Indigenous Peoples suffer environmental violence related to pesticide exposure, including imported pesticides that are banned in the exporting countries (including the U.S.) due to their known ...detrimental health impacts and used in or near their traditional territories. The Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) is a U.S. statue that allows “pesticides that are not approved – or registered – for use in the U.S.” to be manufactured in the U.S. and exported elsewhere. The UN Rotterdam Convention also allows the global exportation of “banned pesticides.” The ongoing exportation of banned pesticides leads to disproportionately high rates of morbidity and mortality, most notably in Indigenous women and children. In this paper, we present evidence describing the documented harms of banned pesticides with a focus on the Yaqui Nation in Sonora, Mexico, give background on the problematic laws allowing these harms, and highlight concrete solutions.
The author relates her leadership experiences centered around student government, beginning as a class president at the age of 10, in elementary school. These experiences defined her mission for the ...rest of her life, “a commitment to equity, community, and social justice,” and as a vehicle for change. She was later elected student body president at Loyola Marymount University and then made history at Harvard Medical School as the first Black woman elected student council president. At Loyola Marymount University, she was the first African American student body president elected in 30 years. At Harvard Medical School, she is a first‐generation medical student, who was raised by a single mother and the first in her family to obtain a bachelor of science degree. She discusses leading a successful effort to rename an academic society in honor of Dr. William Augustus Hinton, “a renowned public health expert and the first Black full professor at both Harvard College and Harvard Medical School.” In 2020, she was named a “Young Futurist” by The Root magazine. Her hope is that the next generation of these futurists “take each leadership opportunity as their own fresh canvas, and paint boldly, always in the name of justice.”
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