Lunch and Learn Virtual Series-“Meet your new neighbor! When Google moves to town”

This panel hosted by Falls of the James Group Sierra Club and Environmental Health Sciences highlights community concerns when Google moves into your neighborhood. Panelists will draw from Google’s Project Peanut, Skye, Loch and Raspberry sites from central and southwest Virginia.
Mary Finley-Brook, University of Richmond (and Data Center Transparency Coalition) will address patterns with finance, energy, water and pollution surrounding Google data centers nationally as well as comparatively at these four proposed sites in Central Virginia. Katherine McMahon, Environmental Health Sciences (and Data Center Transparency Coalition), will describe her recent discovery along with neighbors of how her neighborhood is 1 mile from at least one data center and within 5 miles of two Google data center campuses. Julie Bivins, Southwest Virginia Data Center Transparency Alliance, shares the experiences of Roanoke residents and those in surrounding areas of Project Raspberry. Melinda Lewis, Friends of Chesterfield (and Data Center Transparency Coalition), discusses the reliance of data centers on fossil fuels, and how Google’s Project Peanut is trying to take advantage of the proposed construction of the highly contested Chesterfield Gas-fired Peaker Plant. Google’s reliance on fossil fuels has created threat to Virginia’s Clean Economy Act in spite of Google’s promotion of a wind and advance nuclear development near Projects Raspberry and Peanut respectively. Panelists will take questions from the audience during a moderated Q&A.
Register in advance for this webinar:
https://sierraclub.zoom.us/…/WN_1b-gFvhmSvS6Xchc0yce2A
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.

Mary Finley-Brook, PhD
Professor of Geography, Environment and Sustainability at the University of Richmond, where she has taught since 2006. Finley-Brook is co-author of the textbook Climate Crisis, Energy Violence with Academic Press (2024). Her current research addresses cloud geographies with particular attention to energy, water, ethics and risk (see related work here).
Katherine McMahon Bio:
Katherine is a program manager for Environmental Health Sciences and a lifelong Chesterfield resident.
Melinda Lewis
Melinda is an attorney in Chesterfield County who volunteers with Friends of Chesterfield. She was deeply involved in the fight against Dominion’s Chesterfield Energy Reliability Center. She previously worked for Dominion as in house counsel and has also practiced in other highly regulated industries.
Julie Bivins

Julie lives in Roanoke and created the Southwest Virginia Data Center Transparency Alliance with other locals after Project Raspberry in Botetourt County was announced in June 2025. Julie’s background is in social work, and this is her first experience in community organizing. https://swvadcta.org/

Aileen Rivera – moderator
Falls of the James Group Sierra Club- excomm member. 30 + years community activist. Advocate for data center regulation in Henrico County. Advocate against Dominion’s Chesterfield Energy Reliability Center. Falls of the James Group | Sierra Club