Theresa Bruno
“I love how HEC collaborates with other organizations. I love the presence this organization has at the Statehouse. I love the cheerful and can-do attitude. The legislative process can be frustrating, but this organization just keeps on fighting!”
HEC member and supporter Theresa Bruno was born and raised in Elkhart in North Central IN (population, 50,000). She graduated from Butler University and has lived in Central Indiana since. Today, she lives on the east side of Indianapolis, teaches history at Ivy Tech Community College, is married, and has two “handsome, rambunctious” boys and nine chickens. She is a voracious reader of nonfiction and has a “pie” garden: growing raspberries, gooseberries, cherries, and currants, along with an abundance of native flowers to feed the bees. Theresa says she bakes a lot when she is not involved in advancing social justice-oriented public policy.
Theresa says that she was fairly indifferent to environmental issues until she began studying history. She recalls seeing a picture in a history book of the Cuyahoga River on fire. It was then she realized how important it was to protect our environment.
Theresa cares a great deal about HEC and the environmental issues we work on, attending several educational opportunities HEC has provided, most redistricting reform events (for which HEC works closely in coalition with others), and being a part of Renewable Energy Day at the Statehouse. She says HEC’s environmental justice work is very important to her too. Theresa is a survivor of a ruptured brain aneurysm, so she says access to affordable healthcare is important to her. She says she’s witnessed first hand how vulnerable populations’ health is negatively affected when the environment is neglected, such as when someone with asthma has to worry whether their expired inhaler can get them through an ozone action day, or, when a young mother has to worry about the lead paint in her home causing long term health damage for her children. “I don’t think many people realize that when we care for the environment, we make it easier for vulnerable populations to literally breathe. Environmental justice is social justice,” Theresa says.
Like many HEC supporters, Theresa has called and written her local, state, and federal government on numerous environmental issues…even meeting them in person as she is able. “I love how HEC collaborates with other organizations,” Theresa continues. “I love the presence this organization has at the Statehouse. I love the cheerful and can-do attitude. The legislative process can be frustrating, but this organization just keeps on fighting!” Thank you, Theresa, for your passion for environmental justice, renewable energy, and for redistricting reform!