I am Proud To Be A part of Your Flock

Once I stepped into my position at Audubon in March, I grew to become the primary girl to carry the title of president in Audubon’s 116-year historical past. Two months later I used to be requested to develop into its first girl interim CEO. So it feels applicable that the primary concern of Audubon journal revealed after my arrival can also be the inaugural 12 months of the Feminine Fowl Prize within the Audubon Images Awards. (The profitable picture additionally occurred to be taken by a lady photographer.) I’m thrilled to develop into a part of the Audubon community and have the prospect to work alongside every considered one of you.

I wished to take this house to briefly introduce myself and share why I joined Audubon on this management position. In a really actual sense, I’ve returned to my roots. I started my profession with birds, first finding out homing pigeon navigation as an undergraduate, after which spending time in jap Washington State finding out Crimson-winged and Yellow-headed Blackbirds for my doctoral thesis work. I realized early on that calamity can strike swiftly: Throughout my first subject season, each species of blackbird crammed the panorama with their distinctive songs. However the second 12 months, the Yellow-headed Blackbirds didn’t return to their breeding marshes. This second was my private wake-up name. I knew one thing wasn’t proper. And I made a decision to commit my profession to conservation. After I completed my Ph.D., I labored in academia and in authorities and—for the majority of my profession—in conservation organizations, most just lately heading up The Nature Conservancy’s international local weather technique.

What drove my curiosity in becoming a member of Audubon is all of you and your devoted advocacy on behalf of birds and the communities we share—the facility it’s important to affect conservation outcomes and tackle local weather change is unmatched. A variety of that may not have occurred with out the management and imaginative and prescient of David Yarnold, Audubon’s most up-to-date president and CEO. I would like take a second to thank David for serving to refocus Audubon and make it into the powerhouse conservation group it’s at the moment. 

As we map the longer term for this subsequent chapter of Audubon’s historical past, I look ahead to constructing the following technology of Audubon, the place we domesticate new audiences and the place variations are revered, valued, and important to mission success. I am profoundly lucky that my begin at Audubon coincided with that of Jamaal Nelson, Audubon’s new chief fairness, range, and inclusion officer. I look ahead to the numerous issues we will accomplish collectively—on the member, chapter, organizational, and hemispheric degree—to make Audubon and the world a greater, safer, and extra simply place for folks and birds. 

This piece initially ran within the Summer season 2021 concern as “New Member of the Flock.” To obtain our print journal, develop into a member by making a donation at the moment.