Six Women Honored With Rachel Carson Awards
Kudos to the six women who this week won the National Audubon Society’s Rachel Carson Awards.
The awards — named after the author of “Silent Spring,” the 1962 book widely credited with sparking the environmental movement — recognize women who “demonstrate great leadership and commitment to conservation.”
This year’s Rachel Carson Award winners include an oceanographer, an owner of an outdoor apparel business, a student conservation leader and three television executives who launched a green initiative for their channel.
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So who are the women of honor, and what are their accomplishments? Here they are:
- Oceanographer Sylvia Earle, a National Geographic Explorer in Residence who’s also president and founder of Deep Search International. She has led more than 60 diving expeditions, including the first team of women aquanauts, and set a record for solo diving to a depth of 3,300 feet. Her research focuses on marine ecosystems in the deep sea and other remote environments.
- Sally Jewell, president and CEO of Recreational Equipment Inc. (REI), a national outdoor gear and apparel retailer. Jewell also serves on the boards of the National Parks Conservation Association, the Mountains to Sound Greenway Trust, the Initiative for Global Development, The National Forum on Children and Nature Advisory Board, the National Parks Second Century Commission and the University of Washington. (Busy, busy!)
- Elizabeth C. Titus Putnam, president and founder of the Student Conservation Association, the nation’s largest youth conservation leadership organization. She was inspired to start the organization while studying at Vassar College in the mid-1950s. Since then, nearly 4,000 students a year contribute over two million hours of service protect and restore US parks, forests, refuges, seashores and communities.
- Elizabeth Colleton, Jane Evans and Susan Haspel, who in May 2007 helped launch NBC Universal’s “Green is Universal” Initiative. The program is the network’s ongoing effort to promote environmental awareness and action, as well as to green its own operations. Colleton, Evans and Haspel’s efforts include a pilot program to reduce carbon emissions and the awarding of more than $300,000 in green grants to under-served public education programs.
