View from the Pews

The 76ers are paying for a multi-faceted impact study as a part of the process to potentially build a new stadium in Chinatown. What is an impact study? What will it tell us? And how do we engage with this study in a discerning way?

Parishioner and Vestry member, Burrell Montz Covey, has spent her career teaching and researching natural hazards, water resources management, and environmental impact analysis. She will walk us through the purpose and process of environmental impact studies as well as provide an overview of different impact analyses (environmental, social, and community) and their relationship to one another. She will also offer us some environmental justice considerations that we can apply to the study that will come out about the potential arena. 

Burrell started her career looking at responses to flooding in the Northeastern United States. She worked as an environmental planner before moving into academia. As a professor, she was on the faculty at Binghamton University in New York where, among other positions, she directed the Environmental Studies Program, and then Professor of Geography in the Department of Geography, Planning and Environment at East Carolina University. 

View from the Pews is an ongoing series where members of the congregation share about a passion or area of expertise and how it connects with their faith. Along with exploring a particular topic, this series also creates space for us to get to know the different people – their views – in our pews.