New Horizons Convening Highlights Varied Paths to Environmental Leadership

At the annual New Horizons in Conservation Convening hosted by the Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Sustainability Initiative at the Yale School of the Environment, 376 students, faculty, and environmental practitioners from all over the country came together to assess progress made and strategize about challenges that lie ahead. The three-day annual event highlighted the importance of community, creativity, and communication in developing sustainable, effective environmental solutions.

“There’s a stereotype that if you’re a person of color, you must be doing environmental justice,” said Dorceta Taylor, the Wangari Maathai Professor of Environmental Sociology. “But that’s not necessarily true. You need to learn to go from just the hype to going out and collecting the data and proving that point.”

Across sessions covering topics from food sovereignty and media strategy to urban planning and mutual aid, speakers emphasized the need for grounded, community-driven approaches that challenge conventional narratives and build resilience from the ground up. Through data, storytelling, and creative design, participants shared insights and evidence on how interdisciplinary collaboration and local leadership can drive meaningful, lasting environmental solutions.

Below are four key takeaways from the conference:

Drawing on the past

In the plenary session "Historical and Contemporary Food Production and Sovereignty in Communities of Color, " Leah Penniman, co-founder of Soul Fire Farm and author of "Farming While Black," emphasized the power of historical memory as a foundation for contemporary work on environmental and food justice.

Penniman highlighted grassroots movements for change — from Booker T. Washington’s agricultural initiatives to the contemporary Rights of Rice campaign — as living blueprints for future organizing, not just historical inspiration.

“What helps me,” Penniman shared, “is to remember that for generations, our folks have been dealing with things even more difficult than what we face in the present moment — with brilliance, endurance, fortitude, and faith.”

She emphasized that movements for environmental and food sovereignty can move forward and grow in occupying all these spaces.

The need for more environmental storytelling

Nyeema Harris, the Knobloch Family Associate Professor of Wildlife and Land Conservation, explored the role of the media in increasing public awareness and understanding of scientific research in the session "Media and the Environment." Harris emphasized that as environmental challenges become increasingly urgent and complex, scientists must also become storytellers, expanding their reach beyond traditional academic audiences.

She also spoke about how mixed media, particularly video and digital storytelling, holds a unique power to engage

“Media is not just a tool for communication, but also for community and conversion,” she said, noting that by engaging early and often ⎯ and not just after findings ⎯ scientists and others in the field can increase the public’s connection to, and appreciation for, science.  

The role of local leadership

A recurring theme throughout the conference was the power of community-led approaches to advance ecological stewardship. Several speakers emphasized that to be effective and sustainable,  environmental solutions must be led from the ground up and be anchored in the lived experiences and knowledge systems of local communities, particularly those on the frontlines of climate and environmental injustice.

Frances Roberts-Gregory, of Harvard University’s Center for the Environment, highlighted the significance of Black southern communities in shaping her research. She advocated for community-centered methodologies that are based on reciprocity between academic institutions and the people their work seeks to benefit. Building trust and accountability, she noted, is essential to research that supports ecological resilience.

The essentiality of local leadership was echoed by Cate Mingoya-LaFortune, who shared insights from her recent publication, "Climate Action for Busy People. " When discussing community-generated problem-solving she stated, “the wisest and most-lasting adaptation solutions originate at the local level.”

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 Building climate resilience

Several speakers discussed the need to reorient ecological work to center more on creativity, community voice, and nontraditional approaches to system change.

Maisie Hughes, a Washington, D.C.-based landscape architect, explained how her work with The Urban Studio centers youth in the design of urban spaces using community-based design as a tool for resilience and leadership.  Similarly, Penn Loh,  senior lecturer in urban and environmental policy and planning at Tufts University, cited mutual aid networks — especially vital during the pandemic — as another critical strategy for building community.

Together, many of the insights highlighted a shift toward more inclusive, people-powered approaches to climate resilience.

“Ecological justice is not solely about creating a better environmental experience, but a redistribution of ecological power back into the local communities,” said Jalonne White-Newsome, who served as the federal chief environmental officer under the Biden-Harris administration.