Environmental Activist Erin Brockovich Speaks at UNF

Contact: Joanna Norris, Assistant Director
Department of Media Relations and Events
(904) 620-2102



The University of North Florida presents “An Evening with Erin Brockovich” at 7:30 p.m. on Monday, Feb. 27, at the UNF Arena on campus. She will discuss how her life experiences have led her to be an environmental activist. The lecture is part of the Presidential Lecture Series and is supported by the UNF Foundation.

An interaction between Brockovich and UNF students will also be held from 8 a.m. until 10:40 a.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 28, in Building 14, rooms 1601-02. Dr. Katrina Hall’s Literacy Methods class will work on social justice advocacy projects such as local environmental issues, homelessness and migrant worker camps. Brockovich will review their projects, providing feedback on improving their investigative technique and how to ask driving questions.

Brockovich launched her career as an environmental activist in 1991, when she started working for the law firm of Masry and Vititoe as a file clerk, stumbling upon some medical records on a pro bono real estate case that piqued her curiosity.

She established that the health of countless people who lived in and around Hinkley, California, in the 1960s, ‘70s and ‘80s had been devastated by exposure to toxic Chromium 6, which had leaked into the groundwater from the nearby Pacific Gas and Electric Company’s Compressor Station.

In 1996, as a result of the largest direct action lawsuit of its kind, spearheaded by Brockovich and Ed Masry, the giant utility was ordered to make the biggest legal settlement in U.S. history, paying out some $333 million in damages to more than 600 Hinkley residents.

The story of her investigation and legal triumph were dramatized in the hit movie “Erin Brockovich,” released in March 2000, starring Julia Roberts. Today Brockovich is the director of environmental research at Masry and Vititoe and is currently involved in other major environmental lawsuits.

This event is free and open to the public but tickets are required. Tickets can be ordered by going online to www.unf.edu and clicking on the 2006 Lectures link.

-UNF-