Sustainability is a state in which a community manages its resources equitably in a way that allows its members to meet both current and future needs. At Berea College, forest, agriculture, and labor are managed in concert to benefit students of all races and genders who might not otherwise have access to a college education. Participants in this field trip will celebrate the college’s Mountain Day holiday with a hike in the college’s biodiverse and sustainably managed forest, eat lunch in the company of student dancers and musicians at the Forest Outreach Center, enjoy a tour of the college vegetable crops fields, the unique residential community at Berea’s Ecovillage, and the Carter G. Woodson Center for interracial education. 

The larger community of the town of Berea has an economy strongly rooted in local craft and art traditions, and the tour will end at Berea’s Artist Incubator, at which three emerging artists are given an annual stipend to deepen and expand their creative skills, and where their creative works can be purchased. The hike and college tours will be facilitated by Forest Outreach Center Director Wendy Warren, and guided by Dr. Nancy Gift, Berea’s Compton Chair of Sustainability.

Time: 8:30 AM–4:30 PM
Locations: Berea College, Berea
Cost: $45, includes transportation and lunch

CLOSED (field trip at full capacity)
Lexington Parks and Recreation staff will guide participants on an all-day adventure through the scenic Kentucky River Palisades region. Adventurers will be picked-up in the morning at the conference hotel and will be transported in vans to the canoe drop-in point along the Kentucky River for a guided paddle through the palisades. After an approximately 2-hour paddle, the vans will then transport participants to the Raven Run Nature Sanctuary, where they will enjoy lunch and rest a bit before heading on a guided hike. Sanctuary staff will lead participants down to the Kentucky River Overlook, a featured spot of Raven Run, with beautiful views of the Kentucky River from above. The hike will total about 2¼ miles and will showcase Kentucky natural and cultural history along the way. When the hike is over, vans will transport participants back to the convention center.

This trip is generously supported by Lexington Parks and Recreation. 

Time: 8:30 AM–4:30 PM
Location: Raven Run Nature Sanctuary, Lexington
Cost: $35, includes transportation, canoe rental, and lunch

The mainstream environmental movement is characterized by glaring racial imbalances. The voices, perspectives, and wisdom from people of color and indigenous communities have been excluded from the movement’s widely homogenized white culture. At a time when environmental degradation and injustice are threatening our collective ability to thrive, it is increasingly imperative that we discover ways to create an environmental movement more inclusive and relevant than ever before.

Working across racial, ethnic, economic, and other differences is complex. Even when we commit to advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion on individual, organizational, and systems levels our efforts are often wrought with challenges. Leaning into difficult conversations about racism and privilege can feel uncomfortable and elicit a wide range of emotions. Participants in this workshop will build capacity and skills in emotional intelligence as part of an essential practice in feeling, understanding, articulating, managing, and applying the power of emotions to interactions across difference. It is our differences that make us stronger.

Participants will also explore the concept of White Fragility, coined by sociologist and author Robin DiAngelo. White Fragility describes the stress or discomfort expressed by white people when confronted by information about race. White Fragility triggers defensive behaviors and emotions like anger, fear, and guilt. When this happens, our ability to work across difference is significantly compromised. Participants will learn to recognize these behaviors and develop strategies to more effectively work across difference.

This workshop is experiential and participants will be asked to step into sincerity and vulnerability.

Environmental education (EE) research can create a critical foundation for improving programming, and it can support high-quality, theoretically and empirically based evaluation. Connecting with the broader body of relevant literature, deepening grounding in the EE-related research can help with designing, implementing, and evaluating programs. Through these processes, EE practitioners can more effectively understand how people learn about the environment, connect with the natural world, develop environmental identities, build citizen-action skills, and envision their role as part of a social movement.

We have designed this workshop for a range of stakeholders in the EE space: field educators from local, regional, and national organizations; environmental educators who work in a diverse range of settings such as schools, museums, aquaria, zoos, gardens, and parks, among others; funders; and other stakeholders who are interested in infusing their on-the-ground practice with research-informed perspectives. Using strategies from Stanford’s design thinking school, participants will learn-by-doing through workshop activities that foster innovative approaches to complex challenges. The workshop will offer opportunities for participants to develop tailored solutions for integrating research into their own EE practice. Participants will leave the session with tools and resources for accessing and applying research; they’ll also gain with techniques for guiding others through this process.

