Breaking Green Ceilings

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In the second part of a two part series, we will continue talking about The Whale Child, a book written and illustrated by Indigenous authors Keith and Chenoa Egawa. Keith and Chenoa are siblings and enrolled members of the Lummi Indian Nation and of Japanese heritage.

This book is a reminder of why we are here, why I am here, and why I am doing this work and this podcast.

In the first part of the episode, we hear more about the role of magic in telling the story and about the inspiration for the book. In the second part of the episode, Keith and Chenoa talk about influences, habits, and advices that helped them in their work and life.

Magic is a part of life. It is also the potential that we all have that somehow gets limited through conditioning and socialization, especially in modern world. We are able to connect to that magic – if we wish to – through our dreams. It comes from the heart, not the mind. But now, we do not even know what the heart is saying any more.

We want you to remember you’re important; this is who you are. You can be what you want to be. But what is your goal? Is it to make money? And, is it to make money at the cost of life? It does not matter if you’re a good engineer; if your job is destructive, you’re destroying the Earth. It is important to bring this reality to our children now and prepare them to what is happening and what is going to happen.

Episode Highlights

We have stories about whales and orcas. They’re akin. It is not just some kind of idea of magic, but these are parts of our wisdom and understanding over thousands of years.
If you want to connect with your magic, you have to open something within yourself to remember what is already in you.
We were inspired to write the story because we saw the power of the birth of our nephew, and what happened during that time.
We want all children to remember that they are this precious and this sacred.
And then the environmental message came too, because of where we are now. We thought of all our children and our nieces and nephew, thinking about all of them and wanting to have that hope for them. That’s how the story came about. It came from a dream that my sister had.
There’s a change of jobs that needs to happen. There’s a change in our conciseness that needs to happen. If you’re doing a job, it needs to have some aspects of caring about the Earth, life, and healing.

Contact information and other Resources:

Keith Egawa is a graduate of the University of Washington’s Creative Writing program and author of the novel Madchild Running. Keith’s extensive work experience in the fields of Child and Family Services and Indian Education Reform has provided him with both inspiration and insight into his subject matter.

Chenoa Egawa holds a BA in International Business and Spanish from the University of Washington. In addition to being a writer, Chenoa is an activist for Indigenous communities and the environment, a ceremonial leader, medicine woman, singer, storyteller, and artist dedicated to bringing healing to our Mother Earth and people of all origins.

Breaking Green Ceilings:

Website: https://www.breakinggreenceilings.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/breaking_green_ceilings/

Follow Keith and Chenoa Egawa:

Instagram: The Whale Child

Facebook: The Whale Child

Website: http://www.swanclan.com/

E-mail: chenoa egawa

Penguin Random House: The Whale Child

Amazon: The Whale Child

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In this first episode of a two-part series, we will be talking about The Whale Child, a book written and illustrated by Indigenous authors Keith and Chenoa Egawa. Keith and Chenoa are siblings and enrolled members of the Lummi Indian Nation, and of Japanese heritage.

The Whale Child is an inspiring book that introduces young readers to the environmental challenges facing the planet through the eyes of Coast Salish characters and authors. It is a story about two children: a young whale and a little girl. Her task is to follow the whale child as he shows her the threats of pollution and global warming to water and thus to all interconnected life and creatures on Earth.

The book is a reminder of our severed and hurt relationships with nature. We were born with connections to nature. But as we grow older, we get socialized away from nature, which takes us away from our essence, who we really are.

According to the authors, there is nothing wrong with awareness. We do not need to be afraid. We need to recognize what is going on, and realize that we still have the power to change the situation. Turning our backs and being afraid to look at the truth will not help us to overcome anything. Facing the reality of what is going on, whether it is within or around us, is part of the healing that we all came here to do. And now, perhaps, if we can come together and recognize our common humanity, we can see that together we can make these changes. It is on us to find a way to respect nature wherever we are.

Episode Highlights

I remember the stories that our great-grandmother would tell us. There was sadness in me because I thought about how those days are gone and these stories are, somehow, disappearing in this new world.
We wrote The Whale Child honoring the memory and realizing that these things are not gone, that we can remember them at any time. And if we breathe that life back into them, they are waiting for us.
All of nature is alive, and the spirits of the stories are not just legends and myths. They are living, breathing, alive hearts of this world in which we live.
Every child has a special gift for society as a whole, for our community, and our family to be whole and fully expressed. Each person needs to contribute their unique genius or unique gift that they came to bring to the whole.
There is this remembering and forgetting that we go through when we come to this Earth.
We have responsibility. We have a voice. And we are taught to use it in a helpful way and a way of being of service
Let’s be hopeful for our children. Let’s talk to them about what is happening so we can come up with some changes and solutions that can ensure a good life for them, their children, and their grandchildren.
There are no borders in nature. It is all connected. We are all part of the global ecosystem.

Contact information and other Resources:

Keith Egawa is a graduate of the University of Washington’s Creative Writing program and the author of the novel Madchild Running (Red Crane Books Inc. 1999). Egawa’s extensive work experience in the fields of Children and Family Services and Indian Education Reform has provided him with both inspiration and insight into his subject matter. Egawa has been awarded several artists’ grants, including the ARTs Up grant through the Seattle Arts Commission, which was used to conduct a series of writing workshops for Native youth in the Seattle area.

Chenoa Egawa is the Coast Salish of the Lummi and S’Kallam Nations of Washington State. She is a ceremonial leader, singer, speaker, environmental activist, and artist dedicated to bringing healing to our Mother Earth, and people of all cultures, backgrounds, and origins through recognition of our shared experiences as human beings. Chenoa has long been active in local and international work for Indigenous peoples, children, and the environment. For over 20 years, she has worked in Washington State schools, creating programs that integrate Native American culture and history, often teaching through songs and storytelling, empowering Native youth, and bringing greater appreciation for cultural diversity to all children in the public school system. Over the past 25 years, she has traveled throughout North, Central, and South America facilitating communication among indigenous peoples with the intent of protecting and preserving cultural heritage, languages, and homelands.

Breaking Green Ceilings:

Website: https://www.breakinggreenceilings.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/breaking_green_ceilings/

Follow Keith and Chenoa Egawa:

E-mail: chenoa egawa

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chenoa.egawa/

Chenoa Egawa website: http://www.swanclan.com/

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Grace Anderson (she/her) is a network weaver, strategist, and dreamer working at the intersection of race, healing and the environment. After working as a ranger in the outdoor industry for a decade, she became an independent environmental consultant.

While working in the outdoor and environmental sector, she recognized a lack of people of color in that space, not only in leadership, but also in the program. Their stories have not been being told. She soon realized she did not want to spend her time educating white folks. Instead, she wanted to spend her time, resources and energy on people of color and their experiences, moving resources towards what they needed.

In this episode, we will hear about what made her become an independent environmental consultant, and what specific issues she is focused on. She shares her thoughts about DEI, volunteering, and philanthropy, among other things. Her insightful article about the problems related to DEI: “Is DEI work upholding the same systems it seeks to challenge?” is available on her web page.

Episode Highlights

Nature has played two different roles in my life. Every time I’m outside, I am reminded how small I am in a big system of things and also how powerful I am in a big system of things.
Now I see my work as just liberation and joy work. My focus has stayed the same; I’m just approaching it differently.
We’ve been advocating for what we need for so long. And we know what we need. My goal now is to move resources toward that.
Yes, I think DEI is tricky because it does provide some space, and there is a lot of education that needs to be done. I just think it is so out of balance.
In 2020, after I left PGM ONE, I was granted a fellowship from the Pisces Foundation alongside Angela Mooney D’Arcy and we are creating a fellowship for folks of color in the environmental space.
We are creating a framework and infrastructure to have a long-standing fellowship, specifically focused on black and indigenous folks, who need resources and time to create. Another part of it, is acquiring land for people to retreat and rest on.
I’m genuinely curious and genuinely care about people outside of the work that I do.
I often volunteer on the scholarship committee because I can see the benefit of other people.
I would like to distinguish between the people with the money – philanthropist behind the foundation and the people working in that foundation.
Too often, we look at philanthropy as a solution, and it’s not. People who have the money need to acknowledge where the money came from. No one gets that much money without extraction and exploitation, like slavery and child labor.

Contact information and other Resources:

Grace Anderson (she/her) is a network weaver, strategist, and dreamer working at the intersection of race, healing, and the environment. She is committed to building the capacity of people of color in the environmental space by moving resources toward their dreams and creating structural programming to support their growth.

With over a decade of experience in the outdoor and environmental sector, Grace has worked in several different capacities to uplift and center Black, Indigenous, and People of Color. At People of the Global Majority in the Outdoors, Nature, and Environment (PGM ONE), Grace co-directed the largest gathering of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color who work in connection with the land. Her time in this role significantly deepened her commitment to building and sustaining the networks, dreams, and joy of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color.

Breaking Green Ceilings:

Website: https://www.breakinggreenceilings.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/breaking_green_ceilings/

Follow Grace:

Website: https://www.graceanderson.co/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/amaze_me_grace/

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Dr. Sri has a really interesting story about how he found himself on a path into environmental conservation and eventually water equity after starting as a construction engineer. When I reached out to Sri he was the leader of the water program at the Environmental Policy Innovation Center. Since then, he took a new and exciting opportunity at the Environmental Consulting & Technology, Inc., as the Director of Water Equity and Climate Resilience. Over the past several years, Sri’s work has addressed national water issues such as affordability, aging water infrastructure, extreme weather impacts, financing, and non-point source pollution.

In this episode, Dr. Sri talks about water equity challenges in the United States.

Episode Highlights

In the US, we have almost two million people who do not have access to clean drinking water and indoor plumbing services. The majority of them are indigenous communities and communities of color.
In its simplest form, water equity means that everyone has access to safe, reliable, and affordable water services. But sometimes, what is safe and reliable is not affordable, or what is reliable and affordable is not safe.
There are many forms of water inequity in the US - accidents, contamination with water pollutants, too expensive water for low-income community, or mistrust toward the public service.
Inequities in communities of color include housing issues, capitalistic ways of doing things, some version of private industry, or lobbying.
We try to work with EPA because certain things have to be done at the federal level.
Water infrastructure investments. Smaller systems are more resource restricted, but they are also in most need of these funds.
Six million people in the country do not drink tap water. In many cases these are unjustified fears of mistrust.
There are certain uses for bottle water. But making that a predominant way of consumption is problematic because there is huge difference in the pricing of bottle water per unit of volume compared to tap water.

Contact information and other Resources:

Dr. Sridhar Vedachalam leads the water program at the Environmental Policy Innovation Center. His work has addressed national water issues such as affordability, aging infrastructure, extreme weather impacts, financing, and non-point source pollution. He currently serves on the advisory board for Water Hub and is a member of the Source Water Initiative led by the Great Lakes Commission and the Water Equity Task Force led by Virginia Health Catalyst. Dr. Vedachalam is also the Editor for Urban Water at the Global Water Forum, a resource for evidence-based, accessible, and open-access articles on freshwater governance. He brings water policy experience from his years in academia, government, and the non-profit sector. He holds a Ph.D. from The Ohio State University.

Breaking Green Ceilings:

Website: https://www.breakinggreenceilings.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/breaking_green_ceilings/

Follow Dr. Sri Vedachlam:

Twitter: https://mobile.twitter.com/drvedachalam

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/srivedachalam/

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This is the second episode of a two-part series with Afnan Khairullah and Sofia Gilani. Afnan and Sofia are volunteers with the Green Muslims organization that works to connect Muslims everywhere to nature and environmental activism.

In this episode, Afnan and Sofia continue sharing about the role nature played in their life and how they are using their religion, Islam, to educate and connect fellow Muslims to nature. They also give some good examples of how to live responsibly and be good stewards of this planet. According to them, keeping it simple, especially during the holy month of Ramadan, is the way it is supposed to be. Simple life gives you clarity and a better perspective on what is important in life, and helps you prioritize.

Episode Highlights

The way Ramadan is practiced nowadays defeats the purpose. We are supposed to spend all our time in worship, yet many people spend their time in the kitchen cooking for a massive feast, and after that massive feast, there is a massive clean-up.
The environmental toll on that is that there is so much food, and a lot of it ends up going to waste.
Our dinner is our iftar (breakfast). We have maybe one big iftar, and then we have leftovers.
In Green Muslims last year we did a Ramadan challenge where we encouraged our followers to do a different theme each week
Get yourself out there and make room for yourself. Not many environmental spaces are Muslim-heavy. Make yourself heard, and start where you’re comfortable.
Pursue your passion. Learn more about what you want to learn and use it to the best of your ability.
Live simply; forget about the stuff and go for the outdoor experiences and quality time with nature.

Contact information and other Resources:

Afnan is a New Jersey native who moved to Northern Virginia in 2020 to start a career in the federal government. She holds a BA in Environmental Studies and an MS in Sustainability Science with a concentration in sustainability leadership. Throughout her life, she has been drawn to the outdoors and is happiest hiking, bouldering, or exploring Washington, DC.

Time and again Afnan has found herself drawing parallels with faith and eco stewardship, so working with Green Muslims was a natural fit to address environmental stewardship in the Muslim community while also promoting environmental awareness. She hopes that more people will one day share the same affinity for the well-being of the Earth.

