Honorees: 2009 National Women’s History Month
Nominations of women who are "Taking the Lead to Save Our Planet" can include woman who have shown leadership in preserving the natural environment and reversing ecological destruction. Rachel Carson's work provides an admirable model for comparison.
Nominees can be scientists, engineers, business leaders, writers, filmmakers, conservationists, teachers, community organizers, religious or workplace leaders or others whose lives show exceptional vision and leadership to save our planet.
Nomination deadline is December 31, 2008
Click here for the Honoree Nomination Form
Mary Arlene Appelhof
1936 --2005
Biologist, Worm Farmer, Educator, Publisher, and Environmentalist
Michigan
Mary Appelhof advocated using the lowly earthworm to recycle food waste into usable fertilizer. In the early 1970s she turned her basement worm container into a career designing composting bins, marketing worms, and authoring Worms Eat My Garbage. As “Worm Woman,” she introduced thousands of schoolchildren and home gardeners to the fascinating, environmentally-significant activity of vermicomposting. http://www.wormwoman.com/acatalog/index.html
http://www.emilycompost.com/mary_appelhof.htm
http://files.usgwarchives.net/mi/benzie/photos/tombstones/benzonia/appelhof71379gph.txt
Roswitha Augusta
Entrepreneur, Filmmaker
Maryland
Roswitha Augusta, is an entrepreneur, naturalist, and environmental filmmaker. In 1980, she established Augusta Properties, an apartment management company. Her profound love of nature prompted her to learn filmmaking and produce the award winning documentary, Preserving the Future, about the conflict between preserving our environment and urbanization. Additionally, she hosts a cable television program about local environmental issues. http://www.gazette.net/gazette_archive/2000/200036/rockville/news/24498-1.html
Anne Bowes La Bastille
b.1938 Ecologist
New York
Ecologist Anne LaBastille studied a flightless bird, the great pied-billed grebe, which survived in spite of living in a wildlife refuge, earthquakes, and polluted streams likely to make the species extinct. In the early 1970s Dr. La Bastille moved to a cabin in New York’s Adirondacks. Her solitary life led her to write Woodswoman. In 1980, she profiled 15 women naturalists in Women andWilderness. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_LaBastille.
Mollie Beattie 1947 – 1996
Forester, Conservationist and Government Official
Vermont
Mollie Beattie was the first woman to head the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, which enforces wildlife laws and administers the Endangered Species Act. Beattie oversaw the successful reintroduction of the gray wolf into northern Rocky Mountains. To recognize her extraordinary work in the field of conservation, Congress named a wilderness area in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in her honor. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=980CE0D61239F93AA15755C0A960958260
Rebecca Bell b.1953 Environmental Education Specialist
Maryland
Rebecca Bell has provided outstanding leadership in embedding environmental issues into the Maryland State curriculum for all public schools. Honored as the Maryland Middle School Science Teacher of the Year, Ms. Bell was selected in 2008 to participate in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Teacher at Sea program to help scientists monitor changing ecosystem. Rebecca also serves on the Governor’s Climate Change Commission. http://www.marylandpublicschools.org/MSDE/programs/environment
http://teacheratsea.noaa.gov/bell/index/html
Arlene Blum b.1945
Bio-Physical Chemist, Mountaineer, Environmental Activist
International
Arlene Blum is best known for leading the first American, all-women’s ascent of Annapurna. Blum’s research was instrumental in banning Tris and Fyrol, two cancer-causing chemicals used as flame retardants on children’s sleepwear, and the pesticide DBCP. Today, Blum is fighting the use of flame retardants in every-day products such as upholstered furniture. She is the author ofBreaking Trail: A Climbing Life.
http://www.arleneblum.com/, http://greensciencepolicy.org/, http://marketplace.publicradio.org/shows/2007/06/27/AM200706273.html
Margrett (“Gretta”) Boley
Forest Supervisor, Kisatchie National Forest
Louisiana
Superintendent Boley was first in the region to implement Biomass Plant which produces energy from wood chips for district office, parking lot lighting and other energy needs. A leader and role model in reducing the carbon footprint, she began an office campaign for recycling paper, batteries, disposal of tree marking paint, oil, other items that are harming the environment.