The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) call for students to engage in authentic science and engineering practices. Mapping and analyzing large data sets is one approach for students to answer questions about pressing environmental problems through engagement in these practices. FieldScope, a platform for citizen science data collection and analysis, provides a K-12 friendly tool for this type of analysis of real environmental data. It allows users to study local environmental phenomena and analyze data across different spatial regions and scales and across different time points.   

BSCS Science Learning has developed Invitations to Inquiry (Invitations), 2-4 day lessons that present students with an environmental question that students answer by analyzing data using FieldScope. These lessons engage students in wrestling with questions about changing phenology (Project Budburst), pollution policy (Trash Free Potomac), invasive species (Frog Watch), bay restoration (The Chesapeake Watershed Water Quality Study), and light pollution in cities (Globe at Night).  

The goal of this workshop is to introduce Invitations and share materials such that workshop participants can facilitate professional learning around Invitations for other educators. We will start by learning about Invitations, including an introduction to the design principles and a shared experience with one example as adult learners. Then, we will discuss strategies to facilitate professional development. Participants will leave this workshop with example lesson plans, professional development facilitator guides, and an opportunity to receive a stipend for leading teacher workshops back at home. Bring a laptop if you can.

The Arboretum, State Botanical Garden of Kentucky is a 100-acre greenspace located on the campus of the University of Kentucky in the heart of Lexington, Kentucky. The arboretum receives over 200,000 visitors annually who can enjoy and learn about three main features, the Walk Across Kentucky, the Home Demonstration Garden and the Kentucky Children's Garden. The Walk Across Kentucky is a two-mile paved loop featuring wild-collected native plants from the seven physiographic regions of Kentucky. The Home Demonstration Garden includes several outdoor ‘rooms’ which model what gardeners can accomplish in their yards. Lastly, the Kentucky Children’s Garden is a place for children and their families to connect with and learn about plants and the environment. They offer educational programming and tours to help connect people to the gardens.

FoodChain was founded in 2011 as a tenant in a former Rainbo Bread Factory. Located in the downtown Lexington area, the building is situated in the middle of a food desert, which together with the original function of the building, inspired FoodChain's mission to forge links between community and fresh food through education and demonstration of innovative and sustainable food systems. They started their work by building and operating the state's first indoor commercially scaled aquaponics farm, growing both tilapia and greens inside of the former oven room of the bakery building. As an indoor farm they operate year round and use a fraction of the resources to grow food by circulating the fish waste to fertilize the plants and the plants to clean the water to be then be returned to the fish. They've hosted more than 10,000 visitors through the farm and have worked to help establish nearly 50 school-based aquaponics systems around Kentucky's classrooms. In late 2017 FoodChain expanded to open a Teaching & Processing Kitchen. Here they teach fresh food cooking classes for youth and their families, work to make locally grown food more accessible, convenient, and affordable by processing it, as well as training underemployed adults for jobs within the growing food sector.

Since its inception, FoodChain has been dedicated to showing the links, not just in food systems, but also communities. Their farm is only a part of what is being done in the building they occupy; they share their walls with a craft brewery, a seafood restaurant, a nonprofit incubation hub, a bike co-op, an art studio, coffee roasters, roller derby league, and a bourbon distillery! That’s a lot of community in one spot! They consider their success dependent upon all their neighbors, so they are able to support each other and grow as symbiotically as possible. The tenants of this building are linked with the knowledge that we are all stronger together, and their goals are to demonstrate increasing resiliency and economic development through partnerships and collaboration.

Time: 8:30 AM–1:30 PM

Locations: State Botanical Garden of Kentucky and Food Chain, Lexington

Cost: $40, includes transportation and tours; lunch (not included) to be purchased at neighboring Sixth Street Local Brewery and Smithtown Seafood

If your program is thinking about applying for accreditation now or in the future this workshop is an invaluable step along the way. Not only will you meet with faculty who have applied for accreditation in the past, but you will also begin carefully looking at different parts of your program to determine how your program components meet the standards. Time will be spent describing each theme and then examining evidence from other programs to determine what best represents the guideline within each theme. After the group has a good understanding of what is meant by each theme, time will be spent looking at sample assessments and clear models show exemplary evidence for how a program meets the guidelines. There will be time during the workshop for one-on-one consultation with colleagues who have recently been accredited, who can help clarify the accreditation application and process. Committing seven hours for this workshop is important step to preparing an application that will meet the standards and prepare your program for a positive response to the accreditation process.

