Meleah Geertsma

Meleah Geertsma works with communities of color and low-income communities to address environmental injustices, combining her background in public health with legal advocacy to support frontline partners. Her focus includes addressing the impacts of concentrated industrial sources and freight on fenceline communities; raising awareness of chronic urban flooding and sanitary sewer issues as environmental injustices; and advocating for local, state, and federal policies that recognize and address cumulative environmental burdens. Geertsma first joined NRDC as a member of the Climate & Clean Energy program in Washington, D.C., pursuing greenhouse gas reductions at the federal level. Prior to that, she worked for another environmental organization on air pollution and other environmental issues, and for the Federal Trade Commission on health care antitrust matters. She holds a bachelor’s degree in health and society from Brown University, a law degree from Harvard Law School, and a master’s of public health from the Harvard School of Public Health. Geertsma is based in NRDC’s Chicago office.