Youth Advisory Council centers youth voices in the planning of the Inside-Out International Conference

The Inside-Out International Conference’s Youth Advisory Council (YAC) centers youth voices in conference planning and development. Our 2023 YAC includes leaders ages 18 to 30 years old, with diverse backgrounds and experience. Through their leadership, they ensure that youth perspectives are represented throughout conference programming, in particular for youth leadership and engagement focuses. Council members include:

Leidy Pineda Flores 

Leidy (she/her/ella) is the Bilingual Education and Outreach Senior Representative for the City of Boulder Open Space and Mountain Parks. She is currently undertaking an undergraduate degree in Environmental Studies at the University of Colorado Boulder. Her experience growing up in Boulder has enabled Leidy to address barriers and inequities to outdoor access and co-create relevant and meaningful experiences with underrepresented youth and families in outdoor spaces. During her time off, she enjoys hiking with family and friends as well as taking a lot of photos.

Kevin Guo 

Kevin is an incoming freshman at Duke University interested in studying the intersection between environmental science and public health. He is currently leading a monarch butterfly habitat restoration project in his community, working as a Youth Health Advisor for the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, and serving on the Conservation Nation Youth Advisory Council. Kevin enjoys playing pickleball in his free time.

Kimiko Russell Halterman 

Kimiko (she/her) was born and raised in Oakland, the unceded home of the Muwekma Ohlone, and always felt a pull to the sea. She is passionate about education and nature reconnection as justice, and grateful to be part of the Brown Girl Surf community and leadership team, engaging with environmental education and summer youth programming. She is pursuing a PhD in education, learning from Black and Brown youth leaders about how community-based and culturally-sustaining “outdoor ed” can be a radical tool in dismantling the injustices that have tried to separate Black, Indigenous and all People of Color from nature, something we have and will always be part of.

Hadley Peterson

Hadley is a voracious people connector and storyteller who works as a project manager focused on urban planning and design projects that engage communities around actionable goals for their social and built environments. Integrating thoughtful advocacy and outreach into every project, her experience ranges from park planning to small-scale interventions to climate resilience efforts. Hadley holds her Master’s in Urban Planning from Florida State University, and Bachelor’s in International Studies and Spanish Linguistics from the University of Mississippi.

Zara Noreen 

Zara (she/her) is a Chinese American adoptee raised as a “city girl” in Hoboken, New Jersey who developed an interest in science and nature from a young age, attending nature camps, conservation sustainability policy summits, and putting samples of everything and anything under a microscope. Zara is now a scientific program manager supporting work within scientific research, education, and communications in the government sector. As an avid diver, she enjoys doing underwater photography to educate and bring awareness to endangered species through organizations such as Tortuguero Vive Mar and PADI AWARE.

Sania Qureshi

Sania lives in Richmond, Virginia; the traditional lands of the Powhatan people. She has previously interned with a local grassroots environmental advocacy organization and an environmental media production company. Those experiences and her love for nature and animals has brought her to the Children & Nature Network, where she enjoys working in partnership with other organizations driven to the same mission. Her passion lies with protecting the environment and supporting the accessibility to nature for everyone.

Emma Smith 

Emma is a high school senior living in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She will be attending college at William & Mary next year, where she plans to study Political Science and Environmental Science. Emma is extremely passionate about environmental justice and aspires to work as a lawyer in this field. Her favorite animals are sloths and dolphins and she loves hiking.

Follow this link to learn more about the Children & Nature Network’s Inside-Out International Conference and register for the 2023 conference, which will take place June 12-15 in Estes Park, Colorado.

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