Meg Jamison

After growing up in rural southwest Virginia where coal mining and tobacco farming were the keystones of her community… Meg Jamison wanted to see and influence a different path for communities in her region. Meg focused on community engagement, sustainable and local economic development work, and place-based planning as the main drivers for her work moving forward. Today, Meg works to advance sustainability initiatives among local governments across the southeastern United States, as the Executive Director of the Southeast Sustainability Directors Network (SSDN). She has worked with SSDN since 2015, building capacity and high impact connections among local governments to advance sustainability best practices across nine Southeast states. Meg is based in Asheville, NC and works with over 50 cities and counties throughout the region.

Project Description 

We know that people with low-income, people of color and other marginalized groups will face the negative effects of climate change first. There is an urgent need to expedite action from the government to both mitigate and adapt to climate change, and leadership in the field will come from doing so equitably. In the South, our region’s deep and exceptional history of inequity presents unique challenges and opportunities to move sustainability work forward at the local government level. Our work will build the capacity of local government sustainability professionals to commit to and implement the centering of equity in their work and becoming leaders in providing equitable solutions to climate change.