Greene Barbara Poverty 1

Barbara Greene moved to Jellico, Tennessee, from Indiana in the 1970s, after marrying a coal miner. As she became more familiar with her new community, she began to recognize very serious problems’especially the strip-mining that altered the landscape and polluted the streams. Greene soon began community organizing work with Mountain Women’s Exchange, a grassroots organization committed to educational, cultural, and economic development in rural, mountain communities of East Tennessee and Kentucky. Greene has worked on a range of community organizing efforts, but much of her efforts have been focused on Women’s leadership. She served as director of Mountain Women’s Exchange, co-founded Appalachian Women Empowered, and is a member of In Praise of Mountain Women.