Day 2: Grassroots Action

A day of workshops, focusing on actions citizens can take to safeguard themselves and their communities against microplastics and industrial pollution from the plants that manufacture them.

Plus a private screening of the documentary: Hellcat: The True Story of an Unreasonable Texas Waterkeeper

Register Now — Space Is Limited!

Event Schedule

Registration
Sign-in table at the front. Light refreshments

8:30 AM

Blessing by Indigenous People of Coastal Bend

9:00 AM

9:20 AM

Intro to Hellcat by Fax Bahr

"Hellcat" Private Screening

9:25 AM

11:00 AM

Private Screening Q&A with Fax Bahr, Diane Wilson, and more!

11:30 AM

Lunch

Legislation & Advocacy Panel

12:00 PM

Legal Action Panel

12:45 PM

Break

1:30 PM

Citizen Science Panel

Nurdles and How to Complete a Nurdle Patrol for Citizen Science with Joanie Steinhaus (TIRN)

Citizen Science by the Shore: Empowering Communities to Protect Galveston Bay from Microplastics with Brittany McWhorter (TIRN)

1:45 PM

2:30 PM

Community Organizing Panel

Break

3:15 PM

Civil Disobedience / NVDA

3:20 PM

Closing message from San Antonio Bay Area Waterkeeper

4:05 PM

Event Speakers

  • A writer, director, and producer, Bahr won a Directing Emmy for Hearts Of Darkness, A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse. Bahr has screenwriting credits on five feature films, and has served as Show Runner on eight network television series. His credits include Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa, Malibu’s Most Wanted, In Living Color, MadTV, The Jamie Kennedy Experiment, and Chocolate News. More recently, he produced the feature documentary Doin’ My Drugs, exploring the AIDS crisis in Zambia. Next, he produced the feature documentary Out From The Ashes, following a Ukrainian family’s harrowing escape from Mariupol after the Russian invasion. He is currently producing the documentary series Our Game, following the indigenous Haudenosaunee Nationals lacrosse team in their quest to attend the ‘28 Olympics as a sovereign nation. For his latest project, Bahr has directed and produced the feature documentary Hellcat: The True Story of an Unreasonable Texan. He lives with his wife in Los Angeles. Their three children are scattered across the country, doing good things.

  • A fourth-generation shrimper, boat captain, mother of five, author, and an environmental, peace, and social justice advocate. During the last 30 years, she has launched legislative campaigns, demonstrations, hunger strikes, sunk boats, and even climbed chemical towers in her fight to protect her Gulf Coast bay. 

  • Joanie Steinhaus is the Ocean Program Director for Turtle Island Restoration Network (TIRN).

    Joanie has worked at informal education and environmental sites including the Houston Zoo, the Lower Colorado River Authority and Turtle Island Restoration Network. She has extensive experience in the education of youth and adults about stewardship and conservation of our natural resources. Joanie has worked with a variety of organizations, both locally and state-wide, to advance conservation and sustainability issues. Her diverse knowledge and passion about the environment in the Texas area has shown in her outreach work to local politicians, community groups, homeowner associations and the general public to help them understand the value of protecting the local flora and fauna. Joanie currently serves as a Sanctuary Advisory Member for the Flower Gardens Bank National Marine Sanctuary in a Conservation Seat.

  • TIRN’s Gulf of Mexico Environmental Coordinator, holds a Master’s in Marine Biology from Texas A&M University at Galveston. Passionate about the Gulf Coast, she brings experience in outreach, education, and marine research, with a focus on reducing human impact through cleanups, community engagement, and microplastics research. Brittany organizes beach cleanups, participates in community events, and facilitates programs for adults and youth to raise awareness about marine ecosystems, plastic pollution, and wildlife conservation. She thrives on connecting people to the ocean and inspiring stewardship through hands-on experiences that turn science into community action.

