Activist Women's Voices: Oral History Project
Linking Communities and the University
  Peggy M. Shepard is a long-time Harlem political activist. She co-founded West Harlem Environmental Action (WHEACT) in 1988 and has been its executive director since 1994. West Harlem Environmental Action is a community-based non-profit organization, whose mission it is to inform, educate, train and mobilize the predominantly African-American and Latino residents of northern Manhattan, on issues that impact their quality of life: air, water and indoor pollution; toxins; land use and open space; waterfront development and usage; sanitation; transportation; historic preservation; regulatory enforcement; and citizen participation in public policy making. The only African-American founded environmental organization in New York City, it serves as an advocacy group, a resource bank and a catalyst for improving environmental quality in West Harlem.