To celebrate Womens History Month we asked four leaders from foundations Environment Program to share their stories about women who have influenced and inspired them in their careers and passions for conservation.
Environment Program Director Moira McdonaldTerry Tempest Williams is a nature writer and the award-winning author of many acclaimed books including Refuge: An Unnatural history of Family and Place and Finding Beauty in a Broken World. He was also cited for his book, Refuge: A Natural History of Family And Place.
Mcdonald says Terry Tempest Williams uses Terry Tempest Williams’ words to inspire engagement, conservation, and love of nature. However, she is able to bring out the human aspect of nature by writing about how people can help restore and protect it.
Williams has written extensively regarding environmental and social justice, and the link between culture and nature.
Williams writes in When Women Were Birds. Fifty-four Variations on voice, published in 2012. Williams says: “Once upon a time, women were birds. There was the simple understanding that to sing before dawn was to heal the earth through joy. The birds remember what we have lost, that the world is meant for celebration.
Pipa Elias (Deputy Director Environment Programs)She said that she was inspired by Sally Ride, the first American woman to go into space, as a child. Ride flew aboard the spaceship Challenger in 1983, and again in 1984.
Sally Ride has been an inspiration to me since I can remember. Elias says that Sally Ride, the first American woman to be a space astronaut, inspired me to love science and push the boundaries.
After earning her master’s and doctoral degrees in physics at Stanford University, Ride became the youngest astronaut in the world at 32. After leaving NASA, Ride founded Sally Ride Science to inspire young people to take up STEM careers.
Ride, for whatever reason, didn’t believe that science was only for girls. USA Today, 2006. My parents gave me encouragement. I have never encountered a counselor or teacher telling me science is for boys.
Elias believes that women can be role models for young girls and inspire them to pursue their dreams.
She says that her favorite part about being a conservation woman is receiving a Mothers Day card from her daughter, who was just three at the time. It said, “I love you, mom,” because you are making the world a better place.
Teresa Ish, foundations Oceans Initiative’s lead, Sylvia Earle, a marine biologist, was the first woman to become chief scientist at The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Sylvia Earle, a well-known marine scientist, was the first person to make me think about the importance of the food we eat, says Ish. Although she strongly advocates not eating seafood, which is a position that I didn’t hold when I first saw her speak as an adolescent, she also spoke about food conversion ratios. These are the feed requirements to produce one pound of beef or chicken, fish, or any other farmed meat. This idea opened my eyes about how many resources are needed to feed the planet. There was a better way.
Earle, a National Georgraphic explorer-in-residence, has written extensively and produced documentaries about the perils of overfishing and threats to oceans from climate change and pollution.
Respecting the oceans is essential and we must take care of them like our lives depend on it. She wrote it in 2013.Because they do.
Amy Saltzman is the founder of the foundations Mississippi River Initiative. Naturalist and author Lauret Lauret Savoy believes that her thinking on the impact of people on the land has influenced her.
Saltzman, who is a co-author of Trace: Memory, History, Race, Landscape, and the American Landscape, says that she does not write about conservation.
I am still captivated by her story about people and the land. It makes it clear why environmental conservation is so important. People and places that they love have stories that are worth conserving.
Savoy, a geologist Professor of environmental studiesMount Holyoke College Trace won the 2016 American Book AwardShe was a finalist in the 2016 PEN American Open Book Award, and the Phillis Wheatley Book Award.
Interview conducted in 2016.Savoy stated that she became a geologist to tell the stories of the land. And the stories we tell ourselves InThe land.
She stated that geology is not just understanding Earth but also understanding its place on Earth. It’s a sense or place that is large. Not only does it give you a sense about where you are, but also how you feel about where you are in time.