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Restoring ecosystems, communities, and culture through environmental leadership on Kaua'i, Hawaii
Type of Session
Individual Paper Presentation
Abstract
Environmental leadership is critical for engaging citizens in thoughtful management of resources, and is especially important in the context of weakened policies in the US, the global magnitude of many environmental issues, and the spread of environmental injustices. However, leadership is needed at all scales and is perhaps most successful, today, at local to regional scales, where communities are engaging in innovative, multi-purpose environmental management. The North Shore of Kauai is one such community. Since 2013, I have worked with several organizations on the North Shore to better understand how to weave the restoration of ecosystems, community, and culture. This case study illuminates the role of women, in particular, in leading these organizations’ efforts and suggests that a collaborative leadership approach is useful for addressing complex, local environmental issues with limited resources. It also draws from interviews with female-identified Duke students, who interned for these organizations as part of the DukeEngage program in the summer of 2017, to suggest ways that women can serve as powerful mentors for a new generation of environmental leaders.