 Mr. Cecil D. Corbin-Mark
Mr. Cecil D. Corbin-Mark is a life-long resident of Hamilton Heights in Harlem, New York, where his family has lived for the last six decades. He is the former Vice-President of his neighborhood Association, and the former Chair of the Landmarks Preservation Committee of his Community Planning Board. He devotes a lot of time to mentoring young people, he serves as a mentor through the Friends of Island Academy - a program to assist formerly incarcerated teens. He is also a big brother to several young men and women from his neighborhood. And Cecil has financed and run several summer basketball teams for neighborhood youth. A political science major at Hunter College, C.U.N.Y., Cecil has always maintained an avid interest in local, national, and international politics. He was the Vice President of the Hunter College Academic Senate, a governing policy body at that institution, and President of the Hunter College Political Science Club. His graduate work in political science at Oxford University in the United Kingdom focused on radical political traditions of Africans of the Diasporas in the Americas. Currently, Mr. Corbin-Mark is the first Program Director for West Harlem Environmental Action, Inc. (WE ACT). WE ACT is a community-based, 501(c) 3, non-profit organization, whose mission is to preserve environmental quality and to secure environmental justice for Northern Manhattan’s half million, predominantly African-American and Latino residents. As Program Director, Mr. Corbin-Mark is responsible for assisting the Executive Director with fundraising, staff management and program development. WE ACT currently runs a number of projects to benefit the Northern Manhattan community. These projects include, but are not limited to, The Uptown Eye - a bilingual, bimonthly newspaper, which prints and distributes 10,000 copies per issue to Northern Manhattan Residents and others; The Uptown Eye Cable Show seen on Manhattan Neighborhood Network; an Environmental Health Leadership Training Project for community residents; and our Earth Crew Youth Environmental Education and Community Service Project. Mr. Corbin-Mark either currently sits on, or has in the past served on the following environmental boards, coalitions and committees: New York Jobs with Justice, Center for Environmental Health, Urban Wet Weather FACA for the U.S. EPA, the New York State DEC Urban Air Toxic Committee, New York State Cumulative Risk Assessment Work Group, New York City DEP Water Quality Citizen Advisory Committee, Manhattan Solid Waste Advisory Board, Clean Air Network, Association for Clean Water Action, Clean Products/Clean Production Network, Environmental Justice Fund, Organization of Waterfront Neighborhoods, the NYC Environmental Education Advisory Council. He is also a member of the Steering Committee for the Northeast Environmental Justice Network. He has lectured on the environment and environmental justice at Hunter College, Teacher’s College, The College of Mount St. Vincent, Buffalo State, Cornell University, Yale School of Forestry, and Columbia University School of Public Health. |