New Horizons Convening 2026 Focuses on Elevating Missing Voices in Environmental Policy

Behind every environmental dataset is a question that may not be asked enough: whose experiences are missing from this picture? From the communities underrepresented in AI training data to the neighborhoods bearing the heaviest burden of extreme weather and toxic exposure, the 2026 New Horizons in Conservation Convening is focused on bringing underrepresented voices to the table. 

Across three days of plenaries and panels to be held at the Yale School of the Environment May 7-9, student leaders and professors from universities across the nation will discuss the overlapping issues among climate, technology, food insecurity, and environmental injustice. The convening will feature sessions on artificial intelligence, community participation and action in conservation, extreme weather impacts, and food insecurity. 

The event is hosted by YSE’s Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Sustainability Initiative and led by Dorceta Taylor, the Wangari Maathai Professor of Environmental Sociology. Taylor said this year’s convening provides a platform for emerging and seasoned environmental leaders to come together to craft strategies to include underrepresented voices and address changes in the environmental and sustainability sector.

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This year’s convening also features sessions with environmental leaders including Rachel Leon, executive director of Park Foundation, Delores Perales, co-director of Cadillac Urban Gardens, Yesica Chavez, community liaison for Colorado Energy and Carbon Management Commission, Andrea Bogomolni of the Island Foundation, and Calla Sneller, senior program officer of Re:wild. The event will also feature panels with thought leaders including Christopher Boone, dean at the University of Southern California, Megan Mullin of the University of California at Los Angeles, Bilal Butt and Tony Reames of the University of Michigan, Diana Hernandez of Columbia University, Yolanda McDonald of Vanderbilt University, and Jovan Lewis of the University of California at Berkeley.

Plenary speaker Urooj Raja, of Loyola University, Chicago said this year’s convening will help make visible what is missing in the data — the lived experiences of community members.

“The (convening) creates a space where we can actively make these connections, and where both the ‘silence’ — what is often overlooked — and the “noise” — what is most visible — can be brought into the same conversation and better understood,” she said.