Marjorie Mayfield Jackson of Portsmouth, Va., is the 2008 recipient of the Gerald P. McCarthy Award for Leadership in Environmental Conflict Resolution. The University of Virginia’s Institute for Environmental Negotiation presents the award annually on behalf of the Virginia Natural Resources Leadership Institute, a partnership between the Virginia Department of Forestry, Virginia Cooperative Extension and the institute.
Jackson, executive director of the Elizabeth River Project in Portsmouth, was recognized for her leadership and vision in creating partnerships between public agencies, private businesses and nonprofits to restore the heavily polluted Elizabeth River.
Jackson received the award at the graduation dinner for the 2008 class of the Virginia Natural Resources Leadership Institute, held June 5 in Charlottesville.
“Ms. Mayfield Jackson and her partners at the Elizabeth River Project have had the audacity and courage to envision a clean Elizabeth River when all evidence would have argued otherwise,” said Frank Dukes, director of the Institute. “In just over a decade they have transformed the river from an embarrassment to a national model. They have done so by enlisting partners from all sectors, by looking forward, and by inspiring actions from schoolchildren to large industries.”