Jacqui Patterson Named a Time Woman of the Year

We’re thrilled to celebrate Movement Strategy Center (MSC) Board Member Jacqui Patterson being chosen as one of 12 2024 Time Women of the Year! Patterson’s Woman of the Year profile lifts up her interconnected approach to environmental justice, poverty, racial discrimination, and gender inequality and highlights her work in Sandbranch, TX through her organization, the Chisholm Legacy Project, where she is founder and executive director. In addition to being named a Woman of the Year, she also received the Earth Award during the 2024 Time Women of the Year gala in West Hollywood. This award, given yearly, honors leaders working to advance climate justice.

Here at MSC, we feel lucky to be able to work alongside Patterson on the Sandbranch Revitalization Fund. As noted in our blog, Growing Hope: Cultivating a Resilient Future in Sandbranch, Texas, the community of Sandbranch “has successfully completed the first phase of its revitalization efforts. They’ve brought clean, running water to 21 single family homes and mobile homes” with help from Patterson, and Tonette Byrd of Until Justice Corporation. However, this monumental effort is just the start; Patterson has begun work on phase two, calling for the establishment of a community garden that helps address food scarcity and promotes sustainable living within the community.

In addition to MSC’s collaboration with Patterson in Sandbranch, we’re also grateful to have her as a member of our Board of Directors. We spoke with her in May of 2022 for our MSC Storytelling Series to discuss her work, history with MSC, and her upbringing. Throughout the story, she explains how “there was alignment in work and in mission” between MSC and her goals to “address, redress, and correct the carnage and the aftermath of colonialism and where it has left our communities as a result of the systemic exploitation, extraction, and oppression.” Patterson’s community-driven approach to activism also led her to co-host an event with Jane Fonda as part of New York Climate week.

We couldn’t be more excited that Patterson’s impactful work is getting the recognition it deserves, and as she shared in her Earth Award acceptance speech, this work is simply not possible without the “less visible sisters who are true heroines” and inspire us every day “with their transformational work on the frontlines of environmental and climate justice as tenders, stewards, and defenders of the earth.” We couldn’t agree more, and what better way to leave off than a reminder that our vision of a Just Transition is only realized when frontline activists, like Patterson, demand it.