OUR HISTORY

From our formal incorporation in 1990 under the name of Kentucky Environmental Foundation (KEF), our organization has evolved into a link-tank (now called LiKEN) connecting wide webs of communities, scholars, practitioners, and government agencies.  From the beginning, our work has been about building collaboration across sectors— linking grassroots community mobilization and popular education, with the best available science while working closely with government agencies. Our organization has been at the forefront of grassroots mobilization for federal legislation and groundbreaking national and international collaborations to demonstrate and implement safer technologies for chemical weapons, and to support job creation in Central Kentucky through reclamation jobs. In 2006, founding director, Craig Williams, received the Goldman Environmental Prize for this work. In 2018, KEF changed its name to Livelihoods Knowledge Exchange Network (LiKEN). Our current projects serve communities in Central Kentucky, Central Appalachia, and Native Americans as they build government and scholarly support systems for community-based assessments of risks and benefits to human and environmental health, local public revenues, and local jobs.