Sharon Lavigne

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Sharon Lavigne, born May 1950, is an American environmental justice activist in Louisiana who fights petrochemical plants in Cancer Alley. She leads RISE St. James, a faith-based group in St. James Parish, and has testified before Congress. She also works with the Coalition Against Death Alley and is a plaintiff in White Hat v. Landry, aiming to protect the African American community’s cultural heritage.

In 2019 she organized opposition to a Formosa Plastics plant that could disturb a slave grave; a court ruling in December 2020 halted the project. She has helped stall other projects from Wanhua Chemical Group and South Louisiana Methanol.

Lavigne won the Goldman Environmental Prize in 2021 and the Laetare Medal in 2022. She was named to TIME 100 in 2024 and TIME Climate 100 in 2023. In 2022, a lawsuit brought by RISE, Earthjustice, Louisiana Bucket Brigade and others argued that Formosa’s proposed plant would pollute beyond federal standards; the court decision was reversed on appeal in 2024.

She is a retired special education teacher. Her father was a sugarcane farmer and her mother a homemaker; her family participated in civil rights, and she is a Black Catholic who attends St. James Catholic Church.