Jan Morrill

Jan joined Earthworks in January of 2020. As the Tailings Campaign Manager, her work focuses on mine waste, called tailings, and the social, environmental and cultural disasters that result when mining companies put profits over safety.

Jan works with communities around the world directly affected by dangerous tailings storage facilities, including in Brazil, the Dominican Republic, Peru, and beyond. Additionally, she seeks to elevate best practices in tailings storage on a local, regional and international level. In June of 2020, Jan co-authored Safety First: Guidelines for Responsible Mine Tailings Management, a set of guidelines endorsed by 150 frontline community groups and civil society organizations from 24 countries that aims to protect communities, workers and the environment from the risks posed by the thousands of tailings facilities across the globe.

Jan believes that the communities most impacted by mining practices must have a voice in decisions made by mining companies and governments that affect their lives. This must include the right to say no to mines they deem too dangerous. Before coming to Earthworks Jan spent five years in El Salvador supporting the community-based and national organizations worried about the impacts mining would have on the country’s scarce water sources. The social movement in El Salvador eventually pushed the government to pass the first of its kind ban on all metallic mining. During that time, Jan also coordinated with dozens of international organizations that supported the Salvadoran anti-mining movement.

More recently, Jan has worked in her home state of Maine helping migrant farmworkers access culturally and linguistically appropriate healthcare.

Jan graduated from Grinnell College with a bachelor’s degree in Spanish and Latin American Studies. She is fluent in Spanish and conversant in Portuguese.

Contact:

Email: jmorrill [at] earthworks [dot] org
Phone: 202-887-1872 x139
Twitter: @MorrillJB
Location: Rockland, ME