Additional information can be obtained from the public information officer, Jim Caldwell, Kisatchie National Forest, (318) 473-7160, ext. 7168
Helen Caldicott
b.1938 Physician, Author, Speaker
International
Helen Caldicott, physician, pacifist, and anti-nuclear activist, has worked for over 35 years to educate the international community on the medical and environmental hazards of the nuclear age. As “the single most articulate and passionate advocate of citizen action to remedy the nuclear and environmental crises,” Dr. Caldicott was named by The Smithsonian Institute as one of the most influential women of the 20th Century. www.helencaldicott.com
Pamela S. Chasek, Ph.D
b.1961
Founder and Editor, Earth Negotiations Bulletin
New York
Pamela S. Chasek has for 22 years demonstrated her passionate commitment to working to save the planet in her writing and in her work planning a climate change awareness campaign for the National Wildlife Foundation in the 1980’s. She founded the Earth Negotiations Bulletin in1992, created an environmental studies major at Manhattan College, and continues working each day to create a green campus. http://www.unu.edu/unupress/backlist/ab-globalenv.html
http://unjobs.org/authors/pamelachasek,
Lynne Cherry
b.1952
Author, Environmental Appreciation and Education Books
Maryland
Lynne Cherry is the author/illustrator of The Great Kapok Tree and thirty+ other award-winning children’s books that teach respect for the earth. Flute’s Journey: the Life of a Wood Thrush focused national media attention on conservation efforts to save the 60 acre Belt Woods in Md. when Lynne and students were featured on Sunday Morning News With Charles Osgood.
www.lynnecherry.com.
Gillian Christie
President and Owner of Christie Communications
California
As CEO of Christie Communications, a full-service, organic marketing company exclusively helping ethical businesses, socially conscious organizations and charities broaden their impact through effective communication services, Gillian Christie has been helping organizations make peace profitable. The agency’s non-profit arm, Christie CommUnity Foundation, helps businesses partner with developing nations to facilitate growth, health and economic prosperity in communities such as Sudan, Sri Lanka and Rwanda. www.christiecomm.com
Mary Cleave
b.1947 Environmental Engineer and Astronaut
New York District of Columbia
Dr. Cleave was a mission specialist at NASA and flew on space flights in 1985 and 1989. Her extensive research is in the field of soil and water pollution with a special focus on the need for minimum river flow to help maintain certain game fish. She served as NASA Associate Administrator for the Science Mission and also managed NASA’s Ocean Color Satellite Program in Washington, DC.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_L._Cleave
Mary S. "Mimi" Cooper
b., 1943 Teacher and Environmental Activist
Maryland
Mary S. "Mimi" Cooper is an activist with a burning desire for positive change who has acted as an "environmental conscience" in many situations. She helped start a Baltimore hazardous waste day, is a director of Rachel Carson Council, was on the National Conservation Committee of the Garden Club of America, and has taught at the Irvine Nature Center.
Dr. Margaret Bryan Davis
b.1931 Behavioral Biologist
Minnesota
Margaret Davis was named Regents Professor of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavioral Biology at the University of Minnesota in 1983. Her groundbreaking study of the history of the migration of forest communities during the past 14,000 years has significant implications on various theories of global warning. Her memberships include the National Academy of Sciences and the International Association for Vegetation Science.
Betsy Damon
Artist
United States, China
Betsy Damon, an environmental artist and activist focusing on water, is a practical visionary and founder of Keepers of the Waters (in1991) which supports collaborations between artists, scientists, and citizens to restore, preserve, and remediate their water sources. The Living Water Garden ( Chengdu) and the Olympic Forest Park ( Beijing) are two of her most well known projects. http://www.keepersofthewaters.org/_ http://ecocity.wordpress.com/2008/03/05/featured-presenter-betsy-damon/
http://www.researchchannel.org/prog/displayevent.aspx?rID=2045
Sylvia Alice Earle
b.1935
Oceanographer and Environmentalist
New Jersey, Alaska, Hawaii
Sylvia Earle was the first woman chief scientist of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. She led the investigations of the impact of the burning of Kuwait’s oil fields and the devastation caused by the Exxon Vladez in Prince William Sound in Alaska. With a group of other women scientists she lived underwater for 2 weeks to study marine environment and the effects of isolation on humans. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sylvia_Earle
Sister Claretta Easter
1901-1998
Science and Ecology Teacher
Wisconsin
Sister Claretta taught at various Catholic elementary and high schools. She was instrumental in the formation of the Department of Outdoor Education in Grant County, Wisconsin. The mapping out of nature trails and their naming and signing were evidence of her interest in education. A registered certified tree farmer, she planned and first planted a tree farm in 1971. Contact Susan Scott at oneillmuseum@aol.com for additional information about Sister Claretta Easter.
