Veronica Coptis
Veronica Coptis joined the CCJ staff in March 2013 as a Community Organizer and is now serving as the Executive Director. She grew up in western Greene County near the Bailey Mine Complex and currently lives in the eastern part of the county. Before joining the CCJ staff, Veronica served on the Board of Directors for CCJ and organized with Mountain Watershed Association. She received a bachelor’s degree in biology from West Virginia University. She enjoys hiking and geocaching at Ryerson State Park and other areas around Greene County with her husband and daughters. Read more about Veronica in a New Yorker Magazine profile at https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/07/03/the-future-of-coal-country.
Contact Veronica at veronica@centerforcoalfieldjustice.org.
Blog Posts by Veronica Coptis
CCJ’s Response to ORVI’s Report: The Natural Gas Fracking Boom and Appalachia’s Lost Economic Decade
On February 10, the Ohio River Valley Institute released a damning new report detailing the devastating reality so many of us have experienced firsthand: the jobs and prosperity promised to our region by oil and gas companies resulted in nothing but broken promises and crushed dreams. Contrary to the predictions we all heard from the […]
Image from CCJ’s climate march Over the past two weeks, President Biden has already taken some bold actions to protect our environment and climate, like rejoining the Paris Agreement and stopping the Keystone XL Pipeline. In the President’s actions, we must ensure that Black, Indigenous, Brown, and working-class communities’ needs are put first as the […]
We have witnessed in horror, alongside all of you, the violence in Washington, DC that was unleashed by President Trump and aided by many Republicans; those who remained silent in complicity, and those who joined in through their own attacks on the will of the people. Let’s not mince words: this was an attack on […]
Even with all the challenges, this past year has brought us, it is inspiring to witness the power and resistance that is growing in our communities to demand the basic rights we all deserve, but we cannot do this without your help. It was the support from you that has kept our team going. By […]
From left: Mark Dugan, Phoenix White, Paul Fedore, Prem Rajgopal, and Jeromy Mackey. Our work started with an issue-based deep canvas of residents in Washington and Greene Counties. We asked questions about environmental, economic, and racial justice, texting over 10,000 people with an average response rate of 25%. From those, we have routinely engaged with […]
This year has been one that no one has expected, from our communities trying to survive during a global health crisis to the magnifying glass that has been placed on our communities in Pennsylvania during the 2020 Presidential election cycle. For the first time in decades, we had to wait patiently to see the results […]