Sofia Gilani (she/hers) is the Climate Action Advocate for Green Muslims. Born and raised in Northern Virginia, Sofia spent much of her youth outdoors with her family & later traveled to her parent’s home countries of Pakistan and Nicaragua. This travel experience shaped her view of an interconnected world that influenced her passion for environmental and social justice. She holds a BS in Environmental Science from George Mason University where she was involved with the Virginia Student Environmental Coalition and Mason Environmental Justice Alliance (MEJA). During her participation with these two organizations she was a collaborator for events to address activist burnout, conflict resolution discussions, prepare for marches, and organize clean-ups. Sofia has a strong passion for education and advocacy that she utilizes in her work with Green Muslims to help involve the Muslim community in environmental advocacy. Professionally, Sofia has worked in environmental compliance for solid waste, as well as construction. In her spare time outside of work and advocacy, Sofia enjoys kayaking, biking, boxing, and hanging out with her cat.

Here's a link to a video that created by Peter Toscano of the Citizens Climate Lobby for the “Religious Communities and the Planetary Crisis” hosted by the Interreligious Eco-Justice Network, the Hartford Seminary, and CT Interfaith Power and Light.

https://www.facebook.com/528075872/videos/10158758547730873/

Breaking Green Ceilings:

Website: https://www.breakinggreenceilings.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/breaking_green_ceilings/

Follow Afnan:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/afn%C3%A1n-khairullah-78aab910a/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/khairful/

Follow Sofia

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thegreengilani/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/thegreengilani

Green Muslims: https://www.greenmuslims.org/

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In this first episode of a two part series, we will hear from Afnan Khairullah and Sofia Gilani, who are volunteers with Green Muslims. Green Muslims is an organization that works to connect Muslims everywhere to nature and environmental activism. Their mission is to serve as a source in the Muslim community for spiritually-inspired environmental education, action, and reflection.

Afnan and Sofia share with us about the role nature played in their life and how they are using their religion, Islam, to educate and connect fellow Muslims to nature. They both see their religion closely connected to environmentalism.

According to Afnan and Sofia, all creatures are important, and our responsibility is to treat everything that the Creator has given us with kindness, compassion and respect. It is important to be humble and respectful of others.

Episode Highlights

Environmentalism in Islam is an obligation.
Our interpretation of the scriptures and God’s will, may take us down the rabbit hole. Instead of using the resources to live better, we are overusing them.
We are tested by what God gives us. Do we use this great wealth He gives us to improve other people’s lives, or do we live lavishly?
We’re advocating for this planet, for the entire creation. Any good work we do here in Virginia, can benefit outside these made-up borders.
Being able to connect Islam and education does a whole lot. Starting on kids young and get them in that thought process, but also adults who may not have been thinking about that.
It is important to maintain the balance in our environment by preserving, protecting and not altering our habitats to our convenience.
We should all ask ourselves what our priorities are. Why are we here? Why are we chasing all this materialism and lifestyles?

Contact information and other Resources:

Afnan is a New Jersey native who moved to Northern Virginia in 2020 to start a career in federal government. She holds a BA in Environmental Studies and a MS in Sustainability Science with a concentration in sustainability leadership. Throughout her life she has been drawn to the outdoors and is happiest hiking, bouldering, or exploring Washington, DC.

https://www.facebook.com/528075872/videos/10158758547730873/

Breaking Green Ceilings:

Website: https://www.breakinggreenceilings.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/breaking_green_ceilings/

Follow Afnan:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/afn%C3%A1n-khairullah-78aab910a/

USGS: https://www.usgs.gov/staff-profiles/afnan-khairullah

Follow Sofia

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thegreengilani/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/thegreengilani

Green Muslims: https://www.greenmuslims.org/

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Nadia Ahmad is an author, attorney, law professor, and environmental justice advocate. She has spent her academic career focusing on frontline communities who are the most vulnerable to energy production. She is a Visiting Associate Professor at Yale Law School and an Associate Professor at Barry University School of Law. She teaches environmental law, property, and business organizations. She has presented her research on the law and policy of advanced biofuels in Abu Dhabi, Cairo, Cambridge, Doha, Denver, New York, and San Francisco. Her over 45 scholarly publications focus on the intersections of energy siting, the environment, and sustainable development and draw on international investment law and corporate social responsibility.

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Earl B. Hunter, Jr is an unapologetic business owner of an outdoor recreational and marketing company that is committed to get more black folks out in nature, and encourage our white allies to invite non white folks on their outdoor excursions. Earl worked in the recreational vehicle or RV industry as an executive for many years until he realized how people of color and particularly black folks are rarely to be seen purchasing recreational equipment or even enjoying outdoor spaces like parks. So he took matters into his own hands. And he created Black Folks Camp Too, which is based on one simple slogan, treat everyone everywhere equally. This is depicted in the Black Folks Camp Too Unity Blaze.

Follow Earl IG:@blackfolkscamptoo Facebook: @blackfolkscamptoo YouTube: @Black Folks Camp Too Website: blackfolkscamptoo.com

Follow Breaking Green Ceilings IG - @breaking_green_ceilings

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Ecologist Dr. Rodrigo Medellín is one of the most vocal and well-known advocates for the protection of bats and bat habitats. Rodrigo fell in love with bats when he held one for the first time at the age of 13 and today he is known as the “Bat Man of Mexico”.

He is especially known for making significant contributions to taking the lesser long-nosed bat off the endangered list in Mexico and the U.S. The lesser long-nosed bat, found in northern Mexico and the southwestern United States, is one of just three bat species in North America that are responsible for pollinating cacti and agave plants across the continent.

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Rocio Villalobos is from Austin, Texas. She's an avid trail runner who promotes mental health, having experienced her own challenges and finding a place to belong in nature. She runs to promote Indigenous values around running to heal the soul and healing one's relationship to the land and to raise awareness on the importance of increasing racial representation in the outdoors. She is also a mentor who helps connect young people to nature and themselves. In addition, she is also an environmental and social justice activist who is fighting to promote a healthy community in her East Austin neighborhood which is predominantly Latinx and a Black community and has experienced environmental injustices. Last but not least, she is currently working with the City of Austin's equity office as an immigrant affairs coordinator.

Connect with Rocio IG: @thexicanaexplorer Linked In: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rociodelrosario

Follow Breaking Green Ceilings IG - @breaking_green_ceilings Twitter - @breaking_green_ceilings

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One would think that food insecurity doesn't exist in one of the richest countries in the world - United Kingdom. Deidre (Dee) Woods who currently lives in London sheds light on the stark disparities that exist in the community she serves. As a food and farming action-ist Dee advocates for good food for all and a just, equitable food system, challenging the systemic barriers that impact marginalized communities and food producers. Having experienced food insecurity herself, Dee found a way to organize community to increase food access and eventually co-founded a food bank in London. Through policy action and decolonizing research and farming methods, Dee is committed to helping families struggling economically, often people of color, including immigrants and refugees. Of Trinidadian heritage, Dee talks about how her experiences of growing up on her father's farm in Trinidad made her passionate about food, farming and connecting to the land. In addition to being a food and farming action-ist, Dee is also an award winning cook!

Follow Dee Woods:

Twitter: @Didara
Instagram: @osunschild
Facebook: Deirdre Woods

Follow Breaking Green Ceilings:

IG - @breaking_green_ceilings
Website: breakinggreenceilings.com

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In this episode we talk about the implications of free trade on African women especially from a food sovereignty perspective. Often free trade agreements are advertised to boost trade between countries, and ultimately encourage and strengthen economic growth in a geographic region. However, this is not the case, especially with African women farmers and small holder farmers who are the back bone of the agriculture sector on the continent. Susan Nacakwa and Leonida Odongo share their experiences of their work in Uganda and Kenya as it relates to helping empower small holder and women farmers to protect and preserve indigenous farming practices that are less harmful to the environment and ensure sustainable yields over the long term. Ultimately, Susan and Leonida want to help their farmers reclaim land to produce local and organic foods that achieve food and seed sovereignty not only in their home countries but also throughout other African countries struggling with similar threats from unfair government policies and corporate interests.

Follow Susan:

Email - susan@grain.org

Website - https://grain.org/

Follow Leonida:

Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/public/Nana-Odongo

Twitter: https://twitter.com/nanodo2001

Blog: https://leoconversations715036889.wordpress.com/

Email: leonida@hakinawiriafrika.org

Leonida's Organisation - Haki Nawiri Afrika

Website :https://hakinawiriafrika.org/

Blog: https://hakinawiriafrica.wordpress.com/blog-2/

You Tube : https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCc1ez4ndJ0IDhqU6gQgBEyQ/about

Email: info@hakinawiriafrika.org

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This is the second episode of a two part series with three wonderful changemakers - Laura Diaz, Samrat Pathania from Environmental Collective for Environmental Justice or EC-EJ and Isabel Lopez and Raizes Collective. This is yet another wonderfully informative and descriptive conversation with phenomenal environmental justice activists on what inspired them to create their own movements and how they are collaborating to help strengthen and empower their communities.

Topics Discussed:

The power of storytelling
Decolonizing educational curricula as a critical means to teaching environmental justice
The role of humility in environmental justice work
The appropriation of environmental justice in academia

Follow Environmental Collective for Environmental Justice (EC-EJ)

Website: https://www.ec-ej.org/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/edcollectiveforEJ/

Follow Raizes Collective:

Website: https://www.raizescollective.org/
Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/raizescollective/posts

Follow Breaking Green Ceilings:

IG - @breaking_green_ceilings
YouTube - Breaking Green Ceilings Podcast
Website: breakinggreenceilings.com

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This is the first episode of a two part series with three wonderful changemakers - Laura Diaz, Samrat Pathania from Environmental Collective for Environmental Justice or EC-EJ and Isabel Lopez and Raizes Collective. This is yet another wonderfully informative and descriptive conversation with phenomenal environmental justice activists on what inspired them to create their own movements and how they are collaborating to help strengthen and empower their communities.

Topics Discussed:

How to teach Environmental Justice in the classroom
How to build stronger communities through artivism
Using data to demonstrate environmental racism

Follow Environmental Collective for Environmental Justice (EC-EJ)

Website: https://www.ec-ej.org/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/edcollectiveforEJ/

Follow Raizes Collective:

Website: https://www.raizescollective.org/
Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/raizescollective/posts

Follow Breaking Green Ceilings:

IG - @breaking_green_ceilings
YouTube - Breaking Green Ceilings Podcast
Website: breakinggreenceilings.com

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A queer farmer of color, Edgar Xochitl is the Farm Manager at Hummingbird Farm a collective farm in the Excelsior, San Francisco. Edgar focuses on cross-polinating traditional ecological knowledge.

In this episode we talk about:

What is Queer Ecology?
What does it mean to decolonize the flower?
How to apply principles of queer ecology
How to challenges the gender binary mindset?

Follow Edgar:

IG - @ecoxicano
Twitter: @ecoxicano

Watch/Learn More:

YouTube - Breaking Green Ceilings Podcast
IG - @breaking_green_ceilings
Website: breakinggreenceilings.com

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Why is modern conservation failing? And what can we do to improve its effectiveness?

As a social research consultant, Leander Lacy notes that traditional approaches are fragmented, not adequately considering the social dimensions of environmental issues. His transformative solutions— rooted in empiricism and critical Human-Nature connectedness, help conservation groups and eco-minded businesses achieve optimal outcomes from conservation action: business growth, stronger community relationships, stakeholder engagement, and increased JEDI (justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion).

In this episode we talk about:

On the “selfless” nature of Environmental Preservation
On applying Social Science perspectives to address topics in Conservation
On integrating Human Dimensions to promote sustainability in conservation

Follow Leander:

IG - @greenmindpodcast
Website: https://www.thegreenmindpodcast.com/

Watch/Learn More:

YouTube - Breaking Green Ceilings Podcast
IG - @breaking_green_ceilings
Website: breakinggreenceilings.com

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Billy Almon is an Astrobiofuturist. Billy helps people explore solutions to improve human experiences on earth and in space. He is an inventor and immersive storyteller who aims to reach the next generation of inventors, designers, scientists and engineers – showing them how to design the future they wish to see. Billy is also the co-host of Little Giants, a new TV series on Animal Planet that features some of his global explorations of the nature-inspired design process called Biomimicry.

In this episode we talk about:

What is biomimicry
How can biomimcry be used to reduce human impact on the environment
What social justice has to do with the space discovery

Follow Billy:

IG - @billy_almon
Website: billyalmon.com

Watch/Learn More:

YouTube - Breaking Green Ceilings Podcast
IG - @breaking_green_ceilings
Website: breakinggreenceilings.com

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Benjamin Von Wong is an award-winning Canadian who's work lies at the intersection of fantasy and photography and combines everyday objects with shocking statistics. It has attracted the attention of corporations, like Starbucks, Dell, and Nike and has generated over 100 million views for causes like ocean plastics, electronic waste, and fashion pollution. Most recently, he was named one of Adweek's 11 content branded masterminds.

In this episode Ben talks about some of his conceptual photography projects where he tried to communicate the shocking impacts of pollution such as Strawpocalypse: a 10-ft sculpture made from 168,000 reclaimed straws to spotlight plastic pollution and the world’s tallest closet to encourage consumers to shop consciously.

He also talks about his podcast Impact Everywhere Podcast and how it's a means to continue amplifying the positive impact of other creatives, entrepreneurs, innovators, changemakers around the world.

Watch/Learn More:

YouTube - Breaking Green Ceilings Podcast
IG - @breaking_green_ceilings
Website: breakinggreenceilings.com

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We're back! Here are some highlights:

Video for season 2 and season 3 episodes are on our youtube page - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdv_elfXXh0fbb_s6QYLZHg
Still sticking to an every other week schedule
First episode comes out on July 6th so lookout!