Laura Capon Fermi
1907-1977
Science Author and Community Activist
Illinois
Laura Capon Fermijoined with other women to form the Cleaner Air Committee of Hyde-Park Kenwood ( CAC), near the University of Chicago. From 1959 to 1972, the CAC lobbied and educated the public about the dangers of pollution from coal-burning furnaces and cars. The results were local building shifting from coal to cleaner gas or oil furnaces and a ban on the burning garbage in apartment buildings. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laura_Fermi
Caroline Rose Foster
1877 – 1977
Farmer; First County Deputy Sheriff; Community Organizer; Benefactor
New Jersey
Caroline Rose Foster created and donated the first outdoor living historical farm in New Jersey, which remains a strong place for learning thirty-years after her death. An environmentalist, she worked to preserve the historic places within the County of Morris, New Jersey including the Morris County Park Commission which preserves 38 county parks and over 17,500 acres of land in northern New Jersey.
Matilda Elizabeth Frelinghuysen
1888 – 1969
Philanthropist
New Jersey
Matilda Elizabeth Frelinghuysen, was a philanthropist of the New England Conservatory of Music and a supporter of the Masterworks Chorus. She donated the land for the establishment of the Morris County Free Library. She donated her Whippany Farm Estate of 127 acres so that future generations would be able to enjoy and appreciate the beauty that surrounded what she considered the ‘golden age.’ www.morrisparks.net
Pamela A. Frucci
b. 1932
Retired Teacher, Community Activist, Township Trustee
Michigan
Pamela A. Frucci has been a waste-not addict since reading Cheaper by the Dozen_as a teenager and marveling how the efficiency-expert father cut down on waste. She served on the Michigan Resource Recovery Commission before waste reduction and recycling caught on. In 1983 she founded the Downriver Recycling Center. The Fruccis put out almost zero trash and recycle the rest, even recycling lint into pillows.
Jane Goodall
b.1934
Wildlife Researcher, Educator , and Conservationist.
Great Britain, Africa, USA
A young Jane Goodall went to Africa to study chimpanzees and soon became their leading crusader. Her research work expanded to include numerous conservation efforts in Africa and worldwide. Her global nonprofit Institute empowers people to make a difference for all living things, by creating healthy ecosystems, promoting sustainable livelihoods and nurturing new generations of committed, active citizens. www.janegoodall.org
Sunshine Goodmorning
b. 1974
Facilities Maintenance Specialist
California
Sunshine works for the Washington DC National Park Service Maintenance Office from her home. While at Yosemite National Park, she served as chair of the EEO Committee during which she presented an outdoor showing of “Iron Jawed Angels” with a picnic dinner. El Portal is where she remodeled a historical building and chaired the 100th community celebration.
Dr. Alice Hamilton
1869-1970
Occupational Safety and Health Pioneer
Indiana
Hamilton was the first person to document the danger of industrial poisons like lead, phosphorus, and other chemicals in the work place. Her work at Hull House gave her the opportunity to fully investigate hazardous working conditions that led to accidents, deaths, and chronic illness. Her unprecedented work resulted in laws protecting workers and improving working conditions in this country and internationally. http://www.distinguishedwomen.com/biographies/hamilton-a.html
Ann Hancock
b.1950
Executive Director of Climate Protection Campaign
California
With over 25 years in community leadership, education, and fundraising, Ann Hancock has spearhead the most progressive climate protection campaign in the US, resulting in a comprehensive Plan to reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions 25% below 1990 levels by 2015 throughout their county. In 2001, she co-founded the Climate Protection Campaign and has been a sustainability planner for the County of Marin.
