Celebrating Black Leaders

Onika Abraham is the Executive Director of Blue Sky Funders Forum, which convenes, inspires and grows the community of funders supporting equitable access to meaningful outdoor experiences and connections to nature. Abraham Lee formerly led Farm School NYC, an organization offering adults comprehensive, professional training in sustainable agriculture grounded in social and food justice. There, she was committed to recruiting students that reflected the diversity of New York City, especially those from low resource and socially disadvantaged communities, and helping them achieve their professional farming goals. Abraham Lee is one of the co-founders of Black Urban Growers and has helped organize three national Black Farmers and Urban Gardeners Conferences since 2010. She was also a featured moderator at the Children & Nature Network’s 2024 Nature Everywhere Conference.

Learn more in a recording of the 2024 Nature Everywhere Conference session moderated by Onika Abraham Lee, “Sharing Power & Deepening Trust: Philanthropy to Grow a Movement”

Dr. Robert Blaine is the Senior Executive and Director of the Center for Leadership, Education, Advancement and Development (LEAD) at the National League of Cities. LEAD consists of the Institute for Youth, Education and Families (YEF Institute); the Local Infrastructure Hub; and the National League of Cities University. LEAD is dedicated to building opportunities in communities through technical assistance, leadership development and engagement, while the YEF Institute has empowered thousands of U.S. municipal leaders to take bold actions towards greater equity for all children, youth and families in their communities.

Most recently, Dr. Blaine served as Jackson, Mississippi’s Chief Administrative Officer under Mayor Chokwe Lumumba. Blaine was also a session moderator at the Children & Nature Network’s 2024 Nature Everywhere Conference.

Learn more in a recording of the 2024 Nature Everywhere Conference session moderated by Robert Blaine, “The Transformative Power of Equitable Access to Nature for Communities”

Alexa Bush (she/her/hers) is passionate about creating equitable and resilient cities. Bush is a program officer with The Kresge Foundation’s Detroit Program, where she supports investments in transformative public spaces that promote greater understanding and inclusion, as well as strategies that advance the interconnections between sustainable urban development and economic equity. Her major projects have included developing strategies to consider how to support the city’s children and families, growing the capacity within Detroit to respond to flooding, poor air quality, and extreme heat through a multi-sector climate resilience pilot on the east side, and centering community in the implementation of infrastructure improvements. Bush advocates for a robust, nature-rich and welcoming public realm of parks, streetscapes and civic facilities for community enjoyment, and was a featured speaker at the Children & Nature Network’s 2024 Nature Everywhere Conference.

Learn more in a recording of the 2024 Nature Everywhere Conference session featuring Alexa Bush, “Sharing Power & Deepening Trust: Philanthropy to Grow a Movement”

Ashleigh Cibelli-Pettus is an International Certified Arborist and has worked in urban forestry for the last nine years. She has managed urban forest youth internships, taught pruning courses, and planted and stewarded thousands of trees. Her position as the Conservation Program Coordinator for the City of Austin focuses on Urban Forestry Youth Education and creating pathways and opportunities into green careers for Black, Indigenous, and youth of color. She strives to be a catalyst for diversity and inclusion in the world of urban forestry, building greater tree canopies and improving access to safe green spaces for under-resourced communities. She was also a featured speaker at the Children & Nature Network’s 2024 Nature Everywhere Conference. 

Learn more in a recording of the 2024 Nature Everywhere Conference session featuring Ashleigh Cibello-Pettus, “The Transformative Power of Equitable Access to Nature for Communities”

Lesford Duncan, MPH, is the Executive Director of the Outdoor Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the Outdoor Industry Association. At the Outdoor Foundation, Duncan helps increase equitable access to nature and the outdoors through community investment and groundbreaking research. As a national leader in outdoor recreation and youth development, Duncan has collaborated on local, state and federal public policy efforts to reduce barriers to outdoor access, advocated for equitable conservation and environmental justice, and promoted the health and well-being of children, families, and communities in all that he does.

Duncan previously served as the Chief Executive Officer for Greening Youth Foundation, an international nonprofit working to cultivate the next generation of diverse environmental leaders through workforce development. He was also a featured speaker at the Children & Nature Network’s 2024 Nature Everywhere Conference.

