2026 Environmental Summit
From Knowledge to Action: Implementing Science, Justice, and Healing
This summit is a collaborative effort by the Cancer and Environment Network of Southwestern Pennsylvania (CENSWPA) and the University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health. It is supported by The Heinz Endowments and the Center for Race and Social Problems at the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Social Work.
Summit Overview
For years, the Pittsburgh region has documented environmental harm. This year, we move to the practice of implementation. Join us April 8-10 as we bridge the gap between scientific findings and on-the-ground reality, ensuring that justice and healing are lived experiences for our entire region. By convening in the Hill District, Hazelwood, and Homewood, we ensure the dialogue is physically and intellectually rooted in some of the neighborhoods where implementation matters most.
Our work is guided by three pillars in the specific geography and history of Pittsburgh: Science, Justice, and Healing. Each pillar will feature a regional or national leader. Sessions are structured for a 30-minute talk, 15-minutes Q&A, and a 40-minute interactive session designed by the speaker to facilitate direct application of their expertise.
A Transformative Experience
We’re fostering an interactive ecosystem of learning and high engagement, moving away from passive listening toward collective sense-making.
Summit Highlights
- Embodied Opening & Closing: Start and end each day with grounding and integration sessions led by local healing practitioners, ensuring the Healing pillar is experienced, not just discussed.
- Black Futures Art Pop-Up: An immersive lunchtime event weaving together local creativity and environmental narrative, centering the aesthetic of resistance and joy.
- Cultural & Geographical Grounding: Participants will engage in guided visits to historic landmarks such as The August Wilson House and New Granada Theatre, alongside outdoor sessions at Oasis Farm, rooting the implementation of justice in the soil and history of the neighborhoods.
- Warm Data Lab: An interactive session designed to explore the complex, multi-layered living data within our communities, fostering new patterns of connection.
- Panel Series: Our four panels are structured to move participants through a logical progression of action:
- Bridging the Gap: Reconciling scientific findings with the daily realities of frontline life.
- Types of Knowledge: Exploring different ways of knowing – from community wisdom to academic research.
- Solidarity & Solutions: High-level dialogues featuring local environmental justice organizers.
Past Summits
2025 Environmental Science, Justice, and Healing Series
The overwhelming community and academic support we received for the inaugural Environmental Justice Summit in May 2024 helped to inform our evolution for year 2.
The 2025 Environmental Science, Justice, and Healing Series was a multi-session community-partnered series that addressed environmental health disparities, including cancer, caused by environmental injustices.
The Series focused on amplifying local community advocates in our collective goal of remedying environmental injustices while highlighting science and healing as integral aspects of action. Attendees engaged with community members, organizations, and academic researchers who share a mission to address environmental injustices, strengthen community-academic partnerships, and improve health outcomes in our region.
The 2025 Environmental Series featured a blended format of in-person and virtual events across several Pittsburgh neighborhoods, focusing on community partnerships, public health, and sustainability, while maintaining a foundation in data and expertise.
- Event 1: The Summit will launch with an opening session, a training event, and dedicated networking time designed to cultivate partnerships.
- Event 2: Our first virtual event in the series, Transforming Land to Improve Public Health Outcomes: Future Visioning and Pittsburgh’s Comprehensive Plan, highlighted engaging conversation around the health and environmental consequences of abandoned properties.
- Event 3: A full day dedicated to comprehensive exploration of pressing issues through panel discussions and training sessions, all rooted in science.
- Event 4: Our second virtual event in the series, Water Equity: Community Power and Leadership, highlighted critical local voices around the topics of water advocacy, community engagement, and grassroots water partnerships.
- Event 5: The Summit will conclude with engaging panel and plenary sessions. A final closing event at an urban farm in Manchester will celebrate community resilience and sustainability and promote collective healing.
2024 Environmental Justice Summit: Reflections, Connections, and Collaborative Action in the Pittsburgh Region
Our vision for this summit was to create a space that addressed environmental health disparities, including cancer, due to environmental injustices. Our region has a wealth of like-minded advocates, community members, practitioners, and scholars seeking healthier environments.
This 3-day summit included a one-day symposium surrounded by community healing offerings for impacted communities and people. During the academic symposium, multiple panels and activities throughout the day engaged attendees with community members, community organizations and academic researchers all interested in freeing ourselves and our communities from the environmental injustices that abound in our region.
Day 1: The Homewood Community Healing Event aimed to connect impacted community members with a space to collectively heal from environmental injustices. This event also included partner-led breakout sessions: make-and-take cleaning supplies, healthy cooking demonstrations, and creative expression activities.
Day 2: The full-day symposium brought together scholars, academics, policymakers, advocates, and impacted community members to discuss and analyze the landscape of environmental justice in Pittsburgh. At the conclusion of the symposium, attendees were invited on a vacant lot tour of the Hill District.
Day 3: The Hazelwood Community Healing Event also sought to address historical environmental injustices. The day began with an environmental storytelling session and concluded with additional community breakout sessions. The 2024 Environmental Justice Summit concluded with a Bearing Witness event in Clariton.
This event was co-hosted by the Center for Public Health Practice and the Cancer and Environment Network of Southwestern Pennsylvania.