http://www.climateprotectioncampaign.org/news/news19.php
http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20081109/NEWS/811090337/
1315?Title=Daring_plan_to_meet__climate_change_goals
Julia Butterfly Hill
b.1974
Environmental Hero
California
On December 10, 1997, 23-year-old Julia "Butterfly" Hill climbed into a 180 foot California Coast Redwood tree to prevent loggers from cutting it down. She put her own life on the line to save the life of a forest that was under immediate threat of destruction. She spent two years on that tree-top and attracted world-wide attention for her non-violent action in defense of the forest http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julia_Butterfly_Hill
Martha Brookes Hutcheson
1871 – 1959
Landscape Architect
New Jersey
Martha Brookes Hutcheson was one of the first women landscape architects in America. She incorporated native plants in all of her designs and blended the surrounding areas with formally executed gardens. In 1923, she published The Spirit of the Garden, a book about gardens primarily using those she had designed to illustrate her principles of landscape architecture.
www.morrisparks.net
Dr. Roz Iasillo
b.1958
Environmental Science Educator
Illinois
Dr. Roz Iasillo developed the first environmental science class taught at the secondary level in Illinois. She has influenced and inspired thousands of her students to live sustainable lives and be good stewards of the earth’s resources by volunteering at community clean-up days, prairie seed collecting, and the yearly removal of non-native plants from local forest preserves. Her enthusiasm and commitment to our earth is boundless.
www.mothermcauley.org
www.illinoissolarschools.org
Marietta Pierce Johnson
1864 1938
Progressive Educator
Minnesota, Alabama
Marietta Johnson was one of the early pioneers of progressive education. She was a charismatic speaker who lectured all over the world on her unique philosophy of Organic Education. Organic Education is dedicated to creating an environment that fosters freedom of expression, love for learning, and tolerance. In 1907, she founded her Organic School of Education in Fairhope, Alabama where she worked until her death in 1938. www.mariettajohnson.org
Elizabeth Donnell Kay
1895-1987
Nurse, Businesswomen, Charity Worker, Environmentalist
New Jersey Florida
In 1924, Elizabeth Donnell Kay, started a home-based herb mail-order business. By 1932, she was teaching about the importance of preserving native plants and educating farmers about the harmful practice of setting fire to their fields each year after harvest. In 1960, Elizabeth and her husband created the Pine Jog Environmental Sciences Center, which today under the auspices of Florida Atlantic University, 16,000 children visit annually .http://www.historicchesternj.com/peopleplaces/miscellaneouspeople.html
Osprey Orielle Lake
b.1959 Sculptor, Public Speaker, Teacher
California
Osprey Orielle Lake, one of the world’s few female monument makers working in allegorical and abstract images. She utilizes the power and beauty of nature-themed images and narratives to inspire people to learn about and care for the earth. Her international art projects bring attention to protecting the environment by enlivening the urban landscape with statues that celebrate nature. http://www.ospreyoriellelake.com/Welcome.html http://www.cheemahproject.org/
Abbe Land
b.1955 – Mayor Pro Tempore City of West Hollywood
California
Abbe Land, California, has initiated several of West Hollywood’s landmark environmental policies, including its Green Building Ordinance, the nation’s first mandatory program for commercial and residential buildings. Because of her efforts, the City’s new library will be a certified LEED Silver building. She co-sponsored a Heritage Tree Preservation Program to protect the City’s trees and increase its urban canopy. www.weho.org http://www.weho.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/detail/navid/16/cid/4252/
Dr. Meg Lowman
Forest Conservation Biologist/Science Educator
Florida
Pioneer of treetop exploration, Lowman is affectionately called “Grandmother of canopy research” by colleagues. Author of 100 publications, 6 books including both definitive texts and she has chaired three international canopy conferences. She has also “starred” on National Geographic television; runs a foundation for tropical forest conservation; and has mentored over 10 million students via distance learning. “No child left indoors” is her personal mantra. www.canopymeg.com; www.treefoundation.org
Judy Kellogg Markowsky
b.1945
Environmental Educator and Activist
Maine
Judy Kellogg Markowsky, environmental educator and advocate, was the primary force in founding Maine Audubon Society's Fields Pond Nature Center and “green” facility. Thousands of students have benefited from her "Secrets of the Forest" programs. A Rachel Carson devotee, she speaks frequently about Carson. She led a successful opposition to Walmart’s building near Penjajawoc Marsh, a unique wetland in Bangor. http://www.maineaudubon.org/explore/centers/fpond.shtml
Sharon Rose Matola
b.1954
Conservationist
Maryland Florida International
Sharon Matola worked in Belize where she became the prime mover in arousing consciousness of citizens and the Belize government to the fears of extinction of the country’s wildlife and removal of wilderness areas. In 1991, she was founder and director of the Belize Zoo, which uses the zoo’s wildlife preservation area to save at least 4 tapir species which faced extinction.