Learn more in a recording of the 2024 Nature Everywhere Conference session featuring Lesford Duncan, “Sharing Power & Deepening Trust: Philanthropy to Grow a Movement”

Over the last 32 years, Dudley Edmondson has become an established photographer, author, filmmaker and presenter. His photography has been featured in galleries and publications around the world, while his photographic work and adventure travels have taken him to amazing places — from the Arctic Circle of Alaska to the Bahamas. Edmondson is the author of “Black & Brown Faces in America’s Wild Places,” profiling African Americans in nontraditional vocations and avocations in the outdoors and “People the Planet Needs Now,” a compilation of interviews from 25 Black and Brown scientists, environmental justice activists, and social justice activists to inspire change on a global scale.

Read more in the Finding Nature News piece, “Nature photographer Dudley Edmondson has a vision for the representation of Black and Brown faces in the outdoors”

Hanaa A. Hamdi, Ph.D., is a systems scientist working at the intersection of health and community development finance to build resilient, healthy communities. With more than two decades of research, practice and policy making, Dr. Hamdi has dedicated her career to transforming systems and advancing equity. She is co-founder and principal of Healthy Resilient People and Places, where she consults with public agencies and nonprofit startups on systems approach strategies in community development and health.

As a current Visiting Scholar with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Dr. Hamdi is exploring opportunities and solutions for sustainable food systems in Black, Indigenous and communities of color. She is the current chair of the Children & Nature Network Board of Directors, and was featured in a discussion at the Children & Nature Network’s 2024 Nature Everywhere Conference.

Learn more in a recording of Hanaa Hamdi’s session at the 2024 Nature Everywhere Conference, “The Fifth Freedom: Guaranteeing an opportunity-rich childhood for all,” or in the Finding Nature News piece, “Investments in nature are a win-win for communities recovering from COVID-19: Q&A with Dr. Hanaa Hamdi”

Daniele Lyman-Torres, Ed.D., began her work in equitable connection to nature for children as Commissioner of Recreation and Human Services for the City of Rochester, New York. There, she oversaw crisis intervention services, workforce development, the stewardship of the City’s parks, playgrounds, aquatics, athletics, recreation centers, community nutrition, youth services, animal services, the Rochester Public Market and the International Plaza. As Commissioner, Dr. Lyman-Torres also led the way in securing capital dollars for an urban nature center and helped the city develop a children’s outdoor bill of rights. 

Currently, Dr. Lyman-Torres is the President and CEO of Bivona Child Advocacy Center, where she leads a multidisciplinary team focused on supporting children impacted by abuse and trauma. She also serves as Governance Chair on the Children & Nature Network’s Board of Directors, and was a featured speaker at the Children & Nature Network’s 2024 Nature Everywhere Conference.

Learn more in a recording of the 2024 Nature Everywhere Conference session featuring Dr. Daniele Lyman-Torres, “The Transformative Power of Equitable Access to Nature for Communities”

Rue Mapp is an outdoor fashion designer, author and the founder and CEO of Outdoor Afro, a national not-for-profit organization that celebrates and inspires Black connections and leadership in nature. Mapp initially launched Outdoor Afro as a blog in 2009, aiming to shift the visual representation and narrative of Black people in nature. Fifteen years later, Mapp has led Outdoor Afro in building a volunteer-led network of more than 60,000 community participants in 60 cities across the United States. 

Mapp is the author of “Nature Swagger: Stories and Visions of Black Joy in the Outdoors” (Chronicle Books, 2022). She is also a National Geographic 2019 Fellow, Heinz Awards Honoree and National Wildlife Federation Communication Award recipient, and her work has been featured on “Good Morning America,” National Public Radio, NBC’s “TODAY” and “The Oprah Winfrey Show.”

Learn more about Rue Mapp in her 2022 Inspiring Leaders profile or in the Finding Nature News piece, “Juneteenth, belonging and joy: A Q&A with Rue Mapp, Outdoor Afro’s founder”

James Edward Mills is a freelance journalist who specializes in telling stories about outdoor recreation, environmental conservation, acts of charitable giving and practices of sustainable living. He has worked in the outdoor industry since 1989 as a guide, outfitter, independent sales representative, writer and photographer. He is the author of the book “The Adventure Gap: Changing the Face of the Outdoors” and the co-writer/co-producer of the documentary film “An American Ascent,” a documentary film about the first African-American expedition to climb North America’s highest peak, Denali.

Mills is also the founder and CEO of The Joy Trip Project, a news gathering and reporting organization that covers the business, art and culture of the outdoor recreation industry. The project is the manifestation of Mills’ ongoing search to discover how to lead a harmonious life in balance with the natural world and the rest of humanity. Mills was the keynote speaker at the 2024 Nature Everywhere Conference.