Let's connect!:

IG - @breaking_green_ceilings
Website: breakinggreenceilings.com

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Stacey Isaac Berahzer, founder of IB Environmental, has spent more than 16 years in the environmental field, most of it immersed in water resource management as a senior project director with the Environmental Finance Center at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. As a passionate proponent of clean, affordable water who is deeply connected to work in the water industry, she’s helps her clients overcome the constant challenges related to funding and managing these projects. Stacey’s passion for environmental work led her to earn a degree in Environmental Science from North Carolina Central University and a Master of Public Administration from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is past chair of the board of directors for the Institute for Georgia Environmental Leadership and teaches in the Georgia Association of Water Professionals Leadership Academy.

Follow Stacey:

Website - https://www.ibenvironmental.com/
Twitter - @IBenvironmental

Follow Breaking Green Ceilings:

Website - https://watersavvysolutions.com/podcast
Instagram- @breaking_green_ceilings
Facebook - @breaking_green_ceilings
Twitter - @sapnamulki

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Stephen Awoyemi is a PhD student at the Department of Environmental Sciences and Policy. For his PhD research, he looks at how sociological theories can help explain and solve the conservation problem of trade in vulture parts for traditional medicine in Nigeria. He holds an MPhil degree in Conservation Leadership (2014) from the University of Cambridge, UK and Bachelors degree from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria.

Before starting this PhD program, Stephen worked with the Nigerian Conservation Foundation, the foremost conservation organization in Nigeria as Conservation Policy and Campaign Officer/Head of Abuja Office and has been a longtime volunteer with the Society for Conservation Biology (SCB).

Follow Stephen Awoyemi:

Publications - https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Stephen-Awoyemi-2

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Website - https://watersavvysolutions.com/podcast
Instagram- @breaking_green_ceilings
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Raya Salter is an attorney, educator and clean energy law/policy expert, focusing on climate justice. She is a member of the New York State Climate Action Council, which is developing NY’s plan to reach the nation’s leading climate action goals, and a policy organizer with the NY Renews environmental and climate justice coalition.

Raya is an experienced advocate, having practiced energy law and regulation in multiple jurisdictions, including New York and Hawaii. In prior roles she was a Senior Attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council and a Regulatory Attorney with the Environmental Defense Fund. She has written widely on energy policy and her book, "Energy Justice, Domestic and International Perspectives" was released in 2018.

Follow Raya Salter

Instagram - @climateauntie
LinkedIn - @RayaSalter
Website - rayasalter.com
Twitter - @EarthtoRaya

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Website - https://watersavvysolutions.com/podcast
Instagram- @breaking_green_ceilings
Facebook - @breaking_green_ceilings
Twitter - @sapnamulki

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Deondre Smiles is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Geography and is a citizen of the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe. His research interests include Indigenous geographies, science and technology studies, and tribal cultural resource protection/preservation. His current dissertation research focuses on historical and contemporary disrespect and disturbances of deceased Indigenous bodies and Indigenous burial grounds in his home state of Minnesota.

Deondre is also teaching a course this spring on indigenous environmental activism at The Ohio State University, which we talk about in-depth in this 44th episode of the Breaking Green Ceilings podcast.

Follow Deondre:

Twitter - @DeondreSmiles

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Website - https://watersavvysolutions.com/podcast
Instagram- @breaking_green_ceilings
Facebook - @breaking_green_ceilings
Twitter - @sapnamulki

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Weldon Wade was born and raised in Bermuda and has been active in the Bermuda diving community for over 10 years. The first and only Bermudian certified as freediver/scuba diver/closed-circuit rebreather diver, Weldon is also the founder of an ocean conservation organization called Guardians of the Reef. With important missions that include inviting new divers to explore and protect the ocean, encouraging divers to continue diving, they empower more young Bermudians to see for themselves what lies beneath the waves. Ocean protection is at the core of Guardians, with hunting invasives and removing plastic pollution from the land and sea floor as two of the organization’s main goals.

Follow Weldon Wade:

Website: https://www.weldonwade.com/
Instagram: @Weldonwade
Facebook: @Weldonwade
Twitter - @Weldonwade

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Website - https://watersavvysolutions.com/podcast
Instagram- @breaking_green_ceilings
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This is a re-release of an episode from Feb 2020 season 1 of the podcast. This episode is with the only African American River Keeper in the world, Fred Tutman. Fred is the river for the Patuxent River in Maryland, a north eastern state in the US. This episode is especially meaningful for me because it was the first time I gained the perspective of an elder in the environmental justice movement. Fred’s words still echo in my thoughts because I learned about how segregated the environmental movement is and the challenges that Black and Brown communities face especially when competing with mainstream environmental movements for attention and resources for environmental justice causes.

So, I am rereleasing old episodes every other week because I’d like for us to revisit some of the conversations that set the foundation for this podcast. I also want to continue honoring the guests. And another reason for rereleasing episodes is so that our new listeners can catch-up and older followers can reflect on these conversations.

A new episode will be released next week. Until then please enjoy my conversation with the Patuxent Riverkeeper, Fred Tutman.

Follow Fred:

https://paxriverkeeper.org/
https://fredtutman.com/

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YouTube- Breaking Green Ceilings Podcast
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Nicole Jackson, Ivory Levert and Angela Mitchell are co-creators of Black Women in Nature (BWN), an initiative to connect Black women with nature through meditation, nature, hiking, and reflection in Columbus, Ohio. Nicole is an environmental educator and co-organizer for Black in National Parks Week and Black Birder’s Week. Ivory Levert is a certified yoga guide and leads the meditation and mindfulness segments of the BWN sessions. Angela Mitchell is a professional athlete and health and wellness enthusiast who guides the discussions on the importance of holistic living in the BWN sessions. Together these women are helping Black women find and celebrate Black joy, and to connect with their natural environment through mind, body and soul.

Follow Black Women in Nature:

Instagram: @blkwomeninnature
Nicole Jackson - @blackinnpsweek and @nicky.j10
IvoryLevert - @mindfulgreenqueen and @plantthepower614
Angela Mitchell - @theveganfitsta

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Instagram- @breaking_green_ceilings
Website - https://watersavvysolutions.com/podcast
Twitter - @sapnamulki

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Hey All! Season 2 is here! I can’t believe that we made it this far. Season 1 was exhilarating and hectic at the same time. We had 40 episodes in 9 months. At that time I didn't think to take a break for various reasons, I was exhilarated by all the amazing guests I found and their stories. I also wanted to get the hang of podcasting and it was new, fun and exciting to me so I just kept going. That said, we are not going to do a repeat of that.

This year, I am breaking down the seasons into three months each with a break of one month in-between. I will also be releasing a new episode every other week and in between I will re-release an episode from season 1 with a look back discussion. I’m experimenting with this structure because when I spoke to a few of our listeners one of the pieces of feedback included that there were alot of episodes in season 1 and it was hard to keep up with so that’s why the schedule of every other week. And because I still want to honor the amazingness of our season 1 guests who you've probably not had a chance to hear from I am re-releasing them. I’m curious to see how that goes. If you have any thoughts please email me at info@watersavvysolutions.com or you can DM on Insta, Twitter, FB, LinkedIn. Links will be in the show notes.

Another thing new that we’re doing is we’ve uploaded all 40 episodes on YouTube! It took a loonngg time but we thought it would be useful especially for those of us who need captions. Also, I will be recording videos of some interviews and I’ll let you know in the intros if it is available.

So, still focusing on what’s to come in the next season, I’m also going to be experimenting with some formats. I am trying to do a series that focuses on a particular issue so that we can fully get a well-rounded understanding on issues by featuring various perspectives. I am also trying to have more than one guest per show just to show the nuance of environmental issues and themes. In season 1 we covered many themes and you probably noticed recurring themes around environmental justice, structural racism, colonialism this is expected since this podcast focuses on amplifying the voices of environmentalists from marginalized communities and their white allies and this is their experiences.

That said, in a listener survey we conducted two months back one of the pieces of feedback we received is a desire to hear from environmentalists outside of the US. As a Kenyan Indian I love that idea and also released a series on Kenyan environmentalists in season 1. Those are episodes 14 through 17 if you’re interested. But, yes, we will be hearing from more international environmentalists!

Other topics we will be covering include:

Indigenous led ecological restoration
Queer nature
Climate change and especially how to communicate on this topic
Climate anxiety
Wildlife conservation and protection
Food sovereignty
Religion and the environment

I’m getting excited sharing what’s to come this year. Finally, I am so grateful to you dear listener, you have given me hope that we can make a difference together. As an environmentalist I’ve often struggled with my theory of change because I wasn’t seeing favorable outcomes within the timeframe I wanted and I was always limited by somebody else’s agenda. Well, with the podcast I get to show what I think matters, which is a diversity of voices and how everything is connected. Our environmental solutions can’t be just from a single lens. We need multiple perspectives that include consideration of socioeconomic, political, and cultural influences. So, I hope dear listeners that you come to appreciate this approach and also implement it in whatever way you can in your work or daily life choices.

Thank you for listening and I look forward to hearing from you. Please feel free to share this podcast with you friends, family and foe. Please leave a review on Apple iTunes or wherever you listen to podcasts and finally feel free to reach out to me:

Website: https://watersavvysolutions.com/podcast
info@watersavvysolutions.com
DM on Insta - @breaking_green_ceilings/
Twitter - @sapnamulki
FB Group- @Breaking Green Ceilings
LinkedIn - @Sapna Mulki

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Jason Baldes is a member of the Eastern Shoshone Tribe from the Wind River Indian Reservation in Wyoming. He received his undergraduate and graduate degrees in Land Resource Sciences from Montana State University. Jason's interests have led to work and travel with Indigenous peoples in East Africa, New Zealand, Mexico, Russia, and Denmark. Much of his work has been surrounding the restoration of bison to the Wind River Indian Reservation. Jason currently serves as the Eastern Shoshone Tribal Buffalo Representative, and Tribal Buffalo Coordinator for the Tribal Partnerships Program of the National Wildlife Federation. Jason provides workshops and learning opportunities about Tribal history, water, bison conservation, wildlife/fisheries, and cultural connections with animals through song, story, and language. His efforts help people understand the complexities of contemporary issues through an Indigenous lense, bridging cross-cultural gaps and creating positive relationships with those who wish to understand more about Native American people.

Show Notes: https://watersavvysolutions.com/buffalo

Topics Discussed:

History of Buffalo in the U.S.
Cultural, Ecological and Economic Importance of Buffalo in Praireland
Rewilding

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Instagram - @Breaking_Green_Ceilings
Facebook- @breaking green ceilings
Twitter- @sapnamulki

Follow Jason:

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jason-baldes-80638420/

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Ambika Rajyagor is a 24 year old Indian-American Outdoor/Adventure Blogger, Special Needs Advocate, and Activist. She is also the cofounder of DisablednOutdoors an online BIPOC-run community focused on representation and accessibility in the outdoors, wants to ensure that these efforts are intersectional, too—especially after nearly four years of policies that worked against Americans with disabilities. As someone who goes outdoors to look within, she can’t stand silent knowing that there is no real “outdoors for all” experience when racism and ableism exists. Most of Ambika's work in both her personal and professional life has been motivated by her biggest inspiration— her little sister Devika. At a year old, Devika survived AML Leukemia, and because of the extent of her treatment, she has lived with the side-effects of the chemo her whole life. She's severely physically and cognitively disabled, and while she experiences pain and limitations everyday— she is Ambika's “little lotus”. Ambika believes representation matters-- especially in the Outdoors Industry, where so many different minorities are underrepresented, from racial differences, to wealth, and ability differences.

Show Notes: https://watersavvysolutions.com/lending-a-voice

Topics Discussed:

How to be an advocate for disability rights
Ableism in the outdoor community
How to travel to national parks on a budget

Follow Breaking Green Ceilings:

Instagram - @Breaking_Green_Ceilings
Facebook- @breaking green ceilings
Twitter- @sapnamulki

Follow Ambika Rajyagor:

Instagram- @gangesgal and @disablednoutdoors
Twitter - @ganges_gal

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Francisco, recently retired from his position as the director of recreation tourism, heritage and wilderness resources for more than 22 million acres of national forests and grasslands and national monuments in the Forest Service’s Southwestern Region. He served at the U.S. Forest service for more than 35 years. Valenzuela helped guide the development of over $500 million in infrastructure at the Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument. It is the largest comprehensively planned investment in recreation infrastructure and services in Forest Service history. Francisco has contributed creating a sustainable relationship between human communities and the rest of the living world around the globe. He is now the Board Chair of PUP Global Heritage Consortium, which works to unite people and organizations dedicated to emerging paradigms in heritage management for a more holistic sustainable and vital future.

Show Notes: https://watersavvysolutions.com/recreating-in-color

Topics Discussed:

Recreation Equity
Ecology is White Man's Problem
Recognizing our Racist Environmental History

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Instagram - @Breaking_Green_Ceilings
Facebook- @breaking green ceilings
Twitter- @sapnamulki

Follow Francisco Valenzuela:

LinkedIn - linkedin.com/in/francisco-valenzuela-01770710
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/francisco.valenzuela.942
Instagram- @franciscovalenzuela2027
Twitter - @franciscov1960

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Aalayna Green (she/her) is an undergraduate student at Michigan State University majoring in Zoology. Her research focuses on the nexus between conservation criminology and women's studies. She's specifically studying the gendered implications of urban wildmeat trafficking in the Democratic Republic of Congo. A self-proclaimed intersectional conservationist, Aalayna has plans to attend graduate school and focus on wildlife conservation, community sustainability, and women's empowerment.