Mary Eliza McDowell
1854-1936
Social Reformer
Illinois
Mary Eliza McDowell was known as “The Duchess of Bubbly Creek” for leading the efforts to clean up the South Branch of the Chicago River, a stinking and unsanitary waterway into which was dumped animal waste and carcasses from the nearby slaughterhouses. From 1894 to 1923, she led the University of Chicago Settlement House and pressed the city government build incinerators in place of open garbage dumps. http://womenshistory.about.com/od/wtulwomen/p/mary_mcdowell.htm
Rose Marie Williams McGuire
b.1936 Artist Educator Poet & Illustrator
Georgia
Rose Marie Williams McGuire as artist, educator, poet, and illustrator has worked in several mediums for fifty-four years teaching the spectrum of ages. Her sculptures and printed works reflect the recycled objects in everyday use. Found Objects is the central them of her art, which is on exhibit in THE PETTIE HOUSE GALLERY in Atlanta, Georgia.
Dr. Jeannie McLain
b. 1960 Research Microbial Ecologist
Arizona
A research microbiologist at the USDA-Agricultural Research Service, Jeannie works to develop methods to increase the safety and efficiency of using recycled water to replenish dwindling water supplies throughout the world. She works with local and regional community organizations to increase public confidence in recycled water, and provides yearly internships to young women interested in research careers in environmental science. http://www.ars.usda.gov/pandp/people/people.htm?personid=33819
Shirley Nelson
Health Promotion /Disease Prevention Coordinator
Arizona
Ms. Shirley Nelson leads the Navajo Nation Trash Taskforce, a group of volunteers,
government officials and concerned citizens, who have a common interest in educating the public about the Nation’s solid waste problem. She works to educate communities on ways to become proactive in solving the solid waste issue in their communities and providing technical assistance that is otherwise lagging on certain parts of the Navajo Nation. http://www.healthynativecommunities.org/forums/message_list.jsp?topic_id=96
Roberta J. Nichols
1931-2008
Research Engineer
California
Roberta Nichols began research for alternative fuels at Ford Motor Company in 1979. She and her team developed ethanol-fueled engines and she oversaw the building of 27 natural gas trucks and worked on sodium-sulfur technology for batteries and electric vehicles. Nichols was the first woman elected to the Society of Automotive Engineers. She earned Aerospace Corporation’s Woman of the Year and Society of Women Engineers Achievement Award in 1988. http://www.cert.ucr.edu/news/nichols-letter.asp
Dr. Sharon Nunes
Vice President, Big Green
New York
Sharon Nunes leads an organization created to identify and launch new businesses for IBM focused on using IBM's information technology expertise and IBM's materials & processing expertise to solve critical problems around environmental issues. IBM's approach to this initiative is focused on collaborative innovation, highlighting the need for multiple parties to come together to solve the world's important problems.
http://www-03.ibm.com/technology/greeninnovations/
Agnes Baker Pilgrim
b.1924-
Siletz Tribal Member
Grandmother Agnes Baker Pilgrim is one of the 13 Indigenous Grandmothers who are part of a global alliance; to work together to serve both their common goals and their specific local concerns. Their traditional ways link them with the forces of the earth. Their solidarity with one another creates a web to rebalance the injustices wrought from an imbalanced world. The International Council of 13 Indigenous Grandmothers http://www.grandmotherscouncil.com/
Val Plumwood
1939-2008
Eco-Feminist Philosopher
Australia International
Val Plumwood was highly influential in defining and promoting a feminist environmental philosophy. She was an inspiring role model whose work and life embodied the principles of honor and respect for the environment. Her classic work, Feminism and the Mastery of Nature is essential reading to understand the cultural, historical, and philosophical issues involved in the environmental crisis that threatens our survival. www.Valplumwood.com
Tobey Silbert Schein Prinz
1911-1984
Teacher, Union Organizer, Community Activists
Illinois
Tobey Silbert Schein Prinz working with other community activists she organized the Rogers Park Community Council (RPCC). In 1954, RPCC successfully blocked condominium development of the Lake Michigan beachfront in the Rogers Park neighborhood, preserving the beach as public space. As a teacher and union organizer, she also fought for racial integration and tenants’ rights.
