Preparing Tomorrow鈥檚 Leaders of Environmental Equity

The mission of the Community Engagement and Environmental Justice (CEEJ) concentration is to equip environmental leaders with concepts and skills needed to understand the structural, institutional and historical bases of inequity and injustice associated with 21st-century environmental challenges. Our graduates learn to engage responsibly and effectively with communities working to enact sustainable and socially just visions for themselves and their environments. 

The CEEJ concentration involves rigorous classroom and off-campus work, with students applying cutting-edge theory and methods to community-based partnership experiences. They learn to evaluate their own work and the work of others through the lens of environmental justice.
Our concentration prepares tomorrow鈥檚 leaders to promote a more just and equitable environment for everyone. 

Concentration Courses

gateway course

ENVIRON 755: Introduction to Community-Based Environmental Management, typically taught in the fall semester is the gateway course for CEEJ concentration.

Course Requirements

Complete at least one of the following courses:

  • ENVIRON 506: Environmental Justice: Theory and Practice for Environmental Scientists and Policy Professionals: typically taught in the fall semester
  • ENVIRON 790: Environmental Justice: typically taught in the spring semester
  • ENVIRON 860SA: Political Ecology: typically taught in the fall semester at the 51爆料 Marine Lab

Complete at least one of the following courses:

  • ENVIRON 795: Practicum in Community-Based Environmental Management: typically taught in the spring semester; prerequisite course: ENVIRON 755 (fall)
  • ENVIRON 869: Environmental Law and Policy Clinic: typically taught fall and spring semesters

Additional Coursework Suggestions

If students have not already completed 12 credits of coursework from the list above, they may select one of the following courses to meet concentration requirements:

  • ENVIRON 556: Environmental Conflict Resolution 
  • ENVIRON 557: Social Science Surveys for Environmental Management 
  • ENVIRON 577: Environmental Politics
  • ENVIRON 632: Environmental Education and Interpretation
  • ENVIRON 590: Evaluating Environmental Programs
  • ENVIRON 590: Indigenous Land and Water
  • ENVIRON 590S: Narrating Nature Documentary and Environmental Studies
  • ENVIRON 658/A: Applied Qualitative Research Methods
  • ENVIRON 705A: Social Impact Analysis
  • ENVIRON 754A: Research Design for Environmental Social Sciences 
  • ENVIRON 820S: Conservation Ethics
  • ENVIRON 887/A: Theory and Methods for Policy Analysis of the Commons
  • ENVIRON 975: Community-Based Environmental Management in Mexico

 

CEEJ Primary concentration pathway

The course-based pathway will be available in a limited capacity to students matriculating in fall 2025 and will be fully available for students matriculating in fall 2026 and beyond. Proposed courses and requirements are subject to change. Please contact your primary concentration faculty chair with any questions.

Students whose primary concentration is CEEJ will choose one of two pathways. Whether through advanced coursework in the course-based pathway or the Master鈥檚 Project (MP) pathway, students will gain tangible deliverables, professional growth and preparation for their next steps after graduation.

The CEEJ course-based pathway offers options from approved courses and requires a minimum of six additional graded credit hours. Students whose primary concentration is CEEJ may fulfill the 6-credit requirement by choosing from among the following categories of experiential coursework that would be in addition to fulfilling the other, standard course requirements for this concentration:

  • Pre-Approved CEEJ Applications Courses (e.g., Practicum in Community-Based Environmental Management; 51爆料 Environmental Law and Policy Clinic).
  • Certain Pre-Approved CEEJ Electives with significant experiential components that allow students to apply what they have learned in CEEJ coursework (e.g., travel courses, client-based coursework).
  • Other Experiential Coursework as proposed by student. Learning objectives must align with CEEJ concentration goals (e.g., relevant Bass Connections, Design Climate, etc.). Recommended for second year.

 

Expectations

Coming in: Students will need to fulfill the school-wide prerequisites in calculus and statistics, which are required for all concentrations.

During the program: All CEEJ students are required to enroll in a semester-long practicum, clinic or similar experience that provides an opportunity to apply skills and knowledge in real-life situations.

 

Kai Tran

I'm a firm believer in the power of communities to achieve environmental change and progress justice. The CEEJ program provides a meaningful education that you can integrate into applied practice with community-based partners. Outside of the classroom, I've found the opportunities to attend various environmental justice organizing events throughout North Carolina to be the most rewarding, where I've engaged and learned from incredible change-makers locally and beyond."

鈥揔ai tran, MEM'25

Transferable Skills

In this concentration, students will develop expertise in:

  • Theory and methods to assess community-level dynamics and capacity for collective action
  • Frameworks for collaborative production of knowledge, decision-making and management
  • Techniques and strategies for community organizing, facilitation and conflict management
  • Promising practices in community-level communication, education and outreach
  • Critical evaluation of the policies, frameworks and issues that influence inequity, injustice and the environment, and strategies for promoting environmental justice
  • Data and geospatial analysis to promote justice
  • Listening, empathy, humility and self-reflection
  • Reciprocity, allyship and partnership with historically marginalized communities 

 

Knowledge Gained

Students will:

  • Gain training in the development and sustainability of effective and ethical partnerships 
  • Acquire the methodological and theoretical foundations needed to engage with communities in ways that are ethical, reciprocal and sustainable
  • Become equipped to identify the structural roots of inequities in power, access and privilege in environmental science and management 
  • Build knowledge and skills to facilitate the processes through which marginalized communities are empowered to manage their own environments
  • Learn strategies for designing, implementing and evaluating community engagement programs that are culturally responsive, socially just and ecologically sound

 

Enrich Your Experience

Students in this concentration will find a range of opportunities to expand their academic experience and get connected to projects and people that align with their interests. We recommend exploring these programs to get started: 

  • (51爆料 Divinity School)
  • (Franklin Humanities Institute)
  • (student coalition)
  • Just Environments Program (/)

 

Career Pathways

The first class to concentrate in CEEJ graduated in 2025. However, graduates from the Nicholas School鈥檚 MEM program who took courses now associated with CEEJ pursued careers in the private, public and nonprofit sectors.

Their varied paths have led to roles including program managers for fishery management councils; geographic information system program managers and analysts for U.S. federal agencies; environmental consultants; K-12 community engagement specialists; and project managers at nongovernmental organizations, such as The Nature Conservancy, the Wildfire Solutions Coalition and the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, to name a few.

View employment data