We are so excited to hand out this year’s River Steward Award and Public Servant Award to two amazing and dedicated people!
2021 River Steward Award
This year’s River Steward Award is awarded to Tracy Meints Fox. Tracy lives in rural Peoria County and is a volunteer with organizations such as Illinois People’s Action and the Central Illinois Healthy Community Alliance. Tracy was nominated for this award in recognition of her volunteer work in the Illinois Clean Jobs Coalition (ICJC) on the Climate and Equitable Jobs Act (CEJA).
Over the last few years, Tracy has worked closely with Prairie Rivers Network staff on what became the Climate and Equitable Jobs Act. She played many roles throughout the process, serving on the steering committee of the ICJC, developing key policies such as the Clean Energy Primes Accelerator Program, and participating in the Downstate Caucus of the Climate Table (part of the ICJC). As pressure mounted in the legislative season, Tracy served on the negotiating team that navigated CEJA through the many competing interests in Springfield.
Tracy is always prepared, ready to ask tough questions and keep folks accountable. When something needs to be done, she is always one of the first to raise her hand. She is a fierce advocate for equity and for downstate Illinois, always consulting a wide group of individuals to ensure a diversity of voices are heard in the negotiating room. CEJA is far stronger, and may not have passed, without the many, many hours Tracy contributed to the cause.
2021 Public Servant Award
Prairie Rivers Network is proud to award Kathie Brown, Community and Economic Development Specialist, University of Illinois Extension (retired 2021) with our Outstanding Public Servant Award. Kathie served the Fulton and Mason County communities where the Duck Creek (pictured below) and Havana Coal Fired Power Stations closed in 2019. Communities were given just 3 months notice of the closures that brought workforce layoffs, environmental concerns, and a drastic decrease in local tax revenue to fund services like public schools. Immediately Kathie began working with community leaders, workers, and other organizations, like PRN, to help understand the impacts of coal plant closure, tell their stories, and plan for the future.
Last fall PRN partnered with the Just Transition Fund and Kathie at Extension to help convene five Vistra communities undergoing or planning for closure. Kathie helped facilitate conversations to help community leaders understand how state policy could help transitioning workers and communities. With her help we connected community leaders with policy experts at the Illinois Clean Jobs Coalition (ICJC), as well as at the Governor’s office. These meetings were a two-way conversation, providing policy makers a chance to hear from impacted coal communities, and a chance for community leaders to understand potential policy solutions.
In September, Illinois passed the Climate and Equity Jobs Act (CEJA). Thanks to work from Kathie Brown, coal community leaders, PRN, and our ICJC partners, CEJA’s just transition policies, known in the bill as the Energy Community Reinvestment Act, support coal communities and workers by ensuring that communities have access to money and support for transition, and workers have education, training, and business development support.
