justice—and why it’s finally getting the attention it deserves (National Geographic)
02/17/2021
Issues Of The Environment: Commemorating 30 Years Of The Environmental Justice Movement (WEMU 89.1)
01/15/2021
Ex-Gov. Rick Snyder pleads not guilty as nine face charges in Flint water crisis (Detroit Free Press)
08/26/2020
Issues Of The Environment: Setting School Siting Guidelines To Reduce Environmental Hazards (WEMU)
10/01/2018
Here's why UM prof calls Flint water crisis a historic environmental injustice
09/01/2017
Bills proposed to improve Mich classroom environment
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