Beverly Wright is a sociologist and leading scholar on environmental and economic justice, and public policy. Dr. Wright is the founder and Director of the Deep South Center for Environmental Justice at Xavier University in New Orleans, Louisiana. For more than a decade, she has directed numerous grassroots, community-initiated health surveys, evaluated community buyouts, and supervised community development initiatives around contaminated sites. She is an original member of the Michigan Coalition, an ad hoc group that advised William Reilly during his tenure at the EPA. Dr. Wright also served on the National Environmental Justice Advisory Council (NEJAC), the National Advisory Council for the first National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit, and the Planning/Protocol Committee for the interagency "Health and Research Needs to Ensure Environmental Justice" national symposium. She is a member of the New Orleans Mayor's Environmental Advisory Committee and chairperson for New Orleans' Mayor's Committee on Solid Waste. In January, 1995, Dr. Wright was appointed to the Army Corps of Engineers Environmental Advisory Board.