Roxanne Quimby
b.1950
Founder of Burt’s Bees, Visionary and Philanthropist
Maine
From a humble back-to-the-land émigré to Maine’s North Woods, through her remarkable determination and entrepreneurship in forming the enormously successful cosmetics, Burt’s Bees, for more than a decade she has turned her attention to purchasing and preserving many thousands of acres of Maine’s forest land, protecting them in perpetuity from exploitation and development. http://www.yankeemagazine.com/issues/2008-03/features/quimby
Torrey Reade
Owner/Operator Neptune Farm
New Jersey
This former Wall Street businesswoman looks right at home on her 126-acre organic farm. Torrey “uses grass-fed animals to bring her soil back to life”. This advocate of sustainable farming serves as a mentor for new agronomists; establishing strong partnerships with local restaurants, providing her own produce and meats, and tips to prepare them to their maximum culinary potential. Learn more.
Ellen Swallow Richards 1842-1911
Scientist
Massachusetts
Richard was the first American women to earn a degree in chemistry, a pioneer in applying scientific principles to domestic situations such as nutrition, physical fitness, sanitation, and efficient home management, and creator of the field of home economics. She undertook the first scientific water quality studies in America and is called the founder of ecology.
www.bwht.org
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellen_Swallow_Richards
Elsie Roemer
1893-1991
Retired Teacher
California Mrs. Roemer was a conservation list who aided and established the guidelines for the preservation of Alameda and San Leandro Bay marsh lands. Her study, care, and well-being of endangered birds was recognize by the East Bay Regional Park District by naming a bird sanctuary on the Alameda Bay tide lands in her honor.
www.alamedasun.com
Maxine Lazarus Savitz b.1937 Organic Chemist
Massachusetts
Maxine Lazarus Savitz earned a Ph.D. in organic chemistry from MIT in 1961. She taught at the University of California, Berkeley where she strongly encouraged women to enter engineering fields. Her research includes work on free radical mechanisms, anodic hydrocarbon oxidation, fuel cells and improved use of energy in buildings. Her work resulted in the development of energy saving electrical technology and alternate fuels for cars.
Carolyn M. Scott
b. 1955
Founder and Executive Director of Turtle Island Films
California
Carolyn Scott is an environmental activist, writer, filmmaker whose mission is to bring “green” films and media to a large audience. Turtle Island Films is developing a visionary project: REEL GREEN, which uses sophisticated web technologies to distribute award winning films and activist toolkits to lead organizers for catalyzing events. A founding member of the Biofuels Research Cooperative in Sonoma County, Carolyn runs her car on organic, carbon neutral biodiesel. http://www.thereelgreen.org; http://www.turtleislandfilms.com/
Kate Shackford
b.1951
Vice President, Bronx Overall Economic Development Corp. & Director, Bronx Initiative for Energy and the Environment
New York
Ms. Shackford leads environmental initiatives and programs. She has been able to lead the Bronx as the foremost “green” borough in New York City and has assisted the entire City in becoming more socially and environmental conscious. She has the ability to prove that she can take on any task and make it successful, while simultaneously exhibiting her dedication to the community. www.boedc.org/biee
Mary Belle King Sherman
1862-1935
Conservationist, Advocate, Clubwoman
llinois
Mary Belle King Sherman (1862-1935) is known as the "National Park Lady" for helping to create the National Park Service in 1916. As Conservation chairman of the General Federation of Women’s Clubs (1914-1920), she promoted programs that resulted in six new national parks. In 1918, as the sole woman on the National War Gardens Commission, she established National Garden Week.