In spring 2017, NAAEE published the latest in its Guidelines Series--Community Engagement: Guidelines for Excellence. These guidelines outline steps for creating more inclusive working environments that support social equity, effective partnerships and coalitions, and long-term change. This all-day workshop will provide an overview of the Community Engagement Guidelines and help prepare participants to facilitate workshops based on them. In the morning, we’ll begin by going over the background of the guidelines and the process of creating them. Then, we’ll introduce each of the sections of the guidelines and explore them through a variety of activities. In the afternoon, participants will have the opportunity to begin to design targeted workshops for respective potential audiences, share their workshop designs for constructive peer feedback, and discuss other opportunities to use these guidelines in a variety of professional settings and situations.  

Presenter: Jared Lipworth, HHMI Tangled Bank Studios

Information is important in fostering sustainable communities, but alone may not be enough to influence true conservation action. Often, educators wonder why their efforts fall short of taking their audiences from learning to doing something. This workshop aims to build their capacity for fostering change by integrating behavior change science and innovative practice into their efforts. Workshop participants will understand how to create and implement behavior change initiatives—both educational and interpretative—with a step-by-step formula, and will learn the foundations of why this approach works. Integrating behavior change science into environmental education is vital to educating for sustainable communities—making this workshop an ideal fit for this conference strand. Additionally, many calls to action in environmental education and interpretation fall short of being accessible to underserved or marginalized audiences. This workshop seeks to address both of these issues by helping participants rethink messaging for targeted audiences, and identifying more appropriate calls to action that meet people where they are while still addressing the scale of today's environmental issues.

The workshop will include hands-on activities and a dynamic presentation of recommendations from an expert in behavior change science and campaign development. The workshop will take a research-based approach that is grounded in understanding what it takes to foster sustainable behavior. Participants will learn how to know their audience, tap into what they value, and choose meaningful calls to action that match not only the scale of the problem—but also the capabilities of participants' audiences. This leads to increased self-efficacy and hope of audiences as they become better prepared to take action for the environment, their communities, and what they value most.

Participants will learn the most effective techniques for integrating behavior change science into their initiatives through hands-on exercises, interactive demonstrations, and workbook activities designed with adult learning in mind. They will learn from an expert in behavior change science with experience in crafting accessible campaigns, educational materials, and interpretive products through a behavior change lens. By the end of the workshop, participants will try out strategically crafted approaches to inspiring audiences to change behavior for a sustainable future.

Newly revised, NAAEE’s K–12 Environmental Education: Guidelines for Excellence (2019), part of the Guidelines for Excellence series, provide students, parents, caregivers, educators and others a roadmap to achieving environmentalliteracy by setting expectations for fourth (age 10), eighth (age 14) and twelfth grade (age 18) students. The K–12 EE Guidelines outline a framework for effective and comprehensive environmental education programs and curricula, describing what an environmentally literate person should know and be able to do by the time they graduate from secondary school. Developed through a process of critique and concensus, they draw on the best thinking of the field to outline core ingredients of environmental education.

This workshop gives you an opportunity to dig into the guidelines. Through a series of hands-on exercises, you’ll become familiar with the environmental literacy framework and how you can use it for curriculum development and program improvement. We’ll look at how the development of environmental literacy progresses from the primary grades through to graduation from secondary school. You’ll have an opportunity to see how these guidelines support student learning and national and state academic standards. And, you’ll have an opportunity to use the K-12 EE Guidelines to think about how you can create a more cohesive and comprehensive environmental literacy program.

Those registered for this workshop will receive a copy of the K–12 Environmental Education: Guidelines for Excellence (2019) and the K–12 Environmental Education: Guidelines for Excellence—Executive Summary (2019).