  • For decades, Lisa Fithian’s work as an advocate for civil disobedience and nonviolent direct action has put her on the frontlines of change. Described by Mother Jones as “the nation’s best-known protest consultant,” Fithian has supported countless movements including the Battle of Seattle in 1999, rebuilding and defending communities following Hurricane Katrina, Occupy Wall Street, and the uprisings at Standing Rock and in Ferguson.  Early in her work she started organizing with Abbie Hoffman at Save the River!   A citizen effort to protect the great Saint Lawrence River from the Army Corps of Engineers’s plan to retool the seaway for winter navigation.   It was a massive fight and we won!  Protecting this planet has been a part of  Lisa' work over decades and the fight is more urgent now than ever!  

  • As a volunteer officer of the Texas Coastal Bend Chapter of the Surfrider Foundation, Neil has led the chapter's Skip the Plastic program since 2010. He has served on the Matagorda Bay Mitigation Trust Awards Committee since 2020 and has worked on Texas legislation to reduce discharges of preproduction plastics from manufacturing and processing plants. He received the Coastal Bend Bays Foundation President’s Stewardship Award and the Hermann Rudenberg Award from the Lone Star Chapter of the Sierra Club. When not working as an environmental consultant in Corpus Christi, he enjoys surfing, fishing and sailing on the surrounding bays and beaches.

  • As the executive director of Environment Texas, Luke is a leading voice in the state for clean air and water, parks and wildlife, and a livable climate. Luke recently led the successful campaign to get the Texas Legislature and voters to invest $1 billion to buy land for new state parks. He also helped win permanent protection for the Christmas Mountains of Big Bend; helped compel Exxon, Shell and Chevron Phillips to cut air pollution at four Texas refineries and chemical plants; and got the Austin and Houston school districts to install filters on water fountains to protect children from lead in drinking water. The San Antonio Current has called Luke “long one of the most energetic and dedicated defenders of environmental issues in the state.” He has been named one of the “Top Lobbyists for Causes” by Capitol Inside and received the President’s Award from the Texas Recreation and Parks Society for his work to protect Texas parks. He is a board member of Transit Forward, a member of the Austin Bond Election Advisory Task Force, Treasurer of the Zavala Elementary PTA, and an advisory board member of the Texas Tech University Masters of Public Administration program. Luke, his wife, son and daughters are working to visit every state park in Texas.

  • Rebecca Ramirez is an associate attorney with Earthjustice's Gulf Regional office. Her work in the Gulf south includes cases against cryptomining corporations, wood pellet-manufacturers, and plastic-manufacturers. She previously served as a Clinical Lecturer in Law and Associate Research Scholar in Law at Yale Law School where she co-directed the Environmental Protection Clinic and as a legal fellow with the Oceans Division at the Natural Resources Defense Counsil. Rebecca holds a B.A. from the University of Texas at Austin, M.P.S. from the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, and J.D. with a concentration in Environmental Law from the University of Miami School of Law, where she graduated cum laude.

  • Chloe Torres is a Gulf South native, born and raised in Corpus Christi, who has been organizing around environmental justice in the region for nearly a decade. They currently serve as the Coastal Bend Regional Coordinator for Texas Campaign for the Environment where they played an instrumental role in developing a basebuilding program for the office and co-creating and executing a successful strategic campaign concerning public spending for a desalination plant that would have primarily benefited corporate polluters.

More speakers and updates to come!
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Hellcat tells the extraordinary true story of shrimp boat captain Diane Wilson and her decades-long battle to protect the Texas Gulf Coast from petrochemical pollution. Over 35 years, Wilson transforms from a fourth-generation fisherwoman into a relentless activist, taking on multinational corporations like Formosa Plastics, Alcoa, and Exxon.

Through vérité footage, archival news, personal films, and testimony from allies and whistleblowers, the film captures Diane’s fearless journey—organizing community meetings, staging hunger strikes, facing retaliation, and enduring personal loss. Despite sabotage, jail time, and intimidation, she secures the largest Clean Water Act lawsuit in history and later forces new environmental reviews that halt dangerous dredging plans.

As Diane earns the Goldman Environmental Prize, her fight continues against new threats, including Exxon’s proposed massive plastic pellet plant. At 77, she remains unwavering, declaring she will battle for clean water “until my last breath.”

More than a personal chronicle, Hellcat highlights the broader struggle for environmental justice in frontline communities worldwide—revealing how polluters evade accountability, exploit vulnerable regions, and imperil the planet’s most vital resource: water.