This week, KPBS recognized Environmental Health Coalition’s Executive Director Diane Takvorian as its environmental sustainability community hero.

For more than 37 years, Diane has empowered community members living in low-income neighborhoods of color.

She credits her passion for social justice to her own family’s struggles that stretch back to the early 1900s. Her grandparents survived the Armenian Genocide in 1915 and came to the United States two years later. Diane and her parents lived in Pasadena, where she says she experienced some discrimination because of her ethnic background.

 

As the founder and executive director of Environmental Health Coalition, Diane now dedicates every day to ensuring we all know the power of our voice to influence decisions that bring environmental justice to the people that need it most. Diane believes that every person has the right to a healthy and safe place to live, work and play — and so do we.

Congratulations, Diane.

Want to keep reading about our hero? Click here to see the full story. Want to keep up with Diane? Follow her on Twitter.