The story of the conservation movement takes place within the context of institutionalized racism and its ensuring inequitable effects. Traditionally and historically oppressed populations disproportionally assume the effects of environmental injustices like water and air quality. Core pursuits of Environmental Education Organizations aim to improve these vital environmental indicators of health. Even with a critical imperative for the conservation education field to interact with main-stream public school STEM initiatives, a disconnect exists between the two groups of those who have traditionally occupied the white space of conservation and the fundamental civic right of marginalized people of color to learn the skills, knowledge and understanding needed to participate in a healthy and sustainable future. This workshop is designed to bring together conservation nonprofits, educators for sustainability, K–12 teachers, K–12 administrators and corporate responsibility professionals to build out the next story of transformation towards an inclusive and equitable conservation movement. This is meant to meet people and organizations in their current reality, share transition practices and resources, and request and provide critical feedback in a professional and facilitated manner.

The workshop begins with introductions and an overview of the value of relationship-centered approaches and inclusive communication in academic, professional settings and personal settings. Assumption that these skills develop intuitively leads into one of two extremes: either disregarding a person’s identity or centering the relationship on that person’s identity. Inclusive communication, specifically, can be referred to as cross-cultural communication and requires awareness, consideration and responsiveness to any component of a person’s identity. In this workshop, participants will learn how inclusive communication can be used with various people groups, all while gaining the tools and resources needed to best navigate real-life scenarios with diverse audiences.

We aim to cover topics including: 1) a basic understanding of approaching identities, 2) addressing misconceptions, and 3) concrete tools for effective dialogue and interactions with all people. We will follow this presentation with two hands-on activities that facilitate practice and application of this content to real-life situations.

John Flicker is the President of Prescott College in Prescott, Arizona, a position he has held since 2014. Before Prescott College, he was president of the National Audubon Society in New York City for 15 years. During his tenure at Audubon, he was best known for creating a network of over 40 Audubon Nature Centers in communities across the country, with many of them located in low-income urban areas. He also led Audubon’s efforts to protect critical habitat from the Everglades to the Arctic National Refuge.  

Prior to leading the Audubon Society, John worked with The Nature Conservancy for over 20 years in various positions including Midwest Regional Attorney, Great Plains Director, Florida State Director, General Counsel, and Executive Vice President in the Conservancy’s Arlington, Virginia Headquarters.

John is a former member of the board of directors of the Heinz Center for Science, Economics, and the Environment in Washington, DC, and former founding co-chair of the Blue Sky Funders Forum, a foundation affinity organization dedicated to advancing environmental education. He is currently Chair of the Board of Directors of the George B. Storer Foundation in Jackson, Wyoming.

John grew up on a family dairy farm in Pierz, Minnesota, which his brother still operates. He completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Minnesota and received his Juris Doctorate from William Mitchell College of Law.

Track 1

8:30 AM–9:10 AM

Sustaining an Effective Job Search
Too often, a job hunt involves hours of sifting through irrelevant posts on job search sites. This session will help you devise a more effective process, starting with strong application documents and culminating with strategies to better leverage your time, talents, and knowledge, in discovering promising opportunities.

Michael Cronk
 

9:20 AM–10:00 AM

Need To Know Networking

This program covers the four "Need To Know Networking" tips. Networking is essential throughout our entire lives, both with our careers and personally. This session will help overcome the jitters that often go with the thought of networking, as well as how to make the absolute most of every networking opportunity. Relevant to the conference at hand, participants will be armed and ready with networking know-how!

Terri Thompson
 

10:30 AM–11:10 AM

Nail It! Acing the Interview and Getting Paid

An effective application can land you an interview, but the interview gets you the job. Learn best practices for preparing for and executing an effective interview. Additionally, entering salary negotiations, upon receiving an offer, requires research to provide evidence for your demands; tips and strategies will be provided to assist your efforts.

Michael Cronk
 

Track 2

8:30 AM–9:10 AM

Fundraising Essentials: Message, Momentum, and Mindset

Like it or not, every nonprofit employee is also a fundraiser and must build the relationships that enable their organizations to thrive. In this session, you’ll learn how to craft fundraising messages and winning proposals, while creating the donor connections, forward energy, and rapport that make gifts happen. 

