Environmental Leadership Program: ELP News: Winter/Spring 2003: Program Update

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newsletter Winter/Spring 2003

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ELP News:

ELP NEWS: Program Update

From the Executive Director: Paul Sabin

Things are humming at the Environmental Leadership Program as we begin our fourth year. We were delighted to welcome our newest cohort of fellows, the Class of 2003-2004, in December. Selected from over 300 outstanding applicants, these 20 individuals bring broad range of new skills and interests to the growing ELP fellowship community, including particular strength on energy issues, political organizing, marine conservation, and sustainable enterprise.

Welcome Aboard!

We are delighted to announce that Torri Estrada, Jonna Higgins-Freese, and Audrey Ordenes have joined the ELP Board of Trustees, and Gordon Enk has joined the ELP Advisory Committee. We are eager to benefit from their expertise and wisdom as we guide ELP through its next phase of growth and development.

Torri Estrada is senior policy fellow for the Environmental Justice Coalition for Water based at the Latino Issues Forum. He also works with Environmental Justice Solutions, a new non-profit organization that helps environmental justice groups and communities of color develop their infrastructure, leadership, and overall capacity.

Jonna Higgins-Freese is the new director of programs for the Greater Cedar Rapids Community Foundation. Previously, she was environmental outreach coordinator for Prairiewoods: Franciscan Spirituality Center in Hiawatha, Iowa, where she managed programs for churches and other community groups on issues connecting spirituality and ecology.

Audrey Ordenes is executive director of Citizens For A Better South Florida, an environmental education organization that seeks to instill environmental awareness among multi-lingual, multicultural constituencies.

Gordon Enk is a principal of Partners for Strategic Change, a consulting organization focused on facilitating a process of effective strategic change, particularly around sustainable enterprise, by working in partnership with the management teams of client companies and organizations. Gordon also teaches sustainable enterprise at the University of North Carolina and University of Michigan.

With 66 active fellows and 22 "Senior Fellows" who have completed the formal fellowship program, ELP's network of emerging leaders has become a lively community. Guided by fellows evaluations over the past three years, ELP decided to make the fellowship a two year rather than a three-year program beginning with the newest class of fellows. We also launched our new Senior Fellows Network, which will help senior fellows stay involved and share their expertise and guidance with current fellows. The goal of the Network is to establish a long-term ELP community that will expand and develop with time.

That community has created a flurry of activity through the ELP Activity Fund in the past year. Felicia Davis is creating EcoCyberCenters to facilitate the exchange of environmental education resources between youth in Georgia and in Senegal, Benin, and Ghana. Kyle Bryant is experimenting with new facilitation technology to build consensus among key stakeholders on a Georgia town's plans for redevelopment. Max Weintraub's new Environmental Justice-Health Union website has gone live at http://www.ejhu.org and Dan Gruner's innovative Hawaiian ant curriculum can be found at http://www.hawaii.edu/ant/. Read project updates from John Perrine, Marsha Weisiger, and Chip Giller.

As we continue to develop the ELP fellowship program, we also are reaching out to a broader constituency of emerging leaders and environmental organizations. Through the Environmental Leadership Collaborative that ELP launched in 2001, ELP and fifteen other environmental leadership development organizations are creating a "State of Environmental Leadership Development Report." The report will discuss the importance of training and supporting talented individuals who work in the environmental field, and will reflect on lessons learned about our collective work with emerging and established environmental leaders. The Environmental Leadership Collaborative also has launched a new website, http://www.enviroleader.org, with useful information about our shared work and links to programs that offer leadership opportunities.

ELP continued its internal diversity discussions throughout 2002. The conversations have not always been easy, but it has been a productive effort to surface some of the social dynamics at work in the environmental community. In the coming year, with generous support from the Hewlett Foundation, we aim to bring these discussions to a broader, public level through a publication of personal narratives by ELP community members on a range of diversity issues. The final publication also will include strategies and resources for building diverse organizations. ELP will use the publication as a focal point for public workshops with emerging leaders around the country to discuss diversity issues in the environmental community.

Through these activities, and Environmental Leadership News, ELP seeks to provide resources, training and support to emerging leaders in and beyond the ELP fellowship program. We are particularly grateful to the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, David H. Smith Foundation, William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, and the Educational Foundation of America, which made new grants in the fall of 2002 to support ELP's work. We also thank the people who helped ELP double gifts from individuals to almost $50,000 last year. As we work to double that support again in 2003, we thank you for your commitment to building a stronger, more effective, and more inclusive environmental movement now and in the future.