Dr. Ben Pauli holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from Rutgers University and is an Assistant Professor of Social Science at Kettering University in Flint, Michigan. His research interests include political ideologies, social movements, environmental justice, and water. He has been deeply involved in the response to the Flint water crisis as an activist, researcher, and member of a multi-university scientific team. His academic book on the crisis, Flint Fights Back: Environmental Justice and Democracy in the Flint Water Crisis (MIT Press 2019), takes an ethnographic look at local water activism, arguing that Flint activists understood the water quality and affordability crisis in Flint as an outgrowth of a more fundamental crisis of democracy. Dr. Pauli is President of the Board of Directors of the Environmental Transformation Movement of Flint, Flint's only explicitly environmental justice-focused grassroots group, which seeks to educate and advocate around environmental justice issues and help to develop the next generation of environmental justice leaders. Dr. Pauli also serves as a representative of the academic community on the Environmental Protection Agency's National Environmental Justice Advisory Council.