Lea Harvey and Krishna Roy

9:20 AM–10:00 AM

Transformational Leadership: Using a transformational leadership model, we will explore how we want to show up as rising leaders in our organizations and the field of EE. Through facilitated activities we will experiment with tools that guide the cultivation of an abundance mindset moving us towards authentic leadership. 

Eileen Everett, Olivia Griset, and Charissa Jones

10:30 AM–11:10 AM 

Game Changing Communication: Take a look at the often overlooked power of how body language, first impressions and business attire communicate far more than our words. Communicating with co-workers, colleagues, bosses, and staff is essential to every step of the career journey, and this program covers the ten habits of exceptional communicators.

Terri Thompson

Michael Cronk serves as the Associate Director of Career Development at Transylvania University, a private, liberal arts college, in downtown Lexington, KY. Michael has 16 years of experience in teaching effective job search and application strategies. Additionally, Michael served as Board Chair for Bluegrass Greensource, an environmental non-profit serving 16 counties in central Kentucky. 

For more than 15 years, Eileen Everett has worked as an environmental educator having personally taught over 25,000 New Mexican students around the state through mostly outdoor, multi-day programs. She deeply values an abundance mindset, education designed for all students, and a more equitable and inclusive world. Eileen has strong nonprofit experience, having worked in the social sector for over 15 years and serves as an Associate Facilitator for the Santa Fe Community Foundation’s Emerging Social Sector Leaders Program. 

Olivia Griset is the Executive Director of the Maine Environmental Education Association (MEEA) and the cofounder of the Maine Environmental Changemakers Network.  Through a systems-thinking approach and the power of network weaving Olivia works in collaboration to innovate solutions that result in more equitable, sustainable, and healthy communities. Olivia serves on the Affiliate Steering Committee for the NAAEE and is chair of the steering committee for the Maine Nature Based Education Consortium. 

With a background that spans environmental, higher education, and policy organizations, Lea Harvey is committed to building the capacity of the nonprofit sector to be a force for positive change. Across more than two decades, Lea has held fundraising and senior management roles at organizations like World Wildlife Fund, BoardSource, and Resources for the Future. She currently leads her own fundraising consultancy, LLH Strategy Advisors, LLC, based in Northern Virginia, and also serves as Director of Foundation and Corporate Relations for her alma mater, Sweet Briar College.

Charissa Jones is a cis-gender Black Immigrant, Dutch Creole, Dutch Caribbean South American lesbian educator and advocate who provides organizational leadership for enhancing a collaborative, just, equitable, and inclusive community Statewide Oregon Outdoor School Program.  Originally from Suriname, Charissa is interested in (re)connecting folks to their environments and helping them feel welcomed and rooted. She’s committed to and passionate about removing barriers and increasing access and opportunities for all those who are often left out of the conversation. 

A social activist and strategist, Krishna Roy designs and implements laser-focused nonprofit management, fundraising, and communications programs to support social causes. She has created groundbreaking campaigns, produced award-winning videos, built unlikely partnerships, and raised millions of dollars. Krishna serves on several boards including the Oceangate Foundation, Trust for Architectural Easements, and Sound Principles.

Terri Thompson is a nationally renowned speaker, author, and successful entrepreneur specializing in helping individuals succeed. Her programs are dedicated to inspiring and challenging people to achieve their own brand of wild success. Using humor and real life lessons, it is Terri's goal to bring out the best in every person in her audience. Terri has delivered her powerful, high-impact presentations to thousands across the country.  She and her husband reside outside of Paris, KY.

Mona Chalabi is a journalist who really loves numbers. She is the Data Editor of The Guardian where she writes articles, produces documentaries, and illustrates, as well as animates, data. She is also a data journalist for NPR.

After analyzing statistics for the United Nations, Mona saw how important data was, but also how easily it could be used by people with their own specific agendas. Since then, her work for organizations like Transparency International and The Guardian has had one goal: to make sure as many people as possible can find and question the data they need to make informed decisions about their lives. She gives speeches and teaches courses on data journalism, and when she can, she illustrates data. Her illustrations were commended by the Royal Statistical Society; they said, “Her deceptively simple graphs are fun and accessible.”

