Tonya Yoders
Tonya Yoders (she/her) has been a lifelong resident of Greene County. She has always worked within that community and with the people who live there. She has a background in pharmacy, direct support for adults with disabilities, and legal assisting but found CCJ through the organization’s social justice work in 2020.
She became a CCJ board member that year, then joined the team full time as a Community Organizer in 2022. Tonya is looking forward to helping find solutions for the decreasing population in Greene County. She is excited to work with the people there to build an inclusive, economically diverse, and healthy environment for families to continue enjoying the round hills and country life that it is known for.
In her free time, she enjoys spending time with her family, photography, and hanging out with her cat, Leia.
Contact Tonya at tonya@centerforcoalfieldjustice.org.
Blog Posts by Jodi Borello
On Monday, October 22, CCJ Organizers Jodi Borello and Tonya Yoders attended a Press Conference in Harrisburg to announce the Setback Campaign introduced by the Clean Air Council and Environmental Integrity Project. They filed a rulemaking petition with the Environmental Quality Board asking to increase the setback distance from fracking wells. We are asking for […]
On August 27, 2024, the Franklin Township Zoning Board in Greene County held a meeting to hear Rice Energy/EQT representatives present their plans for expanding their operations on an existing well pad. The Cosgray well pad is near Bonar Ave and is roughly 1300 ft. from the Waynesburg Hospital. It was initially permitted for ten […]
The Health Effects Institute is a nonprofit corporation that provides impartial and relevant science on the health effects of air pollution. The Philly Conference covered several topics that were of interest to our communities in both Washington and Greene Counties. Tonya’s overall takeaway from the Health Effects Institute Conference in April 2024 is the feeling […]
It has been almost a year since an EQT shale gas well interacted, or “communicated”, with a shallow abandoned well in New Freeport, PA. This resulted in fracking fluid spilling out and potentially getting into the water supply of residents in the area. This occurred on June 19, 2022, and it did not take long […]
On Saturday, November 20, 2022, several members of CCJ staff helped to distribute water to residents of New Freeport who have been without safe, clean drinking water since June. This was possible because of the incredible support from all of the people who donated cases and jugs of water or who made monetary donations to […]
This is the 24th installment in our What’s on your mind? blog series and was written by CCJ Community Organizer Tonya Yoders. Have something on your mind? Write about it! Please read this blog for more information. Growing up in rural Appalachia, on a dirt road in a single-wide trailer, forty-five minutes from the nearest grocery store, I […]