PJ profiles Fawn Pattison
Executive director
Toxic Free NC (Formerly the Pesticide Education Project), Raleigh, N.C.
Toxic Free NC fights pesticide pollution in North Carolina by advocating for common-sense alternatives that protect our health and environment.
What do you consider the most rewarding aspect of your job?
I am really grateful to be able to wake up every morning and go to a job that I'm passionate about. It always makes me feel so good when I tell someone about the work that I do, fighting pesticide pollution in North Carolina, and they smile and say, "Thank you."
Last year my organization, Pesticide Education Project, helped to get a bill passed that dramatically reduces children's exposures to toxic chemicals in North Carolina school buildings.
A few weeks later, I was in downtown Hillsborough for an event on the same night as the town's annual trick-or-treat, and it seemed like every school-aged kid in the county was out there in their Halloween costume.
As I waded through the throngs of kids, I was thinking about the bill we had worked for and how all these kids would be safer and healthier as a result, and I was just overwhelmed with a deep feeling of gratitude to get to do this kind of work every day.
What would be your ideal vacation?
The best vacation for me would be about six months long, to a country I've never visited before, like India, and I would take something like an art or dance class in the place I'm visiting, sandwiched between lots of sight-seeing, and tasting everything there is to eat.
Ideally it would be a mix of some big-city excitement, hiking in some beautiful wild places, and lots and lots of new cultural experiences.
What are your favorite blogs?
I really enjoy the NC Conservation Network's blog, and Laura Leslie's blog at WUNC radio, "Isaac Hunter's Tavern".
One of my favorite blogs is "Green as a Thistle," written by a woman who is making one change in her life daily to reduce her impact on the planet. Some of them are minor changes, like using gray water from washing dishes to water her plants, and some are huge, like giving up her refrigerator.
Can you give us an example of a cause that you're passionate about?
I could give a lot of examples, but outside of my job, I give the most personal time to Student Action with Farmworkers, where I am currently serving as chair of the Board.
The group brings students and farmworkers together to learn about each other's lives, and to improve conditions for migrant farmworkers in the southeast
For me personally, Student Action with Farmworkers is an opportunity to work for justice for some of the most marginalized people in the U.S. -- migrant farmworkers -- and to do it with an organization that is devoted to building leadership and celebrating the cultures of the farmworker community.
The group's focus on youth means that every event, whether it's a Board meeting or a protest outside Burger King, is always fun.
What section of the PJ website do you read first and why?
I usually jump right to the North Carolina section, because I like to know what our nonprofit leaders are up to. I've also really been enjoying the "Women & Giving" segments, in part because they make me think about how to do a better job with my own personal philanthropy.
How did the last good book you read end up in your hands and why did you like it?
A good friend of mine, Nick Taylor, just had his first novel published --"The Disagreement." It won't be out until April, but it came into my hands when Nick gave me an advance reader's copy the last time we got together.
It's a great historical novel about a medical student in Virginia during the Civil War. I really enjoyed the aspects of the novel that shed light on how medicine was practiced in the nineteenth century, and the story was really gripping.
What is your favorite quote?
"Power without love is reckless and abusive, and love without
power is sentimental and anemic. Power at its best is love implementing the
demands of justice, and justice at its best is power correcting everything that
stands against love."
-- The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., speaking
for the last time as president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference
on August 16, 1967.