Mona also helped create the Emmy-nominated four-part video series “Vagina Dispatches,” which explores the physical, social, and sometimes political dynamics that surround women’s bodies. She hosts Vice’s TV program, “The Business of Life,” a new kind of talk show that breaks down the financial machinery behind some of the most important issues of our time. Mona has a master’s degree in International Security from the Paris Institute of Political Studies and has worked for FiveThirtyEight, the Banks of England, the Economist Intelligence Unit, and the International Organization for Migration.

Mona lives in New York City. The only thing you need to know about her personal life is that she loves Peter Falk.

• Thursday, 2:15 PM–2:55 PM
• Thursday, 4:00 PM–4:40 PM
• Friday, 9:20 AM–10:00 AM
• Friday, 10:30 AM–11:10 AM
• Friday, 3:05 PM–3:45 PM

How do I start conversations that lead to bigger gifts? How can I get my board members more engaged in fundraising? Is this project right for corporate or foundation support? Am I doing ANY of this right? Whether you’re new to fundraising or a seasoned professional, bring your questions to NAAEE’s fundraising coaching roundtables. Five sessions available; space is limited; sign up in advance (at the conference) at the Information Station required.

Lea Harvey, LLH Strategy Advisors, LLC 

Krishna Roy, Consultant

• Kathryn Stevenson, North Carolina State University, Coordinator
• Dave Chase, DRC Consulting, LLC
• Thomas Marcinkowski, Florida Institute of Technology
• Ruth Kermish-Allen, Maine Mathematics and Science Alliance
• Steven Braun, eeRise
• Kathleen O’Connor, NatureBridge
• Kathayoon Khalil, Seattle Aquarium
• Charlotte Clark, Duke University 
• Rachel Becker-Klein, Two Roads Consulting
• Louise Chawla, University of Colorado Boulder
• Karyl Askew, Karyl Askew, PhD
• Julie Ernst, University of Minnesota Duluth
• Robert Powell, Clemson University
• Marc Stern, Virginia Tech
• Gabby Salazar, University of Florida

Moderator

Anupama Joshi joined Blue Sky Funders Forum as executive director in December 2018. She is an accomplished leader in the nonprofit and social sector in the United States and abroad. She was previously executive director of the National Farm to School Network, which she co-founded in 2007, building a movement to incorporate local procurement, gardens, and food and farm education in schools and early care sites across the United States. She has excelled in developing policies, programs and partnerships; fundraising; and managing organizations through phases of growth and change. Anupama is a firm believer in the power of networks and collaboration to enable lasting change, and has embodied that throughout her career. She is co-author of Food Justice (MIT Press, 2010), developed “Evaluation for Transformation”—a pioneering cross-sector framework for farm to school research and evaluation, and regularly speaks at national and international events. She has advised the United States Department of Agriculture on the Farm to School Census, and served on the board of directors for FoodCorps and the Community Alliance with Family Farmers. Anupama currently serves on the board of directors for the Farmers Market Coalition and provides mentorship to emerging leaders through the Community Food Systems Mentorship Program. She is a mom, loves to travel, and cook, and currently lives in Cary, North Carolina.

Speakers

Kathy Abusow is President and CEO of SFI Inc., a non-profit sustainability leader dedicated to future forests. Under Kathy’s leadership, SFI has evolved into a solutions-oriented sustainability organization that advances sustainable forestry through its work across four key pillars: standards, conservation, community and education. 

Kathy is committed to enhancing the societal benefits that come from sustainable forests. The creation of SFI’s Education pillar and the acquisition of Project Learning Tree (PLT), an award-winning education program that educates teachers and youth about forests and the environment, is an important part of this strategy. PLT is SFI’s signature education initiative, a truly North American environmental education program with an active network across the United States, Canada and Mexico. PLT, along with PLT Canada, a not-for-profit that will grow future forest and conservation leaders through green career pathways and in its first year placed 750 youth in green jobs across Canada, is driving SFI’s expansion in education.

Under Kathy’s leadership, forests certified to the SFI® Forest Management Standard have grown to more than 300 million acres. She has created or expanded a variety of initiatives such as the SFI Conservation and Community Grants Program, which has, together with leveraged funds from partners, invested $14 million in forest research in collaboration with conservation and community groups. She has also signed MOUs with Habitat for Humanity International and Habitat for Humanity Canada focused on building sustainable housing and supported Habitat’s Indigenous Housing Program.