See Show Notes - https://watersavvysolutions.com/trafficking

Topics Discussed:

Navigating Through Academia as an Undergraduate
Women in wildlife trafficking in Africa
Conservation Criminology
And more!

Follow Breaking Green Ceilings:

Instagram - @Breaking_Green_Ceilings
Facebook- @breaking green ceilings
Twitter- @sapnamulki

Follow Aalayana Green

Twitter - @aalayna23
Instagram - @aalayna.green

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Dr. Lee Ann Woolery, is an educator, researcher, scholar, and practicing artist of over 30 years. She pioneered Art-Based Perceptual Ecology, an art-based field research method to study ecological change. Dr. Woolery has accomplished a diverse array of actions varying from designing and facilitating arts programming for communities, schools, etc., to working with multicultural and intergenerational constituencies in several states, to developing a multi-disciplined community-based creative arts and mentorship program for inner-city youth of color in Chicago. She is currently the CEO and Research Director for EcoArt Expeditions and Citizen Artist, where she leads field research employing art-based research methods in concert with traditional scientific methods to study ecological systems. You can find more information about her current research and educational programming at http://www.ecoartexpeditions.com

See Show Notes - https://watersavvysolutions.com/ecoart

Topics Discussed:

The value art therapy
Techniques in art-based perceptual theory
Citizen Artistry
And more!

Follow Breaking Green Ceilings:

Instagram - @Breaking_Green_Ceilings
Facebook- @breaking green ceilings
Twitter- @sapnamulki

Follow Dr. Lee Ann Woolery

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/Eco-Art-Expeditions-346059209505896/
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/lee-ann-woolery-60b9006/

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Vasu Sojitra is a professional adaptive athlete. His main passion is for skiing as well as for mountain sports ranging from trail running, rock climbing to packrafting and everything in between. Vasu has climbed peaks like the Grand Teton and climbed and skied peaks in Montana’s Beartooth and Bridger mountain ranges. When Vasu was only nine months old, he was diagnosed with septicemia, resulting in the amputation of one of his legs. Since then, Vasu has not looked back; with the help of his parents, brother, and friends, Vasu has built up the confidence needed to face new challenges with grace, courage, strength, humor, and unwavering determination. With the motto of “ninjasticking through the wood to bring intersectionality to the outdoors” Vasu leads outdoor activities for people of marginalized backgrounds and challenges the biases that go with being a person of color with a disability through his work with the In Solidarity Network and first adaptive athlete for The North Face as well as his previous work as the Adaptive Sports Program Director for Eagle Mount Bozeman and Co-Founder/Program Coordinators for Earthtone Outsideᴹᵀ.

See Show Notes - https://watersavvysolutions.com/ninjasticking

Topics Discussed:

Disability Justice
Creating Access for Disabled and the Outdoors
Adaptive Athletisism
And more!

Follow Breaking Green Ceilings:

Instagram - @Breaking_Green_Ceilings
Facebook- @breaking green ceilings
Twitter- @sapnamulki

Follow Vasu Sojitra

Instagram - @Vasu_Sojitra
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/vasu.sojitra.athlete
Twitter - https://twitter.com/vasu_sojitra
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/vasusojitra19/

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Dr. Dominique Lazarre has been an Associate Research Scientist at the Fish and Wildlife Research Institute in Saint Petersburg, Florida, since 2017. At FWRI, she leads a data management team that provides fisheries data to state and regional partners for stock assessments. Dominique also has experience working in academia: she is currently an adjunct professor for the Department of Biological Sciences at University of South Florida Saint Petersburg and was previously a visiting professor in Environmental Studies at Eckerd College. She completed her doctorate in Marine Biology and Fisheries at the University of Miami, where her dissertation focused on the dynamics of invasive lionfish and the factors that helped lionfish become established in the Gulf of Mexico, South Atlantic and Caribbean Sea. Her current position allows her to work at the intersection of stakeholder engagement and fisheries management, providing data that support sustainable fisheries in Florida.

See Show Notes - https://watersavvysolutions.com/marine-sciences

Topics Discussed:

Black American Contributions to Marine Science
Impacts of Lionfish
Sustainable Fishing Practices
And More!

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Instagram - @Breaking_Green_Ceilings
Facebook- @breaking green ceilings
Twitter- @sapnamulki

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Ari Copeland works at Black & Veatch Corporation as an Operations Specialist. Ari has a BS in Civil Engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute and Masters in Environmental Engineering from University of Cincinnati. Ari has been a member of the American Water Works Association (AWWA) and has been in the water and wastewater industry for 16 years. Ari is a queer, transgender man who transitioned on the job in 2011. Ari is passionate about inclusion efforts within the water industry and all aspects of life. Ari is a member of the AWWA Diversity and Membership Inclusion Committee and the current Chair of Black & Veatch’s Pride Employee Resource group – working towards fostering a safe and inclusive work environment for LGBTQIA+ professionals and Allies. Ari is a New Englander at heart (originally from Waterbury, Connecticut) but enjoys traveling within the USA and all over the world.

See Show Notes - https://watersavvysolutions.com/inclusive-spaces

Topics Discussed:

Creating Safe Spaces for Queer and Trans Folx
Transgender Rights Activism
How to Transition in the Workplace
And More!

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Instagram - @Breaking_Green_Ceilings
Facebook- @breaking green ceilings
Twitter- @sapnamulki

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Rabiah Nur is an Indigenous healer, activist, storyteller, speaker, ceremonialist and daughter of the Great Mother. Her work in the world is to heal and empower women through connection to nature, to spirit, and to their innate wisdom. She works to facilitate a rebirth of a new and healthy society where women are valued, empowered, whole and are held as the sacred beings that they are. If women are unhealthy, the whole society is unhealthy.Currently, Rabiah consults with and teaches at conferences, gatherings, schools, religious organizations, and retreat centers to offer Earth-based spiritual teachings, grounding energetic work, collective healing for teams and work groups, and education about appropriate use of Indigenous practices and traditions. Rabiah recently co-designed an initiative in partnership with the Patuxent Riverkeeper called Honoring Our Sacred Waters, which exists to increase awareness of the spiritual connection between people and water through honoring, ceremony, and education.

Show Notes: https://watersavvysolutions.com/spiritual

Topics Discussed:

Connecting with Nature
Appropriation of Indigenous Culture
Science of Vibrations

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Instagram - @Breaking_Green_Ceilings
Facebook- @breaking green ceilings
Twitter- @sapnamulki

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Dr. Diego Román is an Assistant Professor in Bilingual/Bicultural Education at the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (Fall 2019). Prior to this appointment, he was an Assistant Professor in Teaching and Learning at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. Dr. Román holds a B.S. degree in Agronomy from Zamorano University in Honduras and a M.S. degree in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. He earned a M.S. degree in Biology, a M.A. in Linguistics, and a Ph.D. degree in Educational Linguistics, all from Stanford University. Dr. Román's research interests are located at the intersection of linguistics, science education, and environmental studies. Specifically, he investigates the implicit and explicit ideologies reflected in the design and implementation of bilingual programs and in studying the best practices of teaching science and environmental topics, particularly to bilingual students. Dr. Román has researched the language used to teach climate change at the middle school level and is currently leading an initiative that seeks to improve the quality of science, environmental, and bilingual instruction (Kichwa/Spanish and Spanish/English) in the Galapagos Islands, Ecuador.

Show Notes - https://watersavvysolutions.com/on-the-miseducation-of-our-youth

Topics Discussed:

How Environmental Topics and Climate Change is Taught to Bilingual Students.
How to be a Multiculturally Competent Education.
The Role of Linguistics in Education.

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Instagram - @Breaking_Green_Ceilings
Facebook- @breaking green ceilings
Twitter- @sapnamulki

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Sarika is a first generation Indian-American, who grew up in the suburbs of Rochester NY. Her family comes from the foothills of Himachal Pradesh. Sarika was deeply influenced and inspired by the East Bay Area’s rich activist traditions while studying at the University of California at Berkeley, where she earned dual degrees in Peace and Conflict Studies and Conservation and Resource Studies. Before returning to graduate school, she worked for several years with her partner to build Restorative Formulations, a socially and environmentally responsible natural medicine company. She was able to pursue her twin interests in social and environmental justice while earning a Master's degree in Advocacy for Social Justice and Sustainability from Antioch University New England’s Department of Environmental Studies. Sarika lives with her family in Vermont.

Currently, Sarika is an equity strategist and racial justice advocate. She consults, teaches, writes, researches, and collaborates at the intersection of race, equity, and environmental issues. Sarika is deeply committed to working within the environmental movement to address issues of racial and environmental injustice and to support the inherent power, brilliance, and well-being of communities of color. She is also interested in supporting racial equity in nonprofit, education, criminal justice reform, and cultural spheres.

Show Notes - https://watersavvysolutions.com/racial-equity

Topics Discussed:

Race Relations in the Environmental Movement
Environmental Justice
How to Diversifying Environmental Organizations

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Instagram - @Breaking_Green_Ceilings
Facebook- @breaking green ceilings
Twitter- @sapnamulki

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Andrew Kricun is a Senior Director with Moonshot Missions, a non-profit focused on providing technical assistance to water utilities in underserved communities. He is also a Senior Fellow with the US Water Alliance working on their national water equity initiative. He is also working as a Senior Advisor at the Water Center at the University of Pennsylvania on various projects related to the Delaware River watershed. Prior to that, he served as Executive Director and Chief Engineer of the Camden County Municipal Utilities Authority, operators of an 80 million gallon per day wastewater treatment plant in Camden, NJ. He has 35 years of wastewater and biosolids management experience. He graduated with honors from Princeton University with a degree in chemical engineering.

Show Notes - https://watersavvysolutions.com/being-an-ally/

Topics Discussed:

Water Equity in the United States
Environmental Justice in Camden, NJ
Green Infrastructure
How To Be An Ally

Follow Breaking Green Ceilings:

Instagram - @Breaking_Green_Ceilings
Facebook- @breaking green ceilngs
Twitter- @sapnamulki

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Whitney Tome is the former Executive Director of Green 2.0. Prior to joining The Raben Group as a principal, Whitney served as the director of diversity and inclusion at the National Parks Conservation Association where she led, defined, and crafted metrics and measures for the organization’s diversity and inclusion efforts. Whitney has advised complex ocean stakeholder processes as a Program Manager and Mediator at the Meridian Institute including facilitating public meetings for regional ocean planning bodies that included state, federal and tribal partners. At Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), Whitney served as a strategist, cat herder and trusted advisor in dozens of state and federal political campaigns. She also developed, launched and grew the Fisheries Leadership and Sustainability Forum – a partnership between EDF, Duke, and Stanford. Whitney earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from Middlebury College and a J.D. from American University’s Washington College of Law. She also won the International Chamber of Commerce’s (ICC) International Mediation Competition in Paris, France.

Show Notes - https://watersavvysolutions.com/how-to-diversify/

Topics Discussed:

Lack of Diversity in Environmental Organizations.
Green 2.0.
White Feminism.
Ballet and Environmentalism.

Follow:

Instagram - @breaking_green_ceilings
Facebook - @Breaking Green Ceilings
Twitter - @sapnamulki

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Alyssa Perez is many things but among the most important are a mother, an environmentalist, and the founder of Stay Blooming. She's a Puerto Rican and has lived in the Bronx, New York her entire life. She has had a passion for our natural world since young and found herself wanting to protect these spaces over the years. Environmental awareness, education, and stewardship encompass much of her professional and personal lives. Stay Blooming reflects these values. She has also worked with Queens Botanical Garden as a Farm & Compost Intern and with GrowNYC as a Compost Coordinator. Alyssa recently graduated with her BA in Environmental Studies at CUNY Queens College. Her goal is to make environmental education common knowledge, accessible, and digestible for anyone and everyone but especially her community.

Show Notes - https://watersavvysolutions.com/cleaningup-newyork/

Topics Discussed:

Building effective grassroots effort for volunteer cleanups.
Being a woman of color in the environmental field.
Effectiveness of plastic bag bans

Instagram - @Breaking_Green_Ceilings
Facebook- @breaking green ceilngs
Twitter- @sapnamulki

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Jeremy Lin is an interpretive naturalist for California State Parks. Based at Donner Memorial SP, Jeremy is the lead interpreter for several parks in Sierra District. As lead interpreter Jeremy manages several park programs including nature education, docent volunteers, and infrastructural and long-range planning. Jeremy has been involved in creating a number of park programs to increase public engagement – California State Parks Backpacking Adventures (CASPBA) program, Wilderness Patrol volunteer program. Jeremy has also managed all interpretive programs Rancho del Oso – Big Basin Redwoods State Park. Programs include recruiting/facilitating low income communities/schools for field trips. Previously, Jeremy worked as a program director for an outdoor science school. He graduated from University of California, Santa Cruz with a degree in Environmental Studies and is on track to graduate from Prescott College, Arizona with a M.A. Environmental Studies in Spring 2020. His main area of study for grad school is Evaluating the Impact of Volunteers Serving Public Lands.

Show Notes: https://watersavvysolutions.com/podcast/naturalist

Topics Discussed:

What it means to be an Interpretive Naturalist.
How California State Parks is create inclusive outdoor programs.
The importance of volunteers to the State and National Parks.