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/service/gdc/scd0001/2000/20001109005wo/20001109005wo.pdf
Ellen K. Silbergeld
b.1945
Environmental Toxicologist and Research Scientist
Maryland
Ellen Silbergeld is an environmental toxicologist and researcher who was the person primarily responsible for having lead, a major environmental and health hazard, removed from gasoline. She has been an activist in addressing lead contamination in water and has worked for the Environmental Defense Fund, the University of Maryland Medical School, and the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University. www.faculty.jhsph.edu; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellen_Silbergeld; http://www.daylife.com/words/Ellen_Silbergeld
Kathleen C. Taylor
b.1942 Physical Chemist
Massachusetts
Kathleen Taylor, physical chemist, worked with her co-workers at General Motors to invent a catalytic converter to convert nitric oxide into nitrogen gas. This improved catalytic converter was introduced in 1975, help reduce smog emissions. She directed General Motors’s Materials and Processes Laboratory and the Physical Chemistry Department. In 1988 Dr. Taylor received the Garvan Medal of the American Chemical Society, sponsored by Olin Corporation. http://www.chemheritage.org/women_chemistry/enviro/taylor.html
Nichole Trushell
b. 1955
Founder and Retired Director of the Highlands Center for Natural History
Prescott, Arizona
In 1991, Nichole began developing experiential learning, educational activities, helping children discover nature and become wise caretakers of the land. Under her leadership in 2007, HCNH constructed a premier, regional, over $3 million gold-rated LEED campus (on 80 acres of National Forest land) which showcases green building strategies, drought tolerant landscaping, fire-wise living, water conservation, and a waste management-constructed wetlands. www.highlandscenter.org
Lillian Wald
1867-1940
Mother of Public Health Nursing & Pioneering Social Worker
International
In 1893, when NYC’s Lower East Side was the world’s most crowded slum, Lillian Wald founded Visiting Nurse Service of New York, becoming the “mother of public health nursing.” Recognizing needs of the urban poor that eclipsed health care, Wald added social services. She fought child labor and helped secure creation of the federal Children's Bureau. Wald was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame in 1993. Learn more.
Alice Waters
b.1944
Founded Chez Panisse Foundation
California
Alice Waters is a pioneering cook, restaurateur and food activist. In 1996, she launched Chez Panisse Foundation to inspire students to choose healthy food and help them understand how their choices affect their health, their communities, and the planet. The programs include replacing school cafeteria canned fruits and vegetables with fresh fruit and vegetables, and developing school yard organic gardens where students cultivate food that they also prepare, serve and eat.
www.chezpanissefoundation.org
May Petrea Theilgaard Watts
1893-1975
Teacher and Author
Illinois
Teacher and author, May Petrea Theilgaard Watts, served as a naturalist from 1942-1957 at the Morton Arboretum west of Chicago. Her educational programs were used as models for other institutions. She founded the Illinois Prairie Path, a foot and bike path of almost thirty miles also west of Chicago, and led efforts to transform old rail lines into public trails. http://www.ipp.org/GUI/index.html. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_Theilgaard_Watts
Elizabeth Coleman White
1871– 1954
Agriculturalist
New Jersey
Elizabeth Coleman White grew up on her father’s cranberry farm and developed an interest in commercial agriculture. She pioneered the cultivation of the blueberry. Collaborating with Fredrick Coville, she developed develop a commercial blueberry based on the sweetest and hardiest of the wild varieties of blueberries growing in the NJ Pine Barrens. She also helped start the NJ Cooperative Blueberry Association.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Coleman_White; www.distinguishedwomen.com/biographies/white-ec.html
Diane Wilson
b.1948
Environmental Activist
Texas
Diane Wilson is a fourth-generation shrimper, who began fishing at the age of eight. Her environmental activism began when she learned that Formosa Plastic dumping toxins into the bay made her home of Calhoun County, Texas the number one toxic polluter in the country. Although she was threatened by thugs and despised by her neighbors, Diane insisted that the truth be told. http://www.texasgoldmovie.com; http://www.chelseagreen.com/authors/diane_wilson/
Esther Yanai
1928–2003
Agriculturalist
New Jersey
Esther Yanai was a giant in New Jersey’s conservation movement. A founding member of Save the Environment of Moorestown (STEM), which preserves and protects the community’s open space, she was the driving force behind the creation a natural resources inventory (NRI) for the Township and an open space inventory for Moorestown’s first Open Space Committee and later the Moorestown Environmental Advisory Committee. http://www.njconservation.org/html/swi/5-12-04.htm