Kathy is a strong voice for diversity, equity, and inclusion. This commitment is embodied in PLT’s commitment that, “All students—regardless of gender, color, race, economic well-being, and more—deserve high-quality learning experiences that connect them to the natural world.” Kathy’s commitment to gender equality is seen in the gender balance of SFI’s team and her work as a mentor to other women in the forestry sector. Kathy is also a founding member of Nature Canada’s Women for Nature Initiative, the Habitat for Humanity of Greater Ottawa’s Women Build Leadership Team, and the National Steering Committee for Gender Equity in Canada’s Forest Sector.

She has led, moderated, and spoken at well-respected international forums including the Greenbuild International Conference “Women in Green Power breakfast in DC”, the Economist’s World Forest Summit in Stockholm, the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, Fortune Brainstorm Green, and at TEDxWilmington where she gave a talk called Be a Forest Hugger.  Kathy and her husband, Paul, have two children, and she has an undergraduate degree from McGill and a graduate degree from Harvard.  

Kevin Butt is the Director of Environmental Sustainability for Toyota’s North American Environmental Sustainability Programs. He is responsible for the development of Environmental Sustainability Programs and related Regulatory/Legislative development for all of Toyota’s North American operations, and has helped shape sustainability for one of the world’s top automakers.

Previously, Kevin served as the general manager/chief environmental and safety officer for Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing for all of Toyota’s manufacturing operations. He also served as the assistant general manager of body production engineering for Toyota Motor Manufacturing North America, Inc.

Kevin serves on several boards including the National Wildlife Habitat Council, Kentucky Fish and Wildlife Foundation, World Wildlife Fund National Council, North American Great Plains Advisory Board, Yellowstone Park’s Yellowstone Forever Board, and the National Environmental Education Foundation.

He served on the Association of Fish & Wildlife Agencies’ Blue Ribbon Panel on Sustaining America’s Diverse Fish and Wildlife Resources, and was given the Toyota Community Star Award for volunteering and giving back to the community in a very high standard. 

Kevin has a Bachelors of Science degree in Environmental Science from Georgetown College.

Nikole Collins-Puri is a social justice visionary, strategist, advocate and mentor who has committed her life to unleashing the potential of untapped communities. She’s the CEO of Techbridge Girls, a nonprofit organization that excites, educates and equips girls from low-income communities through STEM, empowering them to pursue STEM careers and achieve economic mobility and financial security as adults.

Nikole is a master collaborator who is able to leverage her rich professional experiences in tech, philanthropy and education to bring diverse groups of stakeholders together to urge social change in our communities. She’s committed to removing barriers and increasing access and opportunities for all those who are often left behind but essential to the success and growth of our society. 

Prior to Techbridge Girls, Nikole worked at AT&T where she spearheaded their diversity and inclusion efforts, at the College Board where she advised states on their college completion strategy for Black and Latinx students, and at the Women’s Foundation of California where she advanced women’s economic security by supporting and awarding grants to visionary grassroots organizations.

Nikole holds a B.A. in Political Science from the University of South Florida and MPA from City University of New York. 

Simone Friedman is the Head of Philanthropy and Impact Investment for EJF Philanthropies, managing grantmaking efforts across sectors, including those related to supporting impact campaigns for documentary films and nonfiction books. Simone is cur

rently serving as the impact producer for the Eating Animals film, directed and produced by Christopher Quinn.

She is also managing the impact campaign for Jonathan Safran Foer’s new book, We Are the Weather: Saving the Planet Begins at Breakfast, to be published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux in the USA on September 17, 2019.

Prior to her involvement with EJF Philanthropies, Simone founded and later sold an analytics company that used proprietary software to identify trends in patenting. Simone graduated summa cum laude from the George Washington University, which she attended on an academic honor scholarship, and she holds a Master’s of Urban and Environmental Planning degree, with a concentration in Policy Analysis, from the University of Virginia.

Simone serves as a member of the board of Global Wildlife Conservation and is the vice chair of the board for Sixth & I Historic Synagogue in Washington, D.C. She is an Honorary Conservation Fellow for the Zoological Society of London, and is active in several networks for philanthropists and impact investors.

EE 30 Under 30 Honorees