Instagram - @Breaking_Green_Ceilings
Facebook- @breaking green ceilngs
Twitter- @sapnamulki

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Dr. Mariaelena Huambachano, is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Civil Society and Community Studies and Director of Biodiversity Protection and Indigeneity at UW, Madison. Dr. Huambachano’s work explores public policies for food sovereignty, social movements, sustainable development, and the role of Indigenous knowledge to improve food security and environmental policies. Dr. Huambachano utilises a novel theoretical approach by using the Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) theory and rights-based approaches to food security complemented with community-based participatory research. To give voice to and recognize unique knowledge systems, she developed the ‘Khipu Model,’ an Indigenous research-based framework, which she uses in her work with Indigenous communities. She is also an active member of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues and a Lead Author in the global report on the ‘values’ assessment of nature of the Intergovernmental Panel of Biodiversity and Ecosystems Services (IPBES).

Show Notes - https://watersavvysolutions.com/podcast/indigenous-rights

Topics Discussed:

Basic Principles of Indigenous Food Sovereignty
Impact of Colonization and Capitalism
Being an Indigenous Scholar in Western Academia

Instagram - @Breaking_Green_Ceilings
Facebook- @breaking green ceilngs
Twitter- @sapnamulki

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Bill Tripp is a Karuk Tribal Member and Interim Director of the Karuk Tribe Department of Natural Resources. He began learning how to work with fire from the age of four from his Grandmother. His work to restore fire into the hands of Karuk People through an integrated Traditional Ecological Knowledge and western science framework has been instrumental in shaping state and federal policy changes in regards to prescribed fire.

Show Notes

Topics Discussed:

Ecological Importance of Cultural Burns
History of Cultural Burns in the U.S. and Globally
Importance of Fire to the Karuk Tribe

Follow Bill Tripp:

Twitter - @CulturalFire
endowactionnow

Instagram - @Breaking_Green_Ceilings
Facebook - @breaking green ceilings
Twitter - @ sapnamulki

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Syren Nagakyrie (they/she) is a long-time disabled activist and community builder who is passionate about liberation through connection. Syren grew up with multiple invisible disabilities; they found connection with nature to be a source of comfort in times of social isolation. Syren is the founder of Disabled Hikers, (www.disabledhikers.com), an organization providing resources, events, and advocacy. Syren is a freelance writer, consultant, and presenter. They are the author of The Disabled Hiker’s Guide to Western Washington and Oregon: outdoor adventures accessible by car, wheelchair, and foot, to be published by FalconGuides. Syren currently resides on traditional lands of the Quileute, in Forks, Washington. Syren identifies as a white, queer, and poor person from a disabled and working-class background.

Show Notes
Topics Discussed:
Disabled Hikers Initiative
How to be Inclusive to People with Disabilities
Inspiration Porn
Spoon Theory
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Instagram
Facebook
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Dr. Jonathan Hall is a wildlife ecologist by training with a broad interest in wildlife conservation, human/wildlife interaction, environmental justice, and species movement ecology. Much of his research experience is in the semi-arid environment of Western Rajasthan, India, focusing on the ecological and cultural relationships that exist between human populations and vultures. In addition to research in India he is also interested in understanding landscape and other environmental dynamics involving the recovery and range expansion of California Condors. The primary goal of his research is to develop comprehensive conservation strategies for non-human species that accounts for and incorporates human livelihood practices.

Jonathan founded the Wilderness Geography Lab (previously the Conservation Geography Lab) in 2014 in the Department of Geology and Geography at West Virginia University. The lab currently conducts research in West Virginia, California, Yellowstone National Park, and Rajasthan India. Dr. Hall holds a Ph.D. in Ecology from the Ohio State University and a B.S. in Biology from Morehouse College.

Topics Discussed:

California Condors Rehabilitation
How to be a White Accomplice
Structural Racism in Conservation/Ecology
Hunting While Black

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Belinda’s environmental journey began when she was growing up in New York. As the first-born child of immigrant parents from south east China, Belinda found herself caught between two worlds. As a young child, she faced discrimination from white peers who saw her as “other” and faced the pressure of her parents’ desire to pursue a “respectable” and economically beneficial career path.

To find solace from the pressure and the discrimination, Belinda would seek out the peacefulness of the wooded parks in her neighborhood to “cut down on the voices” in her head so she could hear her own thoughts. She became familiar with the trees and understory plants and “their beauty just helped to quiet the noise”. Those woodlands became sacred and safe spaces for her. From then on, she made a promise to the woodlands to use her life to pay it forward and improve the relationship between humans and nature.

Building Environmental Education Programs

As an adult, Belinda decided to pursue a career in environmental education. Currently, she is the coordinator for the Urban Food Systems (UFS) Program at Seattle Parks and Recreation (SPR). She oversees 23+ acres of SPR public space dedicated to growing food. Race & social justice are at the center of her work as she has dedicated herself to equitable access for learning in outdoor spaces in service to a vast diversity of people in a variety of urban settings.

Through her work experiences she has witnessed a lack of representation of Black, Indigenous, and people of color in her environmental education programs and in the organizations she's worked in. She writes, “The disproportionality is disturbing in light of the diversity of peoples borne from the wilds of this earth. The trees call to me to act.”

As a result, Belinda uses her position to cultivate diversity by using intergenerational logic models and racial justice tools, and by serving on the The Race & Social Justice Change Team with the city of Seattle. This helps but she stresses that “we have a long way to go!

Empowering Environmentalists of Color

Often being the only person of color in her workplace, Belinda felt isolated and yearned for a community that could see and accept her for who she is. Her white workplace peers often tokenized and dismissed discriminatory acts towards her. Wanting to understand the prejudice of dominantly white environmental organizational culture, she started to educate herself on issues of environmental history and environmental justice and attend workshops on the same.

Belinda attended a Center for Diversity and Environment (CDE) workshop facilitated by Marcelo Bonta and Queta Gonzales where she had an opportunity to connect with other like-minded people and from different cultural backgrounds. She was also uplifted when she saw leaders of color facilitating the workshop.

It was only until she attended that CDE workshop that she felt like she found a place she belonged - “I was in community with people who could see me! See me as a professional!” It was a watershed moment that inspired Belinda and a few colleagues to co-found the Seattle chapter for the Environmental Professionals of Color - affiliated with the CDE. The Seattle Chapter has been successful and growing; Starting with three co-organizers in 2012 to nine co-organizers and over 400 members in 2020!

Other Themes Explored

Belinda is inspiring and a true pleasure to listen to as she explains the intricacies of her work, the realities of institutional racism, tokenism, and so much more, on this week's episode of Breaking Green Ceilings.

Follow Belinda Chin:

Urban Food Systems E-Newsletter Signup

Related Resources:

Climate Action Panel 2017 moderated by former Vice President Al Gore
Climate Reality
Fruit Matters
"How Do You Leave a Legacy for Trails?"
Green Teacher Interview
Our Story: Climate Justice & Environmental Justice
Connecting People to Local Environments
Belinda Chin – Green 2.0
Center for Diversity and the Environment
Racial Justice Tool
Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds by Adrienne Maree Brown
Finding your Roots by Henry Louis Gates Jr.

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Traveling from New Jersey to North Carolina, Frances was able to experience urban city living as well as life in a rural area surrounded by hog farms. Through that, she and her family remained tight knit as her mother inspired her from all angles. With the house matriarch as a teacher and enthusiastic environmentalist, Frances was able to get the support she needed to obtain a BA in Sociology & Anthropology, Environmental Studies & Science Minor, from Spelman College, and currently working on a PhD in Society & Environment at UC Berkeley.

With her degree, she has charged into the realm of scientific research in a noble effort to make positive material changes in peoples’ lives, particularly indigenous and communities of color who have been marginalized and silenced for centuries.

Frances’ current PhD dissertation focuses on Gulf Coast women of color’s climate justice activism and strategies to resist environmental racism while navigating contradictory relationships with energy and petrochemical industries. It is titled, “Post-Apocalyptic Environmental Politics: Women of Color, Climate Justice and State-Corporate Crime in Louisiana.”

Ethnography and Climate Change Ethnography is a branch of anthropology and the systematic study of individual cultures. In contrast with ethnology, ethnography explores cultural phenomena from the point of view of the subject of the study. Described as community based research, or participatory action research, this is a feminist research method that focuses on non-invasive and minimal-extractive methods, empowering the community to be hands on and involved in every step of the process.

Frances’ life work is shaped by environmental justice geographies including Carolina hog and chicken farms, Jersey urban landscapes, and Louisiana petrochemical-plantation corridors. She currently lives and teaches on Indigenous land known as Bulbancha (i.e. New Orleans, Louisiana) that is historically home to the Chitimacha, Choctaw, Houma, Atakapa-Ishak and various other African and Creole Indigenous peoples, which is at high risk to experience adverse climate change effects.

Other Topics Frances is incredibly inspirational and knowledgeable. From sharing the importance of mentorship and navigating imposter syndrome, to empowering everyday people to claim the title “activist”, to describing the different impacts of climate change for different people in varying locations, this week’s episode of Breaking Green Ceilings is going to leave you motivated and inspired to do your part.

Follow Frances Roberts-Gregory

Website
LinkedIn
Instagram

Related Resources

On Being the (Only) Black Feminist Environmental Ethnographer in Gulf Coast Louisiana
I do not drive in the South…And here’s why
Diversity and Environmental Grantmakers: A Summer Love Story

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Growing up in Ohio, Katie spent a lot of her childhood outside during the summer months. She spent a year at her grandmother’s house where she immersed herself in nature. Katie was able to take her love and interest for animals and nature into a career. While in attendance at Ohio University, she created her own bachelor’s special studies degree which she used to conduct research around snakes and then salamanders in Kentucky. After graduating, she worked at the OSU Stone Lab as a maintenance crew worker and has also gained experience in working for the National Parks Services and for the Cleveland Metro Parks at the Zoo and Wildlife Rehab Center.

Currently, Katie has created a company called Legacy 3D which uses 3D scanning as a conservation tool. The company strives to make 3D scanning available and affordable to everyone.

Salamanders

In this episode, we learn a little bit about Salamanders. Ambystoma Salamanders are dual-gendered salamanders which reproduce by cloning themselves. They are often found in the between Southeast Ohio to Quebec. We also learned that Salamanders often live in dead wood which up until around 200 years ago caused them to be associated with fire because people would see them running out of the fire (because they were in the dead wood) and thought of as magical/evil creatures.

Working in the National Parks Service

Working in the Environmental Education Center and on the tourist train at the Cuyahoga National Park, Katie shared her experience working for the National Parks Services. The National Parks Service was less bureaucratic than the Cleveland Metro Parks which she mentioned as having frequent red tape and limited funding. Seasonal jobs are highly common in NPS, which lead to the Land Management Workforce Flexibility Act.

Each national park is managed by a different president, so there is often a different tone and management of conflict park by park. Some parks are culturally more conservative and seem like more of a “boys club” than others, normally the more remote the park is, the more conservative it is - either by the visitors or by the employees. One specific example is the Grand Canyon, generally, the “harder work” was done by men at the bottom of the Canyon and often when a woman tried to work down there they were hazed by the male workers. Once a new manager was hired, the harassment ceased.

Other Topics

We talked briefly about Katie’s research with Snakes and Salamanders. Katie also explained how she started her business about Legacy 3D and why conservation is so important. Towards the end of the podcast, Katie shared a shocking story about some of the inequities she experienced as an LGBTQ+ woman in her work field.

Follow Katie Burns

Website

Related Resources

Land Management Workforce Flexibility Act
History of The National Park Service
History of Salamanders

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Dr. Justin Dunnavant always had a passion for history and it was only after a study abroad trip to a Mayan site in a rainforest in Belize did he discover his love for archaeology. During that trip he realized that a lot of early history books are written from an archaeological perspective but that balck, indigenous, and people of color were not doing the work. And so, he saw it as an opportunity to bring his background and unique experiences to make a contribution to a profession that lacks racial representation.

Upon his return and learning that less than 1% of archaeologists identify as black, he became determined to open the door for other people of color in the realm of archaeology.This journey led him to co-found the Society of Black Archaeologists.

Currently, Justin’s research focuses on the environmental implications of the slave trade and slavery. He also conducts amazing underwater archeological research to investigate where slave ships landed, what courses they took and when.

Ecology and Enslavement

The natural environment is more entangled in slavery than most realize. Why were roughly 4.8 million Africans taken to the Caribbean and only 389,000 to the United States? Two main reasons, both involving the environment - Plantations were more common in Central America, where desired crops, mainly sugarcane, could be grown. The other reason being the trade winds that blow from Africa to Central America, which carried the slave ships and deposited them in the Caribbean, where they may have been later sold off to other areas.

During the Transatlantic slave trade, swaths of land were cleared for agricultural production, port cities were established for import and export, and flora and fauna were transplanted across hemispheres in a process known as the Columbian Exchange, causing an immense amount of change to the ecology of the world. Justin and his team of archaeologists are on a mission to uncover the impacts of that change.

Other Topics

Our conversation with Justin is a true lesson in history. Covering topics from the history and intracicies of Caribbean slavery, to the importance of integrating diversity in archaeological projects, to the importance of trees, prepare yourself to be much more informed on the background of the transatlantic slave trade after this week’s episode of Breaking Green Ceilings.

About Dr. Justin Dunnavant:

Dr. Justin Dunnavant is an Academic Pathways Postdoctoral Fellow at Vanderbilt University’s Spatial Analysis Research Laboratory. He holds a BA in History and Anthropology from Howard University and an MA and Ph.D. from the University of Florida. While his former research interrogated the history and representation of minority groups in southern Ethiopia, his current work in the US Virgin Islands investigates the relationship between ecology and enslavement in the former Danish West Indies. Justin is co-founder and President of the Society of Black Archaeologists, an AAUS Scientific SCUBA Diver, and consults for the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture Slave Wrecks Project.