Read more in the initial speaker announcement and in the recap for the 2024 Nature Everywhere Conference

Photo by Carly Harmon.

Amowi Phillips is the founder and president of Friends of Mmofra, an organization based in Spokane, Washington, that partners closely with the Mmofra Foundation. Based in Accra, Ghana, the Mmofra Foundation is a nonprofit organization dedicated to enriching the cultural and intellectual lives of children in Ghana through play, books, the arts and experiential learning. Phillips leads many of the partner organizations’ child-centered initiatives in play, culture and design. She advocates for accessible public cultural spaces in urban Africa and serves on the World Urban Parks Committee on Children, Play & Nature. 

Phillips’ work was featured in a Finding Nature News story about Ghanaian Book Strolls that create immersive outdoor environments where children can explore literature and engage in play. “For children whose primary experience of reading is in a formal classroom context, a Book Stroll outdoors feels much more like reading for fun,” Phillips explained.

Read more in the Finding Nature News article, “Book Strolls inspire joy in play, reading and nature”

Akiima Price is an award-winning and nationally respected thought leader at the intersection of social and environmental issues and the relationship between nature and community well-being. Her innovative programming strategies feature nature as a powerful medium to connect stressed youth, adults and families in meaningful, positive experiences that affect the way they feel about themselves, their communities and their parks. From her early career as a National Park Service Interpretation Ranger at Lake Mead National Recreation Area in Boulder City, Nevada, to her national work with environmental and social service organizations, she has cultivated best practices in trauma-informed environmentalism.

Price is the co-founder of Friends of Anacostia Park, an organization focusing on the revitalization of Washington D.C.’s Anacostia Park. Historically impacted by racial and economic inequities, the organization now partners with the National Park Service to better center the needs of the surrounding community in restoring and activating the vibrant local green space.

Learn more in a recording of the 2024 Nature Everywhere Conference session featuring Akiima Price, “Sharing Power & Deepening Trust: Philanthropy to Grow a Movement”

Zenovia Stephens is the founder and CEO of Black Kids Adventures, Inc., a not-for-profit organization that is dedicated to helping Black and Brown families spend meaningful time outside, together. Based in Huntsville, Alabama, the organization aims to redefine and reimagine common conceptions of who enjoys outdoor activities: “Time outdoors has played a vital role in our parenting journey,” Stephens reflected in Finding Nature News. “Making sure our boys experience outdoor adventures and nature activities has been important because as Black children, it’s vital for them to know that these spaces belong to them just as much as they do to anyone else.” 

Stephens is also a digital creator, who shares adventure inspo, outdoorsy travel and Black joy through @blackadventurecrew. Her family’s adventures with the 2024 Vitamin N Challenge were featured in Finding Nature News.

Read more in the Finding Nature News article, “These families took the Vitamin N Challenge — here’s what they learned”

Atiya Wells is the founder and executive director of Backyard Basecamp, a nonprofit that provides natural history and wilderness training, summer camps and wellness walks to communities in Baltimore, Maryland. Wells championed a coalition of changemakers to transform a neglected plot of land in Baltimore, Maryland, into “BLISS Meadows,” a vibrant green space that provides culturally relevant environmental education to youth. As a project of Backyard Basecamp, the meadow provides a place for children and families to get to know their local ecosystem and wildlife, to grow food and contribute to a sustainable resource right in their neighborhood. In 2022, Wells was the recipient of the inaugural Richard Louv Prize for Innovation in Nature Connection. 

Read more in our 2022 Inspiring Leaders resource, or in the Finding Nature News article, “Atiya Wells honored with inaugural Richard Louv Prize for Innovation in Nature Connection”

As director of the Child Development Laboratory School (CDLS) at the University of Minnesota (UMN), Sheila Williams Ridge, Ed.D., is a passionate advocate for nature-based play in early childhood education and the lasting developmental benefits of connecting children and nature. Through her work, Williams Ridge mentors future teachers in early childhood and nature-based learning, providing a foundation for practice. In partnership with the UMN American Indian Studies Department, Williams Ridge also led the effort to develop a Dakota language immersion classroom at CDLS, as well as being the co-author of “Nature-Based Learning for Young Children: Anytime, Anywhere, on Any Budget” (Redleaf Press, 2018), which provides everything from sample play-based lesson plans to health and safety guidance for early childhood educators. Williams Ridge was honored as a Children & Nature Network Inspiring Leader.

Read more in our 2022 Inspiring Leaders resource