Dr. Mildred McClain, who is also known as Mama Bahati, is a Distinguished Fellow for Movement Elders at Groundswell. Dr. McClain is a 50-year veteran of the People's Movement for Justice and Self Determination worldwide, is the Executive Director Emeritus for the Harambee House / Citizens for Environmental Justice which she founded in 1990. Mama Bahati has worked in the fields of education, community development, public health, Environmental Justice, and People's Liberation struggles for over 5 decades. She has championed youth leadership development through the Black Youth Leadership Development Institute (BYLDI) since 1988, where over 3,000 young adults have been trained and put to work for their people.
Considered an Environmental Justice pioneer Dr. McClain has engaged with communities all over the world, assisting in building their capacity to speak for themselves as well as participate substantively in decision-making processes that impact their daily lives. For 35 years she has fought for Environmental Justice in marginalized and disenfranchised communities throughout the USA. Under her leadership, the Harambee House has partnered with the Department of Energy, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), and the National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) over the past several decades working for environmental and economic justice for marginalized and disenfranchised communities throughout the United States of America. She has worked tirelessly to bring attention to the plight of people of color who live near nuclear weapons production sites and to address the impact of radiation.
She is a high school graduate of the Commonwealth School of Boston, Graduate of the University of Massachusetts – Boston, has a Master of Education from Harvard and Antioch and a Doctorate in Education from Harvard School of Education. She is the 2017 Recipient of the Sierra Club's Robert Bullard Environmental Justice Award and the American Public Health Association's Damu Smith Environmental Health Achievement Award.
Mama Bahati is a devout believer and a staunch Pan-Africanist. She has been serving God since the age of 12, when she was baptized in Second Arnold Baptist Church, Savannah, Georgia. She has studied meditation, healing arts, Tai Chi, yoga and African Spiritual Practices since 1969. She is a mother, grandma and Godmother.