Follow Dr. Justin Dunnavant:

Professional Website
Instagram

Relates Resources:

Caribbean excavation offers intimate look at the lives of enslaved Africans
Watch archaeologists reflect on unearthing the lives of enslaved Africans
These Divers Search For Slave Shipwrecks and Discover Their Ancestors
These black teens are scuba diving to help find sunken slave ships
A Historical Ecology of Slavery in the Danish West Indies
Slave Wrecks Project

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Dr. Shivani Bhalla is a fourth generation Kenyan Indian who grew up going on safaris with her family, which nurtured her obsessionwith wildlife. Her passion has always been big cats, in particular, Cheetahs. When Dr. Bhalla moved to Samburu to research cheetahs for her master’s project. But she never saw any cheetahs. Instead, she saw lions that tended to be solitary or in pairs, which piqued her interest because she was only familiar with seeing lions in large prides as a child.

Dr. Bhalla was soon curious to learn more about the lion population and decided to create Ewaso Lions in 2007, a nonprofit dedicated to conserving lions and other large carnivores by promoting coexistence between people and wildlife.

Lion Conservation

Africa’s lion population has declined by some 90 percent over the past 75 years, primarily due to loss of habitat and human-animal conflict. In Kenya, there are fewer than 2,000 lions left. Ewaso Lions took a community-based conservation approach where they work hand-in-hand with local communities - Samburu warriors, women and children - to provide education, training and improved conservation practices that help people and wildlife.

One of the ways in which Ewaso Lions collaborates with local communities is through Warrior Watch, which is a group of Samburu warriors who conduct daily patrols around the region to prevent lions coming in contact with herders and their livestock

“They themselves really understand what it is like to lose livestock to carnivores, they can empathize with the person who has lost his cow or camel, and they are able to really convince them why it’s important not to retaliate.”

Because of Ewaso Lion, Shivani, and the Samburu Warriors, nearly 100s of lion killings have been ceased.

Other Topics

Ewaso Lions, Shivani and the Samburu Warriors are a powerhouse in lion conservation. From the intricacies of funding conservation, to Kenyan Indian conservation, to her hopes of the future, this week's episode is one you don’t want to miss.

About Dr. Shivani Bhalla:

Born and raised in Kenya, Shivani believes the key to lion conservation is working in partnership with local communities. She founded Ewaso Lions in 2007 to promote coexistence between carnivores and people. Together with her team, she works with Samburu communities to reduce livestock loss to carnivores, and monitors the existing lion population within the Samburu-Isiolo landscape in northern Kenya.

Follow Dr. Shivani Bhalla

Ewaso Lions Webpage
Instagram
Twitter
Facebook
YouTube

Related Resources:

Samburu Warriors Are Safeguarding Kenya's Lions
Explorers at Work: Shivani Bhalla Youtube Video
WCN Fall Expo 2019: Women Empowerment Programs - Ewaso Lions

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Journey Dr. Dr. Walubengo Walubengo is a Kenyan Forest/Natural Resources and Environment Management Specialist with experience in institutional capacity building, project planning, monitoring, evaluation and analysis, and engineering. With an emphasis on managing forests of Kenya, Dr. Walubengo has made huge strides in the realm of forestry, from establishing small, neighborhood forests through individual tree planting, to teaching local communities the importance of forests and empowering them to planting some of their own.

Forests in Kenya The Forest Sector is key to Kenya’s social and economic wellbeing. The Sector contributes about Kenya Shillings 7 billion to the economy and employs over 50,000 people directly and another 300,000 indirectly. Forest ecosystems also enhance landscape resilience to climate change.

Kenya’s forest cover is estimated to be about 7.4% of the total land area, which is a far cry from the recommended global minimum of 10%. On the other hand, Kenya’s closed canopy forest cover currently stands at about 2% of the total land area, compared to the African average of 9.3% and a world average of 21.4 per cent. Most of the closed canopy forests in Kenya are montane forests that are also the nation’s water towers.

Although the population of Kenya has gone from less than 10 million people in the 1960’s, to surpassing 50 million people in recent times, the most recent forest policy was established in 1968, over 50 years ago. There is a lack of government initiative to properly manage forests throughout Kenya, ranging from extreme protection in the name of conservation, excluding the local communities completely from sustainably harvesting necessities or conducting rituals, to solely considering plantation forests, such as coffee plantations, under the umbrella of manageable forest resources.

Dr. Walubengo believes with proper governmental influence, the forests could be managed for their resources, while also being conserved, creating an assortment of environmental jobs for local communities and environmentalists.

Other Topics Dr. Walubengo has spent many years in the environmental sector, and with that comes a great deal of wisdom he shares with us this week. From how he convinced his neighbors to let him plant a forest in his yard, to the political obstacles of developing governmental forest management, to what inspired him to join the environmental movement, Dr. Walubengo is a force to be reckoned with and we are happy to have him on Breaking Green Ceilings.

Follow Dr. Dominic Walubengo: 1. Dr. Walubengo's Twitter

Related Resources: 1. Forest Action Network 2. Kenya Forest Service 3. Kenya Forestry Research Institute 4. Voices on Forests 5. WWF

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Although still early in her environmental career, Valerie Nasoita is already making a large impact in conservation efforts towards vultures in Kenya. Originating from the Maasai tribe, Valerie is currently working hands-on as a Vulture Liaison Officer for The Peregrine Fund, a non-profit organization dedicated to the global conservation of birds of prey.

In many parts of Africa, only 1-2% of previously abundant vulture populations remain today. This is a result of many agricultural producers poisoning the vultures, in hopes to deter them from their livestock. Unfortunately, this has proven ineffective in preventing predation upon the livestock, but also has contributed heavily to the rapid decline in vulture populations. Valerie focuses her conservation efforts on educating the public on the importance of vultures in an ecosystem and how devastating the effects of poisoning these birds prove to be.

A wide range of discussion takes place in this week's conversation with Valerie Nasoita. She shares fascinating insight about the struggle as a woman conservationist in a male dominated society, and how she navigates getting work done despite these obstacles. From vulture facts to what it’s like growing up in the Rift Valley of Kenya, we are very grateful for what Valerie presents to Breaking Green Ceilings.

Follow Valerie Nasoita: 1. Facebook

Related Resources: 1. Kenyan Conservation Hero fights to save critically endangered species against all odds 2. Kenyan Conservationist - Valerie - Helps Rescue Poisoned Endangered Vultures 3. Fighting vulture poisoning in Kenya

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Sam Dindi has been working in the field of environment conservation for eight years now. As the co-founder of Mazingira Yetu, Sam is engaged in:

Environment education and communication
Community mobilization and training
Ecosystem restoration

Trained in sustainability development, tourism and wildlife management, Sam was awarded the Head of States Commendation (HSC) by the Government of Kenya for his exemplary service to the Republic of Kenya. He also received the IUCN-CEC award for his efforts in educating the public on environment conservation and sustainability development. Sam enjoys nature walks, bird watching and travelling.

Youth Education and Empowerment

Environmental education is crucial in inspiring children to understand the importance in conserving and protecting their natural spaces. Unfortunately, many primary and secondary schools fail to incorporate this into their curriculum, which ultimately stunts the environmental movement. Sam emphasizes the importance of not just educating students, but empowering them to take action in their local environment and claim their right to protect and restore the land and waterways as well. Because of the many young adults who have never had the opportunity to plant a tree, or grow their own garden, Sam’s vision is to give these students the tools they need to understand the importance of these tasks.

Nairobi River Restoration

The Nairobi River is a prime example of a waterway that is heavily polluted. Used for everything from bathing to washing clothes to waste disposal to industrial drainage, the Nairobi River is riddled with garbage and contaminants. Sam inspires a group of around 100 local individuals to take control of cleaning their portion of the river by teaching them the ropes of water restoration. Empowering communities in this way allows for them to rely less on governmental intervention, which often proves to be ineffective, and creates space for a shift in the idea that environmentalism is a white person commodity.

Other Topics

This week's conversation with Sam Dindi is full of insight and inspiration. From the intricacies of dealing with bureaucracy and corruption, to Sam’s vision of Kenya’s environmental future, to his advice on keeping a level head in the hectic sector that is environmentalism, this is an episode of Breaking Green Ceilings that you won’t want to miss.

Follow Sam Dindi:

Mazingira Yetu
Twitter
Facebook

Related Resources:

CEC celebrates Sam Dindi
Environmentalists cleaning up Nairobi′s rivers | Eco Africa
Who can salvage the situation in Nairobi

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Kristy Drutman is Jewish Filipino American environmental media host, activist, independent consultant and digital media strategist who created the podcast and media series known as Brown Girl Green.

Forging her own path through the careers within environmentalism, Kristy is passionate about working at the intersections between media, diversity, and environmentalism and has used that passion to speak in front of thousands about the current climate crisis, facilitate workshops, and work with youth from around the world to create collaborative, intersectional online media with the goal of creating conscious, culturally relevant content.

Environmental Communication

Community outreach is something many organizations struggle with, especially when it comes to connecting with communities of color. Generally asking themselves how to make people of color come to them, they often fail to consider how they can make themselves more accessible to the local communities of color.

“Figure out who your community is and how you can communicate with them. I think everyone has an important story to share, and we need as many storytellers as possible right now to be able to engage people, because maybe you come from a completely different community than where I come from, and you’re able to communicate to your community in a different way than I could that will be able to connect with their hearts and mind to take action.”

-Kristy Drutman

Collaboration

Along with strategic and effective community outreach, the importance of collaboration continues to grow with the increasing specialization of skills and activists. Ranging from the protesters to the policy makers, and everywhere in between, to make an impact, larger and larger groups with specific specialties will have to work together. Kristy uses her education, platform, and consultation to bridge these gaps, bringing people together, and promoting a sense of community within environmentalism.

Other Topics

This week's conversation on Breaking Green Ceilings is full of insight and inspiration. From the difference between forest service and urban planning type environmental jobs, to what defines an environmental activist, to why identity politics matter, there is much to learn from guest Kristy Drutman.

Follow Kristi Drutman:

Brown Girl Green Website/Podcast
Instagram
Facebook
YouTube

Related Resources:

Effectiveness of Outreach
The Science Behind the Growing Importance of Collaboration
Pleasure Activism by Adrienne Maree Brown

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Ariel Maldonado is a hispanic artist and environmental social media influencer/strategist with nearly 50K followers on instagram. Standing as an example that one does not have to have a nature-oriented childhood or education to become an environmentalist, Ariel did not post her first image on gogreensavegreen until the spring she graduated from college. With a newly developed interest in making budget-friendly environmental choices, she was able to use her lifelong passion of sharing information with people around her to find her place in the environmental movement.

A Gateway Into Caring

Men often apply to jobs they feel only 60% qualified for, while women will typically only apply if they feel 100% qualified. This is exactly what inspired Ariel to break that chain and dive head first into the realm of environmentalism and educate the public that everyday people making their own sustainable decisions are environmentalists as well.

“I’m not hoping to talk to just people who are in the business already, or living perfect zero-waste lives, or educators or academics, I love the work that they’re doing, but I also realize that we need more everyday people to care, and we need more people to act. So I am hoping to act as a kind of gateway for people that never thought of themselves as environmentalists, to show it can be accessible to anyone, it can be as simple as voting, or a toothbrush.”

Social Media Influencer

Reaching tens of thousands of people every single day is a large responsibility. 71% of millennials are more likely to buy a product or service that has been promoted by a trusted influencer over a celebrity. That is why it is essential for influencers to be promoting environmentally friendly brands and choices. Ariel pushes this even further by acknowledging the financial struggles many experience when attempting to shop sustainably, and informs her followers how they can also make budget-friendly environmental decisions.

Other Topics

From bamboo toothbrushes, to the importance of empathy, to why Ariel decided to open gogreensavegreen, this week's episode of Breaking Green Ceilings is packed with insightful and inspiring conversation.

Related Resources:

gogreensavegreen Instagram
WHAT THE HEALTH

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Isaias Hernandez is the founder of the instagram page Queer Brown Vegan, and co-creator of Alluvia Magazine, a “publication highlighting the intersections of decolonized environmentalism through media”. Through his Instagram, Isaias educates his audience about the collegiate jargon associated with environmental topics related to climate change mitigation such as veganism, zero-waste, and environmental justice. His environmental narrative was influenced by his experience of growing up in a low income community in California, which was predominantly black and brown. Lack of access to clean air and drinking water and green spaces made him realize later (in college) that his community was a victim of environmental racism. Isiais came to this realization only because he gained access to information that helped him to identify the problem and its definition.

While he gained a lot of knowledge attending University of California, Berkeley, he found that language used in academia was often inaccessible and defeatist and as a result tended to be exclusionary. The same pattern continued in the real world when he became involved in various environmental initiatives.

To break the barriers often created in the environmental community, Isaias chose to focus on educating his followers about complex environmental terminologies using simple descriptions and delivery methods. The goal being to get more people from various backgrounds interested and involved in environmentalism.

Knowledge Inaccessibility

Academic language often creates distance between those who went to college and those who did not. Frequently, those who obtained a higher education become familiar with words and phrases, of which those who enter straight into the workforce may not be exposed to, cultivating a type of language barrier between the two groups of people.

