An environmental advocate, Deborah Meyer DeWan has served her community as a professional and as a volunteer for many years. For her work throughout the Hudson Valley and Catskill Mountains, DeWan was given the first Jane Jacobs Community Vision Award at a conference last month sponsored by Sustainable Hudson Valley and New York Planning Federation.

"I'm very moved and very appreciative, I feel I share this award with all the community sparkplugs I've worked with over the years," DeWan said.

DeWan was the director of riverfront communities for Scenic Hudson, where she worked with the coalition challenging St. Lawrence Cement Co.'s proposed expansion in Hudson. She also assisted Kingston in implementing its Local Waterfront Revitalization plan. She worked in Catskill to save historic storefronts and advocated for Bard College to resite its Center for Performing Arts.

DeWan tries to help people recognize they can be agents of change in their communities.

"I'm an enabler," she said. "I help people connect with the historic character in their communities."

The Jane Jacobs award honors those with groundbreaking lifetime achievements in the revitalization of communities through building partnerships across conventional boundaries and battle lines, according to Sustainable Hudson.

Building community

Melissa Everett, executive director of Sustainable Hudson Valley, said when looking for candidates for the award, the organizations looked at who was admired and who has given a consistent performance throughout the year.

"I've known Deborah professionally for a little over 10 years and she puts her heart and soul into her work," Everett said.

DeWan has worked with numerous other organizations. More recently she has worked with Family of Woodstock where she provided information on nutrition to low-income families and young mothers, teaching them to feed their children healthy meals.

She is also involved with the New York City Watershed and the Catskill Center for Conservation and Development.

DeWan said she is lucky to work with many organizations over the years that include such great citizen involvement. She said it's the people of the communities who know what they love, and given the right information, they have the power to save the places they love.

Everett said a new line of thinking has evolved within environmental advocacy.

"If you want to protect the land, the critters and the water, make the cities livable," Everett said, "and that's how Deborah thinks."

Lauren Giordano can be reached at Lgiordan@poughkee.gannett.com

Neighbor

Deborah Meyer DeWan
Residence: Bearsville.
Family: Husband, Michael, daughter, Tara Elliot.
Affliations: Hudson River Heritage, Family of Woodstock, New York Planning Federation, advisory board member for Ceder Grove: The Thomas Cole National Historic Site and Catskill Center for Conservation and Development.