Recognized for lifetime commitment to the environment
 |
| URI’s Sunshine Menezes has been named a Rhode Island Clean Water Action Award winner, recognized for her commitment to the environment. (Photo / Beau Jones) |
Menezes is a clinical professor of environmental
communication in URI’s Department of Natural Resources Science. In presenting
her award, Clean Water Action noted Menezes’ lifelong dedication to advancing
environmental communication and empowering communities to safeguard their
health, livelihoods and homes.
During Menezes’ 17-year tenure as the executive director of URI’s Metcalf Institute, the institute became an international hub for promoting science communication.
Menezes worked to bridge the gap between scientific research and public understanding, collaborating with other local institutions to host science seminars for journalists on climate change. Through her mentorship, research, and advocacy, she has inspired others to become effective agents of change, nurturing a new generation of environmental leaders committed to positive impact in Rhode Island.
Rhode Island Clean Water Action will present Menezes with
its David Gerraughty Award for Lifetime Commitment to the Environment for 2024
on Friday, May 17, from 9:30 to 11 a.m. at the Edgewood Yacht Club in Cranston.
The award honors David Gerraughty, a longtime Clean Water Action environmental
activist and South County native.
The annual ‘breakfast of champions,’ at a scenic spot at
the top of Narragansett Bay, often draws members of Rhode Island’s
congressional delegation and state legislators. Capitol TV broadcast the event
last year, which also recognized URI alumni Patrick Crowley, M.A. ’21, and
Carol Hagan McEntee ’76 among its 2023 award recipients.
“I’m truly honored to be recognized in this way,” Menezes
says. “While I feel like I still have a long way to go to have a ‘lifetime’
impact, it’s gratifying and humbling to know that my former colleagues at URI’s
Metcalf Institute and the Clean Water Action awards committee see me as having
this scale of impact. I was raised by activists who taught me early on that
environmental protection is not an end to itself; it’s also a way to deepen our
human relationships with the natural world and with each other. If I have been
able to help others think about those relationships in my work to date, I feel
that I’m bringing my own learning full circle.”
Menezes is a Fellow of the American Association for the
Advancement of Science and a past Rhode Island Foundation Fellow. She earned
her Ph.D. in oceanography from URI’s Graduate School of Oceanography with a
focus on biodiversity in the Pettaquamscutt (Narrow) River.
At Clean Water Action’s breakfast, Menezes will be
honored alongside Rhode Island Rep. David Bennett (Cranston, Warwick), Sen.
Alana DiMario (North Kingstown, Narragansett, New Shoreham), Bill McCusker from
Friends of the Saugatucket, the Childhood Lead Action Project, Joe Walsh from
the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, and emerging young leader
Jaylyn McNeill.
“I’m thrilled to be included among such an accomplished
group!” Menezes says. “From Jaylyn McNeill, who is showing what environmental
leadership looks like at an early age, to the Childhood Lead Action Project,
which has been a stalwart force for change in Rhode Island for more than 30
years, this is a group of people and organizations that is leading by doing. I
can’t wait to celebrate with all of the awardees.”
The event is a fundraiser for Clean Water Action; tickets
are $50, available here.