This often results in a smaller portion of the population having the necessary knowledge to make informed, environmentally friendly choices, further perpetuating the idea that less educated communities, often of color, care less about environmentalism. Isaias creates colorful, informative, and concise content with an effort to bridge this gap and allow more accessibility to the knowledge of the many facets of environmentalism.

Making Space for Queer People of Color

In addition to focusing on environmental education, Isaias was keen on increasing representation of LGBTQ+ and BIPOC (Black Indigenous People of Color). As a queer Mexican he realized that there was often a lack of diversity and inclusion in his college and mainstream environmental organizations, which are predominantly white and heterosexual. Further, there was a lack of attenton being given to the plight of LGBTQ+ communities, especially low-income, queer trans people of color, who are often at the frontlines of environmental injustices.

In the same vein, he wanted to raise awareness of the contributions that BIPOC make to the environmental movement. Isaias has known BIPOC communities have also been at the frontlines of environmental justice for many years but have been silenced or ignored by mainstream media and environmentalists. At the end of the day Isaias wants to be able to bring an intersectional lens to climate change mitigation and do so with humility.

Other Topics

A lot of information is discussed in this conversation, from environmental racism and exclusion, to the LGBTQ+ influence in his life, to hydrodams, to the importance of direct action, and much more. Isaias allows us a glimpse into his life and gives us a call to action in this week's episode of Breaking Green Ceilings.

Follow Isaias Hernandez:

Queer Brown Vegan website
Queer Brown Vegan Instagram
Alluvia Magazine – Alluvia is a creative collective highlighting POC environmental artists.

Other Topics

Spatial Theory of Racism
Slavery in Nova Scotia
Intersectional Analysis
Gender and Environmental Injustices
Social Determinants of Health

Follow Dr. Ingrid Waldron:

ENRICH Project
Twitter
Facebook
Instagram

Related Resources:

There’s Something in the Water - Documentary
There’s Something in the Water - Book
The Racialization of Space and the Spatialization of Race Abstract

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Michael has developed a love for the world through many years of exploring Mother Earth’s beauty, respecting her gifts, and interacting with cultures across the globe. Hailing from the Southwest, Michael’s family is from both the Navajo reservation in northeast Arizona and also northern Colorado. Michael identifies as Dine’ or Navajo and describes himself as an “Urban Indian”, Michael spent all his vacations on the reservation with his grandmother, aunts, and other close family members. This changed after he graduated high school.

Out of high school, Michael moved to Ithaca, New York to attend Cornell University, studying chemical engineering with a minor in music. At Cornell, he developed a strong sense of his own cultural identity, a passion for serving underrepresented students in the STEM fields, and began questioning how sustainability issues affect different communities. Currently, Michael is a chemical engineering Ph.D. student at The Ohio State University in Columbus, OH.

Indigenous Culture and the Environmental Movement

As Michael progressed through his PhD, he began to question what his role was in giving back to his community. With a desire to use his education to help his community and future generations of indigenous youth, the Standing Rock protest was a pivotal moment in time. Although the movement was uplifted and greatly supported by environmental NGOs all over the nation, the conversation was derailed from a focus on Native American injustices to the war between oil and renewable energy. Michael encourages these protests to “highlight the humanity” of a movement, so the voices who are being directly affected can have the loudest say.

According to the World Wildlife Foundation, areas managed by indigenous peoples and local communities hold as much as 80% of the Earth's biodiversity. Further, recent studies have shown that when the rights of indigenous communities to their land and natural resources are respected, deforestation rates are lower and that local participation in conservation management can improve biodiversity outcomes. It is essential to protect human rights and in turn, indigenous communities can continue to protect the environment.

Inclusion of Indigenous Culture

Indigenous communities are often left out of large scale decision making processes. Although the United Nations has a Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, the inclusion of indigenous voices across all UN Conventions is scarce. Very few indigenous individuals represent the voices of hundreds of millions of indigenous peoples from communities across the globe. At the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, the indigenous representatives have the difficult task of bringing voices and specific issues from different geographic regions to the broader convention as one global indigenous voice, diluting the many sovereign indigenous identities and experiences.

Other Topics

A wonderful discussion is had this week with Michael, with topics ranging from the indigenous youth environmental movement, to the importance of carrying the ancestral torch, to how to guide a movement based on change, and so much more. We will leave you with a prophecy Michael shared with us from a Dené Elder of the first nations people of Canada:

“We’ve expected people to come and our ancestors have known, ‘the white man’ will basically come and take. They’ll be looking for gold and oil and they’ll get it. Time will pass and we expect them to come back again, looking for food and water… and we will be happy to welcome them back.”

Follow Michael T. Charles:

Research Gate
LinkedIn
Instagram
Twitter
Ohio State University Environmental Professionals Network

Related Resources:

SustainUs
UN Indigenous Forum
American Indian Science & Engineering Society
Standing Rock Sioux Tribe Wins a Victory in Dakota Access Pipeline Case
Idle No More

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Jack Shu worked for California State Parks for 29 years, mostly as a Park Superintendent. With a great deal of time spent in the Office of Community Involvement, a unique section called Urban Services gave him insight into the value of outdoor recreation and education.

“The kind of recreation, like hiking and backpacking, was just one part of the bigger picture of what recreation could provide. It was important for me to learn that and to realize that wilderness and outdoor recreation and the benefits of that, are individualized. Some people will get more out of playing team sports, some people will find wilderness in their backyard; you don’t have to necessarily go out to the middle of the Sierras or the Rocky Mountains to get to experience and receive the benefits of outdoor recreation.”

Measuring the Effectiveness of Recreational Facilities

To measure how effective an outdoor facility is, the “output” is in conjunction with the “outcome”. Output describes the amount of use that is observed, comparing things such as two playgrounds of the same age, one with worn in equipment, and in pristine condition but rarely utilized, and determining which has more community value.

Outcome is the metric through which community value is determined, which includes things such as how one feels after spending time there, and if there have been community improvements, such as less crime, in the time since it has been constructed.

Creating Increased Accessibility and Inclusion

With a focus on park service accessibility, Jack also emphasizes the importance of inclusion in the parks system. Based on his experiences Jack found that interaction with outdoor recreational facilities is often influenced by lack of security and cultural attitudes that don’t encourage outdoor activity:

“Culturally we think that to get a better grade or to do better in testing we need to stick kids in classrooms and force information down into them, like force feeding. We know that’s not true, we know as educators for a long time that it may be effective in some respect, but in other countries whether you go to Finland or even Japan, they still value independent thinking as well as being outside and playing.”

Lack of inability to interact with the outdoors particularly impacts underprivileged individuals from communities of color. Lack of understanding, information and accessibility to resources and tools on how to plan a trip really limits access opportunities to visit a state or national park. This often results in exclusion of lower income communities and perpetuates the stereotype that people of color do not enjoy outdoor recreation.

Instead of asking how we can incorporate more people of color into the parks, Jack recommends asking park systems can have less barrier to entry and be more relevant and community centric. For example, creating reservation systems that are easy to understand and navigable is one such way to create opportunities of increased accessibility and interaction for individuals from all walks of life. Jack explains that the current reservation system is restrictive:

“We rely on various mechanisms to reserve campgrounds and campsites and to say that these systems are equitable in any way would be completely false; they’re simply not. You have to have a lot of information about how these reservation systems work, plan in advance, have the ability to plan in advance, have vacation in advance, have everything set up so you can make that reservation and get that campsite and then have everything fall in place, have notifications worked out. Very few people in our society have the ability to do that, particularly if you’re below medium income or if you’re poor; you don't have the ability to do all these things. And that’s why in many ways those systems are selective in who can have access.”

As a solution to creating accessibility, Jack created outdoor education programs that catered to various groups from young women to low-income families. Jack and his team worked with nonprofits that were seeking to empower marginalized individuals through outdoor camping trips, called FamCamp. These are found in most areas of the US, and take kids and their families into regional wilderness areas to teach them the ropes of camping, many for the first time in their lives.

Jack also conducts cultural excursions. Through The Sing Peak Pilgrimage, Jack is able to take people through Yosemite National Park annually, on a three day hike, to teach them not just about the park and camping knowledge, but about the Chinese contribution to the park that is often overlooked in history books.

Other Topics

A wide range of topics are covered this week with Jack Shu on Breaking Green Ceilings. From institutional racism, to bridging language gaps, to the cultural assimilation model versus diversity approach, to the Chinese contributions in National Parks, this week's episode is one you won’t want to miss!

Related Resources:

Following the Spirit of Tie Sing
New Chinese contributions discovered in Yosemite
150 years ago, they were working on the railroad
A hike along a record-breaking 10miles of track of the first transcontinental railroad
Kids, Nature, and Public Parks: An Interview with Jack Shu

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Climate Justice Because of climate change, Urban Heat Islands - areas significantly warmer than surrounding rural areas due to human activities - are becoming more and more apparent, from places such as New York City to Hawaii. Statistically, these are more likely to affect low income, communities of color. Raya discusses the importance of not just reducing fossil fuel usage to combat climate change, but by also cultivating resilience in our communities, especially those of lower income. It will not be enough to simply lower emissions at this point,

“We have to be investing in communities and local power systems that will be resilient in the impacts of climate change as we seek to shift the playing field, also economically for those same communities.”

With a focus on clean energy and resilience, Raya emphasizes the importance of bringing communities and power systems together to create a more equitable, long lasting, and sustainable energy system, where people have influence over how local and large scale decisions are made. By implementing community involvement through things such as co-ownership, Raya makes it clear that this is a shift that is not only possible, but essential.

The Real Work

There are many ways individuals can contribute to positive change but at the top of that list, for Raya, is “decolonizing yourself,” the act of restructuring a perspective, and in turn society, to support all communities and put forth the needs of all citizens, equitably. This means to be responsive to the particular needs of each community, particularly the disenfranchised. Resulting in the space for people of color to rise up and take action in the decision making process, shifting the narrative from a white centered movement, to an inclusive, multicultural action.

“Sometimes, you may feel like you’re being tokenized, but you have to stand in your power and stand in the room and bring your worth to bare at the table, and take what you need from the situation as well.”

Other Topics This interview is packed wall-to-wall with topics ranging from the Civil Rights Movement, to the importance of grounding ourselves in local movements, to what Raya wished she knew before she began on her journey through environmentalism, and so much more. Tune in this week for a fascinating look into the life of Raya Salter on Breaking Green Ceilings!

Follow Raya Salter

Instagram
LinkedIn
Raya Salter Website
Twitter
Facebook

Related Resources

Robert Bullard - Father of Environmental Justice
Eddie Bautista - New York - Environmental Justice Alliance
Elizabeth Yeampierre - UPROSE
NY Renews
Tea with Queen and J
Urban Heat Island

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Parker McMullen Bushman is the Vice President of Community Engagement, Education, and Inclusion at Butterfly Pavilion in Denver, Colorado, where she educates the public on invertebrates and their cultural and environmental importance. Bushman is also the founder of EcoInclusion, “an organization committed to creating healthy and diverse organizational and community ecosystems”. As a woman of color in working in the environmental sector, Bushman noticed that she was often the only one of her kind in the room and that other white American peers would look to her to lead the charge in diversity. Eventually she was able to find her voice and her place to make a difference, through educating organizations on the importance of inclusivity, and the cultivation of genuine diversity in the environmental movement.

Diversity and Inclusion EcoInclusion provides resources for environmental organizations to diversify their staff and incorporate people of color and their perspectives into the decision making process through inclusion workshops, staff training, and more. Through EcoInclusion, Bushman encourages companies to go beyond the talking phase of diversity implementation and empowers them to make the necessary changes to create real change.

EarthKween is another inclusivity project with Bushman’s involvement. Kween stands for: Keep Widening the Environmental Engagement Narrative, and pushes for more representation in environmental imagery. By addressing the unconscious bias produced by white-dominant depictions of environmentalists, space opens for other members of society to join in the conversation.

What Really Changes Perspectives Bushman answers this question by presenting some well supported statistics on the changing demographics:

By the year 2023, the generation of people 18 and younger, is predicted to be 50% people of color.

By the year 2050, the United States will be over 50% people of color.

For environmental organizations to stay relevant in the upcoming decades, they must have wider reach and incorporate the voices of the people who will make up the majority of the country in the foreseeable future. With people of color establishing their own grassroots organizations, more inclusive spaces are being cultivated, are impacting more and more communities.

Other Topics We discuss so much with Parker, from why changing the default “nude” setting on things such as make up and band aids away from white tones is important, to the Aztecs and their connections to invertebrates, to how heritage increases an individuals’ perception of something, and so much more. Tune in for an incredibly interesting conversation this week on Breaking Green Ceilings!

About Parker McMullen Bushman Parker McMullen Bushman is the VP of Programs and Interpretation for Butterfly Pavilion. Parker’s background in the education, outdoor recreation and interpretive fields spans over 22 years. Parker’s interest in diversity, equity and inclusion issues developed from her personal experience. Parker has a passion for equity and inclusion in conservation and the outdoors. Her interest in justice, accessibility, and equity issues developed from her personal experiences facing the unequal representation of people of color in nonprofit and environmental organizations. She has a Master of Natural Resources from the University of Wisconsin Stevens Point, with a focus in Environmental Education and Interpretation.

Ecoinclusive
Parker Bushman Bio
Earth Kween Facebook
Butterfly Pavilion
LinkedIn

Related Resources 1. Why Diversity Matters 2. Think people of color don’t care about the environment? Think again 3. 10 Diversity & Inclusion Statistics That Will Change How You Do Business

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Why does once Marine Biologist, Dr. Francisco "Paco" Ollervides, transition from researching the impacts of boat noise on gray whale behavior, to become an Executive Director of Green Leadership Trust?

