Clean Water Action to honor MHS student and teacher at annual event

Malden High School junior Christina Mui will be given Clean Water Action’s 2024 Youth Leadership Award for her passionate dedication to environmental justice as part of the Spring 2024 class of Clean Water Action’s Youth Action Collaborative. Alongside Christina, Malden High environmental science teacher Kathy Maglio will receive the 2024 Youth Engagement Award. On September 25 the awards will be given at Clean Water Action’s annual Fall Celebration at the Charles River Museum of Industry & Innovation. Massachusetts’ Climate Chief, Melissa Hoffer, will deliver the keynote address.

“Christina Mui inspired everyone with her passion for environmental organizing and her belief in the power of her voice to inspire others to take action,” said Clean Water Action’s Youth Engagement Program Manager, Omesa Mokaya. “And Kathy Maglio provided unwavering support and mentorship to the students in our Youth Action Collaborative. These awards honor their leadership in building the program for future students.”

Additional 2024 awardees are listed below. Clean Water Action gives two awards in honor of John O’Connor, a much-beloved activist in the Massachusetts environmental community who died in 2001. John founded, led and supported many environmental health organizations and campaigns, and he is remembered for his love of organizing and his deep appreciation of Clean Water Action’s canvass teams.

• John O’Connor Grassroots Leadership Award – Truro Community Kitchen: This nonprofit group fights food insecurity by delivering free meals to Truro residents. It is being honored for preventing thousands of pieces of single-use trash by serving meals in reusable containers as part of Clean Water Action’s ReThink Disposable campaign.
• John O’Connor Canvassing Award – Julia Scalera: She is Clean Water Action’s Northampton Field Canvass Director and is being honored for her five years of organizing with Clean Water Action, during which she trained and mentored hundreds of first-time advocates, creating a legacy of empowered grassroots activists across Massachusetts.
• Clean Water Champion – Sofia Owen: She is Senior Attorney and Director of Environmental Justice Legal Services for Alternatives for Community & Environment. She is being honored for fighting for Environmental Justice communities and for steadfast leadership as a Co-Convener of the Massachusetts Environmental Justice Legislative Table.
• Legislative Champions – Massachusetts House Speaker Pro Tempore Rep. Kate Hogan, State Senator Michael Moore, State Senator Julian Cyr and State Representative Jim Hawkins: Clean Water Action’s three Legislative Champions are being honored for successfully leading the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to ban toxic PFAS in firefighters’ turnout gear in 2024.
• Lifetime Achievement Award – Liz Harriman: She is a former Deputy Director of the Toxics Use Reduction Institute and is being honored for 32 years of strategic and effective leadership in reducing the use of toxic chemicals in Massachusetts.

For more information about the event, including tickets and sponsorships, please visit cleanwater.org/ma-fall.