Expanding Representation in our Trail Organizations and Communities Part 2

Thursday, November 3, 2022 1:15–4:15pm

 

Speakers

Taishya Adams, Founder and Chief Intersectional Strategist, Mukuyu Collective, LLC | Member Outdoor F.U.T.U.R.E

Taishya Adams is a servant leader focused on collective liberation and stewardship through personal transformation, community activation, and multi-systems change. After 25 years in the field of public policy and education, Taishya founded the Mukuyu Collective in 2020. The Collective is a dynamic firm that leverages the reform, reimagine, and recreate spaces for individual and collective liberation of all living beings. Part consulting group, part imaginarium, part innovation lab, we work with our clients, partners, and collaborators to acknowledge historical barriers and contributions, challenges assumptions, and co-create ways of being in environment and education that can balance the needs and wants of humans, other species, and the planet.  Service levers include policy development, equity reviews, organizational rapid RX, school quality reviews, educational program/curriculum design, executive coaching, facilitation, unlikely stakeholder alignment, interagency collaboration, and community activation.

Taishya also serves as a commissioner to Colorado Parks and Wildlife. The commission sets regulations and policies for Colorado’s state parks and wildlife programs. Nationally, Taishya serves as the Acting Chair of the NOAA National Marine Sanctuaries Business Advisory Council, the Bridge Project Equitable Hiring Initiative Advisory Council, and as a board member for Black in Marine Science (BIMS). BIMS is an nonprofit organization that seeks to increase racial diversity in marine science through education and policy while also deepening the understanding, connection, and stewardship of the ocean with a focus on marginalized communities.  Locally, Taishya serves on the Boulder Police Oversight Panel. Previously, Taishya served as the National Policy & Education Director and Colorado Network Co-lead for Outdoor Afro – an organization that celebrates and inspires Black American connections to nature and leadership.  As Policy Director, Taishya engaged with our network leaders, network participants, legislators, policymakers, and mission aligned stakeholders on education, health, and environmental policies affecting Black people, Black communities, and the planet.

Prior to Outdoor Afro, Taishya worked at American Institutes for Research as an Equity Specialist, the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools as a technical assistance provider, the DC Public Charter School Board as a performance officer, UNA-NCA Global Classrooms as director, and the Children Defense Fund Freedom Schools where her career in educational equity began. Taishya is the founding Board President of New Legacy Charter School, a public charter high school and early learning center in Aurora, Colorado.  Taishya holds a MA in International Education from George Washington University and a BA from Vassar College in Political Science and Film.

 

Hannah MalvinProject Manager, the Bridge Project, Greening Youth Foundation | Hannah Malvin Coaching and Consulting | Founder of Pride Outside
Hannah Malvin is a coach and consultant with more than a decade of experience making work more equitable, effective, and enjoyable. Her work is rooted in equity, peak performance, and positive psychology, the science of wellbeing. She offers staff retreats, trainings, technical assistance, and coaching and has worked with Congressional offices, federal agencies, nonprofits, foundations, and fortune 500 companies.

Hannah is Program Manager for Greening Youth Foundation’s Bridge Program, a public-private partnership and equitable hiring pathway for the environmental sector focused on people of color. Previously, she served as Senior Representative for Partnerships at The Wilderness Society, leading a strategic planning initiative to root relationships in equity by designing new systems of staff learning, knowledge sharing, and coordination. In 2016, she founded Pride Outside, a national organization advancing LGBTQ outdoor inclusion initiatives with Congress, federal agencies, and conservation nonprofits. She was a legislative advisor to Congressman Mike Doyle, covering health, foreign affairs, immigration, and more, and was Staff Director of the Congressional Autism Caucus.Hannah earned a BA in Political Science from Brown University and is certified in coaching and applied positive psychology. She is Vice Chair of the Southern Appalachian Wilderness Stewards Board of Directors.

Insta: @hmalvs

 

Moderators

Teresa Martinez, Executive Director, CDTC; Chair of the Board Next 100 Coalition

 

Jack SotoAmerican Indian College Fund, Senior Program Manager, Career Readiness and Employment | Member Outdoor F.U.T.U.R.E.

Jack is Navajo of the Black-Streaked-Wood People (Tsi’naajinii) and Cocopah of the Mountain Lion Clan. He received his M.S. in Organizational Development and B.A. in Political Science in the School of Public Affairs at American University. He served as Director of the Washington Semester American Indian Program – Washington Internships for Native Students at American University in Washington, DC, which was the National Congress of American Indian 2012 Public Leadership award recipient. Currently he works with Tribal Colleges and Universities to support efforts in experiential education and career placement.

His work is focused on organizational cross-cultural competency with his career and academic development being greatly influenced by his time with the National Indian Education Association. He works with various organizations and tribal communities in developing an understanding of effectiveness and efficiency in overall productivity and operations. In that, he now partners with corporations in creating practices that touch on filling the gap of a Native presence in their workforce, which is a prime charge in his current position. Additionally, he works with Tribal Colleges and Universities to develop a more synthesized, culturally-responsive approach to career advising to impact the lives of their students and communities.

 

Ángel Peña, Executive Director Nuestra Tierra Conservation Project and Board Vice Chair Next 100 Coalition | Member Outdoor F.U.T.U.R.E

Ángel Peña was born and raised in the Río Bravo valley. He is a first generation American and father of three. Ángel’s education in anthropology and archeology allows him to emphasize and advocate for our nation’s historic, prehistoric and cultural assets, bringing cultural resources to the forefront of conservation. As a Cultural Resources Specialist for New Mexico Wild (2012), Wyss Fellow (2014), & as the Río Bravo Director at the Conservation Lands Foundation (2016), Àngel has had the opportunity to support and lead amazing teams that ultimately secured protections totaling millions of acres across the American Southwest. Currently a  Vice Chair of the Next 100 Coalition National Board, he actively works to identify new ways in which we can increase the diversity and inclusion of the histories, cultures, knowledge and people represented in our public lands and wide open spaces. “As the President of the Nuestra Tierra Conservation Project it’s about empowering the people that have true, authentic and deep-rooted ties to the land. It’s about supporting and empowering those agents of change. That’s how we win.” And, as you will hear from him- “Forward is our battle cry”

A first-generation Mexican American, Ángel is a proud father of three, an avid memory maker with his friends and family, and a public lands and people advocate. Over the last decade, Angel has been part of and led overwhelmingly successful efforts to protect landscapes and places that help capture the full American story. As the Executive Director of the Nuestra Tierra Conservation Project, Ángel works to ensure that Frontera, Borderland, communities, leaders, have access to the political process and our histories are reflected in public land management decisions.

For communities along the border or la frontera, how do relationships with the land mgmt agencies, like the USFS show up for people in the region and how does this create barriers to people from thai region, or how has the experience been for people in the region.

 

Keystone Policy Institute team members: Mallory Huggins & Jonathan Tyrell

 

2022 National Trails Workshop Schedule