Sharon Lavigne is an environmental justice activist in Louisiana focused on combating petrochemical complexes in Cancer Alley. Lavigne worked as a special education teacher until deciding to dedicate herself full-time to working for environmental justice in her community. In October 2018, she founded RISE St. James, a faith-based, grassroots environmental organization that started with a community meeting in her living room. Now, she manages a small staff and some 20 volunteers. She is the 2022 recipient of the Laetare Medal, the highest honor for American Catholics, and a 2021 recipient of the Goldman Environmental Prize.
Lavigne is the daughter of civil rights activists and has lived in the St. James Parish, Louisiana community her whole life. As a little girl, her family lived off the land—with gardens, cattle, pigs, and chickens—and her grandfather caught fish and shrimp in the Mississippi River.