Conservation Café: Grappling with racism, diversity, and justice in the environmental movement

Thursday, October 8 at 7:00 pm

Did you know…

• That many of the founders of the conservation movement were explicitly racist and linked white supremacy to their goals of preserving nature?
• That the racist origins of the movement persist in implicit narratives, mythologies, and values that we don’t even realize are part of environmentalism today?
• That while all people and cultures have connections to nature, the environmental movement is far from representative of the diversity of the United States of America today?
• That the modern environmental movement is increasingly reckoning with the need for justice for and amongst humans as a necessity for conserving nature into the future?

We need to talk about it! To be successful in preserving a healthy environment for people and wildlife, we need everyone. And, we need to listen, really listen, to one another.

Please join ANS for an evening of listening to some of our incredible regional experts on diversity, equity, justice, and inclusion in environmentalism. Gabrielle Roffe will moderate this in-depth, engaging conversation with environmental diversity, equity, and inclusion experts Chanté Coleman and Ruby Rivera.

Register Here!

Chanté Coleman serves as the Vice President of Equity and Justice at National Wildlife Federation, where she leads the effort to fully operationalize equitable policies and practices and supports the organization to actively challenge systemic racism.

Born and raised in Puerto Rico, Ruby Rivera now lives in the Washington, D.C. area, where she works for The Nature Conservancy’s Global Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Team as a Conservation Partnerships Manager.

Gabrielle Roffe is the Manager of Equity and Community Engagement at Chesapeake Conservancy where she works in partnership with the National Park Service to promote inclusive stewardship in the Chesapeake Bay watershed.