Arthur Frazier, director of Facilities Management and Services, and Na’Taki Osborne Jelks, Ph.D., MPH, C’95, an associate professor in the Environmental and Health Sciences Department, were honored through the foundation’s Sustainable Justice HBCU Fellowship. The fellowship provides scholarship support to HBCU students preparing to become the next generation of sustainability leaders.

Yinka N. Bode-George, founder, president and CEO of Sustain Our Future, said Frazier and Jelks were selected because they represented complementary approaches to sustainability and environmental justice.

“Art has demonstrated how sustainability can be embedded into the institutions and infrastructure that shape our everyday lives,” said Bode-George. “Through his leadership of Spelman College’s facilities and sustainability initiatives, he has helped position Spelman as a national leader among HBCUs in sustainable facilities management.”

As co-chair of Sustainable Spelman, Art Frazier leads the physical stewardship of the College’s 39-acre campus and a team of more than 60 employees. Under his leadership philosophy, Spelman has transformed its facilities into a model of sustainable operations for students and peer HBCU campuses nationwide:

• Comprehensive Campus Decarbonization: Spearheaded a Climate Action Plan targeting a 50% greenhouse gas reduction by 2031 and net-zero by 2056, alongside a board-approved policy requiring all new construction to meet at least LEED Silver standards.
• Proven Resource & Utility Savings: Secured a $2M Grants-to-Green initiative across four Atlanta University Center (AUC) campuses—projected to yield $537,400 in annual utility savings—and generated $125,000+ through Chevrolet’s carbon credit program to reinvest in campus conservation.
• National & Historic Recognition: Led Spelman to become the first and only HBCU featured in The Princeton Review’s Guide to Green Colleges (2015), while co-founding the UNCF Green Building Initiative and designing clean-energy resilience hubs across West Atlanta.

For Frazier, the recognition represented an opportunity to invest in an HBCU student who would continue advancing the work.

“I am extremely honored to have the Sustain Our Future Foundation establish a scholarship in my name as it reinvests in an HBCU student who will be a future sustainability leader,” Frazier said. “Sustainability applies to everyone, regardless of their major, as our actions affect all of us,” he said.

Jelks was recognized for her work connecting environmental health, scientific research and community leadership. Her work focused on environmental health disparities, climate vulnerability and community science, while engaging communities in addressing environmental challenges.

“I am thankful for this incredible opportunity to have a scholarship named in my honor. I am reminded of my own journey as an HBCU student participating in my first fellowship program and learning about environmental justice. What I got from that experience has deeply impacted who I am and the way I show up in the movement today. I hope that the awardees’ experiences are also formative and that they help shape how they contribute to the health, well-being, and resilience of our communities and our world,” Jelks said.

Bode-George said Jelks’ work demonstrated the importance of putting communities at the center of environmental justice.

“Her work on environmental health disparities, climate vulnerability, and community science centers the people most affected by environmental harm as partners in understanding and addressing it,” Bode-George said. “From co-founding the West Atlanta Watershed Alliance to engaging young people through environmental leadership programs, she has consistently shown what community-centered environmental justice looks like in practice.”

Frazier and Jelks demonstrated how sustainability and environmental justice could create opportunities for institutional and community change.

“Together, Art and Dr. Jelks represent a critical leadership style that combines expertise with purpose to transform systems, strengthen communities, and create pathways for others to lead,” Bode-George said.
For Sustain Our Future Foundation, the scholarships connected the work of today’s sustainability leaders with the HBCU students who would carry that work forward.

“We want students to see that they are part of a legacy of leadership, and that there is a place for their voices and expertise in shaping the future of sustainability,” Bode-George said. “We hope these scholarships remind our HBCU fellows that they don’t have to wait for permission to lead.”

The 2026 Sustainable Justice HBCU Fellowship awarded $10,000 scholarships to 10 HBCU students, with the scholarships presented during a ceremony on Aug. 7. The fellowship is open to undergraduate students attending one of Sustain Our Future’s 10 partner HBCUs. While the program primarily serves undergraduate students, students matriculating into graduate school have also received scholarships. The application will reopen in early 2027, when the foundation will announce its partner schools for the 2027 fellowship.

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