SPRING VALLEY, N.Y. — A year ago, Joanne Louis-Paul wasn’t thinking about sustainability or environmental policy. Today, the Spring Valley native is not only a voice for environmental justice in her community—she’s also the 2025 recipient of the Rockland County Executive’s Outstanding Environmental Volunteer Award.
“If you had told me five years ago I’d be working in this space, I would’ve thought you were crazy,” Joanne said during her acceptance. “Now that I’m here, I can’t imagine being anywhere else.”
Her journey began quietly—with a fellowship funded by NYSERDA and hosted by the nonprofit Sustainable Hudson Valley. The assignment? Focus on climate justice. But for Joanne, that meant more than just academic presentations or community surveys. She wanted to make her hometown a better place—starting with Spring Valley’s Memorial Park.
On a cold January day, she convened 17 community members for a workshop at the Finkelstein Memorial Library titled “Making Spring Valley a Place.” That session gave rise to The Spring Valley Placemakers, a grassroots group that has since organized park cleanups and led a community art project painting large, much-needed trash cans—an effort to bring beauty and order to a green space often overlooked.
“Those cans are small steps, but they signal care,” said Joanne. “People see someone is watching, someone is investing time.”
Her fellowship wrapped in August with a capstone walk-and-talk event at Memorial Park. A group huddled under umbrellas in the rain, trekking the park’s perimeter as Joanne highlighted its challenges—flooding from the brook, maintenance issues, missed opportunities for green space revitalization. Later, they met indoors to brainstorm solutions. By the end of the day, there was a plan. Not a lofty master plan, but realistic, community-backed ideas—starting with controlling the brook’s flooding and creating “lighter, quicker, cheaper” improvements.
Joanne’s work didn’t end with the fellowship. She now serves on the county’s Environmental Management Council, the Climate Smart Communities Task Force, and the advisory group updating Spring Valley’s comprehensive plan. She is also a co-founder of Hudson Valley Sustainable Fashion Week, advocating for a circular fashion economy. And with fellow Rockland native Matthew Audi, she’s exploring the revitalization of an old rail trail to better connect Ramapo and Spring Valley.
In recognizing her efforts, Rockland County Executive Ed Day praised Joanne for more than just her projects. “She knows that lasting progress is made not through division, but through finding solutions that benefit the greater good,” Day said at the award ceremony held at Kennedy Dells County Park.
As a symbolic tribute, a serviceberry tree was planted in her honor.
Reflecting on the moment, Joanne shared: “I feel deeply blessed that my dream of ‘becoming a tree’ is coming true.” It was more than a poetic turn of phrase—it spoke to her sense of rootedness in place, her desire to grow something lasting, and her belief in community care as environmental stewardship.
“Environmentalism found me,” she said. “This work isn’t about being perfect—it’s about being present and showing up for the places we call home.”
Thus far, Spring Valley is better for it.