The relationship I had with everyday people while I was collecting this info, the fisherman, the boat captains, and so I saw I was more interested in relating to the everyday person and sharing our knowledge of what we were learning about the whales, instead of writing papers and scientific journals with my findings.

Often times, scientific research is highly technical and requires high subscription costs which limits the audience and level of impact. Additionally, scientific research tends not to be communicated and shared effectively with the general public, particularly in communities of color.

Seeing an issue with this separation, Dr. Ollervides chose to create his own nonprofit that focused on community-based conservation and his research interest in whale population and habitat conservation in Mexico. Later, Dr. Ollervides found opportunities to work in various nonprofit organizations providing strategic planning, fundraising, board development and succession planning.

Recently, Ollervides joined the Green Leadership Trust as their interim Executive Director to cultivate best practices in building diverse environmental nonprofit boards. He leads capacity building and development support to people of color and indigenous people serving boards of environmental groups across the country.

In Green Leadership Trusts’ 2016 census they found that out of 763 board members among the Green Group organizations, 88 of those members are people of color and indigenous people serving on those boards. The Trust also found that “while there have been lots of changes to boards since 2015, Green Leadership Trust efforts have catalyzed the trend toward greater inclusivity and an increase of 27 people of color and indigenous people.”

With only 4.6% of board members being minorities, Dr. Ollervides and the Green Leadership Trust network:

Use various avenues to educate board members on the importance of diversity in the workplace.
Empower aspiring environmentalists of color to apply for these higher level positions.
Provide tools that indigenous and people of color need to advance equitable efforts for their community in the local decision making process.

In this episode, we discuss research on grey whales, the full transition to non-profit work, helpful advice for budding environmentalists, the importance of diversity in the workplace, and even more with Dr. Ollervides!

About Dr. Paco Ollervides:

Francisco “Paco” Ollervides was born and raised in Mexico. For over 18 years, Paco has enjoyed helping nonprofit organizations think and act strategically by improving their efficiency and efficacy. He joined Green Leadership Trust as interim Executive Director in May 2019. He focuses his work on building power in the environmental arena. He leads capacity building and development support to people of color and indigenous people serving boards of environmental groups across the country. Paco’s main interest is to strengthen these leaders to ensure organizations’ continuity and success. Paco holds both M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences Department at Texas A&M University.

Green Leadership Trust | Diversifying Environmental Leadership
LinkedIn

Relevant Resources:

Why diversity in sustainability matters, and what you can do
This Is an Uprising | Mark Engler & Paul Engler | How Nonviolent Revolt Is Shaping the Twenty-First Century
Environmental Professionals of Color (EPOC)
Environmental Leadership Program

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Fred Tutman wanted to make a difference in the world and working in media for over three decades didn’t often feel like he was. He finally found his calling as the Patuxent Riverkeeper - a grassroots movement dedicated to empowering local communities in the watershed with knowledge and tools to protect the Patuxent River in Maryland, USA.

Through his experiences as an activist and passionate voice for the protection of the Patuxent River, Fred shares an overarching theme he has observed in his journey; people of color who are mostly involved in grassroots movements are invisible to white people [who run mainstream environmental groups].

Tutman says that the lack of diversity and inclusion is pervasive in all industries. However, the environmental movement tends to be defensive about diversity, because they are largely run by upper-middle class white individuals; whose messages also play to the same demographic as they are the base of support in terms of funding and volunteers. As a result, black and brown communities become an afterthought in the movement.

Furthermore, with people of color representing just around 5% of environmental board members, only 9% of grant money is distributed to communities of color. This results in an unequal distribution of environmental efforts.

Often times, environmental organizations are encouraged to “diversify” their staff by funders. This mandate proves to be ineffective as most employment opportunities for people of color tend to be dead end, low paying, tokenism positions, such as an “urban outreach coordinator”. As a result, this practice prevents people of color from moving up to positions that allow them to make contributions to environmental decisions.

“The body counting, the head counting, well… ‘X% of the workforce’, that is really not a recipe for inclusion, it really is a recipe for head counting, which is anything but inclusion.”

In this episode, Tutman also shares how mainstream environmental organizations reliance on funding from foundations and companies results in movements fizzling away the moment the money runs out.

Grassroots organizations tend to have more staying power because the local community is involved, decides what is important to them, and allows space for the voices of people of color to be heard, resulting in real change.

As a principle Tutman is very careful about who he accepts donations from in order to keep his cause purely representative of the interests of the community and environment:

“I think we have to be able to articulate that we’re fighting to change the economic system however we can, or at least the economic incentives as much as we’re trying to save the environment, because they are related problems.”

The importance of not accepting funds with inequitable strings attached to it, how an environmentalist can make a financial living, the most effective and inclusive ways to cultivate environmental movements, and so much more is discussed with Fred Tutman, this week on Breaking Green Ceilings.

About Fred Tutman:

Episode 4 : Grassroots Action in River Protection Fred Tutman is the Patuxent Riverkeeper, one of a global network of 343 people who advocate for individual rivers. He’s also the nation’s only African-American Riverkeeper. Fred was born and raised along the Patuxent River as were seven generations of his ancestors before him. Prior to founding Patuxent Riverkeeper in 2004, Fred operated a business that provided professional media and mass communication services internationally. Fred also worked as volunteer activist on the Patuxent for over 20 years until the momentum of the volunteer environmental work overcame his 27 years in media and the challenge of Riverkeeping beckoned. Fred is an adjunct instructor at historic St. Mary's College of Maryland, where he teaches an upper level course in Environmental Law and Policy.

SHOW NOTES Follow Fred Tutman:

Patuxent Riverkeeper

Fred Tutman

Resources:

Why Billionaires Won’t Save Us | Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj | Netflix

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With an emphasis on race inclusivity and environmental education in this episode, Dr. Olivia Aguilar is interviewed about her research and personal experiences in the field of environmental academia as a woman of color. Powerful insight is shared between these women as they tackle the topic of mentors, stereotypes, research, and advice.

Growing up with little guidance on navigating college, Aguilar had to carve her own path into the world of academia, where people of color often face a multitude of stereotypes and discrimination. For example, professors of color, specifically women, endure much harsher criticisms in academia than their cohorts, through things such as student evaluations.

Another stereotype often referenced is that people of color spend less time, and therefore have less enjoyment of nature and the outdoors, which Aguilar has a particular interest in dismantling. Through the importance of supportive peers and mentors, Aguilar persisted through the politics of academia and secured tenure at Denison University.

At Denison she was able to dive into the depths of the research she always wanted to conduct: critically examining the idea that people of color do not enjoy spending time in nature. Inspired by black feminist literature, such as the works of Carolyn Finney, and LatinX methodologies of pursuing research, Aguilar is obtaining oral histories of minority communities as a way of reframing how we define an environmentalist; Igniting the conversation that people of color do, in fact, enjoy spending time outdoors and care about the environment.

Incredibly insightful advice is shared within this powerful conversation, from the stresses of acquiring tenure and navigating the politics of academia, to the nature of student evaluations, to the financial sacrifice of committing to the cause of environmentalism. With the take home message of

“Stay true to yourself and your journey,”

it becomes apparent that the field of environmental science is making a transition into a more diverse, inclusive, and essential cornerstone career and life path.

About Dr. Olivia Aguilar:

Dr. Olivia Aguilar was recently announced as the new Leslie and Sarah Miller Director of the Miller Worley Center for the Environment and an associate professor of environmental studies. completed her B.S. and M.S. in horticulture science at Texas A&M University where she studied children’s gardens and their effect on youth environmental attitudes. After teaching in public schools, she received her doctorate in natural resources at Cornell University, studying environmental education. She received a Consortium for Faculty Diversity fellowship to teach at Denison University in its McPhail Center for Environmental Studies. There, she taught the core courses for environmental studies, including courses in sustainable agriculture and environmental education.

LinkedIn
Mount Holyoke

Resources:

Teaching Evals: Bias and Tenure
Black Women Are Leading The Way In Environmental Justice
Do whites and non-whites care about the environment differently?
Americans of Color Are Way More Likely to Be Environmentalists

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What is Human Ecology? What are Sacred Forests? How can we lessen our carbon footprint without becoming overwhelmed? All of this, and much more, is discussed with University of North Carolina, Asheville Professor, Researcher, and Human Ecologist, Alison Ormsby.

Sacred Forests are Dr. Ormsby’s research focus, with publications linked below. These Forests are found in many cultures across the world, serving various purposes, spiritual and otherwise, and tend to be locations for shrines, meditation, and other ritualistic matters; One example being female circumcision, also described as female genital mutilation. Practiced in various African, Asian, and Middle Eastern cultures, this usually serves as a right of passage into adulthood, but is being recognized as a debate of human rights.

As the local communities typically oversee the forests and their maintenance, it becomes a uniquely protected, community driven, conservation space. Government involvement in these areas may threaten the amount of power the communities have over these Sacred Forests, which they have occupied for generations, but may also give space for women of these communities to obtain more bodily autonomy.

Dr. Ormsby is a mentor to many. Among offering her insight to the importance of mentorship, Ormsby presents a great deal of knowledge on building a professional career in the environmental sector, and has helped many of her current and former students gain hands-on experience, internships, and job opportunities. Always hopeful for the future, Ormsby has a way of encouraging the people around her to reach their highest potential.

About Dr. Alison Ormsby:

Dr. Alison Ormsby teaches Environmental Studies at the University of North Carolina Asheville and is a graduate mentor in Environmental Studies at Prescott College. She is a human ecologist with 25 years of experience working with people and protected areas, environmental education, and sacred natural sites. She has conducted research at sacred forests in Ghana, India, and Sierra Leone and at parks in Madagascar and Belize. She is a member of the IUCN’s Specialist Group for Cultural and Spiritual Values of Protected Areas, and has numerous publications about her work, including in the books Asian Sacred Natural Sites, Philosophy and Practice in Protected Areas and Conservation (2016) among others.

University of North Carolina Asheville
LinkedIn

Resources:

About Female Genital Mutilation
- Top 5 things you didn’t know about female genital mutilation
- Sierra Leone bans FGM in clampdown on secret societies
- Kenya pledges to end FGM by 2022 – ahead of global target
- Case Study: The practice of FGM in Northern Ghana
Sacred Grove: Co-Wrote
- The Cultural Politics of Sacred Groves: A Case Study of Devithans in Sikkim, India
How Students have Changed:
- Gen Z more likely to report mental health concerns
Fantastic Fungi
Career Advice:
- Research Experiences for Undergraduates
- Student Conservation Association

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When asked what advice she has on being a woman of color in a predominantly white business environment, environmental consultant and CEO of her own water consultation firm, Stacey Isaac Berahzer answered:

“I like to say that sometimes it's good to not notice that you're a woman, or of color, and pretend that it is not there. The room may be mainly Caucasian, or male, or people older than you, but I think there is an advantage sometimes to pushing all of that to the back of your mind and pretend it’s a level playing field.”

With 14 million households struggling to pay their water bills nationwide, Berahzer focuses on the importance of water equity and affordability. Prioritizing “color of water”, rising water rates are most likely to impact communities of color. Over two million Americans do not have access to clean running water, with black, indigenous and people of color making up the majority of those communities. For example, Native Americans are 19 times more likely to lack indoor plumbing, putting them in the worst spot of any group, and African-American and Latinx households lack indoor plumbing at almost twice the rate of white households.

Should utility companies be more empathic and aware of the needs of their customer base? This would be a helpful step in bridging the gap of water inequity, but it is a fairly complicated matter. With the existence of both small and large utility companies that operate differently, it is not as simple as streamlining a “one size fits all” solution approach.

In this episode, we dive into the realm of an environmental water consultant and learn some of the ins and outs of the water affordability crisis, why might someone want to own their own consulting firm, necessary skills to make it in the professional world, and so much more.

In terms of favorite quotes, Berahzer likes this witty one by the Founder of CNN, and environmental philanthropist, Ted Turner.

If I only had a little humility, I'd be perfect.

While funny, it captures the important truth that some ideals are almost unattainable, but are still worth the constant pursuit. One person may not change the world single-handedly, but many people setting aside their differences and working together can bring about real systemic changes Berahzer maintains a hopeful spirit regarding environmentalism.

Follow Stacey Isaac Berahzer:

IB Environmental
LinkedIn

Related Resources:

Closing the Water Access Gap in the United States: A National Action Plan.
A Study of Race & the Water Affordability Crisis in America's Cities
Challenges and Innovations: Current and Future States of Water Affordability
Five Facts About Water Quality in Trinidad and Tobago
Navigating Legal Pathways to Rate-Funded Customer Assistance Programs: A Guide for Water and Wastewater Utilities

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In this introduction I share a little bit about myself and why I started the podcast. I’m excited about this new journey that I’m about to embark on because I really think it will help make the environmental movement more inclusive. Throughout this process I have been humbled by the experiences, wisdom, and knowledge that our eco-warriors have willingly shared. It has been an honor and a privilege. I am learning so much and I feel like it is helping me be a better person and professional. I hope you feel the same way too as you join me on this journey.

Instagram @breaking_green_ceilings
LinkedIn @sapnamulki
Twitter @sapnamulki
Website: https://watersavvysolutions.com/podcast/

Breaking Green Ceilings: Recent Episodes

Sapna Mulki

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