Presentation Schedule
From the Pulpit to Policy: How Faith Communities, Women, and Returning Citizens Are Powering the Clean Energy Justice Movement (98670)
Session Chair: Stephanie Strianse
Saturday, 18 April 2026 16:30
Session: Session 4
Room: Room 144C (1F)
Presentation Type: Oral Presentation
While clean energy conversations often overlook those most impacted by climate and economic injustice, this session highlights a powerful movement led by the very communities long excluded—faith institutions, women, and justice-impacted individuals. Inclusive Clean Energy for Those Underserved (ICU) is a national initiative designed to disrupt structural inequities by embedding clean energy access, ownership, and workforce development within trusted community networks. At the heart of ICU’s strategy is the activation of churches and other community institutions as anchor sites for training, solar installations, EV charging stations, and microenterprise development. These hubs serve as bridges—connecting underserved populations to opportunity and ownership in the clean energy economy. Women and returning citizens are not just participating—they are leading, as entrepreneurs, trainers, and community navigators. This model blends workforce inclusion, cooperative business models, and culturally responsive behavioral health supports to ensure holistic outcomes. Participants gain access to paid training, apprenticeship pipelines, and technical assistance for starting and scaling clean energy businesses. The results are powerful: decreased recidivism, increased income and stability for families, new local infrastructure, and the emergence of faith-based and community-led energy leaders. This session shares a replicable blueprint for advancing environmental justice through grassroots leadership and system-level change. Attendees will explore how faith, freedom, and economic inclusion can intersect to build climate resilience, restore economic power, and shift who holds influence in the future of energy. Because a just transition means more than cleaner energy—it means shared power in every sense of the word.
Authors:
Masica Jordan Alston, Bowie State University, United States
Stephanie Strianse, Bowie State University, United States
About the Presenter(s)
Dr. Masica Jordan Alston, Ed.D., LCPC, CPRS, is a tenured Associate Professor at Bowie State University, Unite States.
See this presentation on the full schedule – Saturday Schedule
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