Maria Cernone
Director of Budgets & Programs, Clean Diesel Initiative Project Manager

On May 4th, Maria Cercone joined the Southwest Detroit Environmental Vision Team! Maria is a lifelong resident of Metro Detroit. Maria was born in Detroit and has lived in Macomb her whole life. She has held positions as Director of Operations & Client Services, Support Specialist & Project Manager within the financial industry. Most recently, Maria returned to her family’s small business, Mario’s Meats, in Eastpointe where she revitalized operations. Maria has a knack for identifying inefficiencies and creating effective processes that can be easily adopted by a team. She graduated in 2013 from the University of Detroit Mercy with a Bachelor of Science & dual minor in Leadership & Psychology. She is currently taking courses at the Management and Strategy Institute for Lean Project Management and a Six Sigma Green Belt. Maria has joined the Healthy Air Program team as the Clean Diesel Initiative Project Manager. Maria will be working with cities and companies that operate heavy-duty trucks and equipment to help them speed the replacement of older, higher polluting diesel trucks and equipment with new. Newer trucks pollute less by producing fewer tailpipe emissions. This is important in Southwest Detroit because of the high levels of truck traffic on the Ambassador Bridge, on area roads, like Michigan Avenue, interstate highways (I-75, I-94, and I-96), and residential streets. The City of Detroit Anti-Idling Ordinance is another tool that was designed to help reduce diesel pollution. Cutting diesel emissions is important because diesel soot is linked to health concerns, including high blood pressure, asthma, and cancer.

Maria can be reached at maria@sdevweb.org