System change, intersectionality and inclusion with Emira Woods

Join us as we dive deep into conversations that have big implications for the non profit and charitable sector here in Canada. A special thank you to our knowledge partner, Carter's Professional Corporation, and our supporting partner. Blackbaud Together, let's imagine a stronger future. In 2020, the world experienced a seismic jolt of awareness related to issues of systemic racism in the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd.

From global protests, to bold declarations by the leaders of governments, companies, and non profits, there was a deep desire to do better. So four years later, how are things progressing? We are delighted to have as our guest, Emira Woods, Executive Director of Green Leadership Trust based in Washington, DC. Amira's resume is jam packed with accomplishments.

Amira is a member of the International Working Group for Africans Rising, a network of African social movements working to build peace, seek justice, and manifest dignity. She is an associate fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies, trustee of the Wallace Global Fund, and And board member of ActionAid International, to name just a few. Green Leadership Trust is an interesting movement. One that is truly moving the dial on equity and inclusion.

And as we seek to more fully understand if progress is being made since 2020, this is a wonderful example of inclusion in action. Amira, thanks for taking time out of your very busy schedule to speak with us on Let's Imagine.

All of those representatives at that meeting were white, almost all were male. At the time, there was one woman, Frances Beinecke, who headed the Natural Resource Defense Council, NRDC, was the only woman in the room, and there were no people of color. So President Obama quickly said that that was the least diverse meeting he had ever been to. And it was almost a call to action for our community.

At the time, there Francis Beinecke really understood issues of justice and equity and led the charge. And together with board members on NRDC that had people of color on their board, not, not many, but a few, there was like a handful on several of these boards, but they came together and said, collectively as a sector, we must do better. So a decade ago, 2014, Green Leadership Trust was born.

It was still a handful of people on the boards and basically created a mandate to increase our numbers in the highest level of governance in the environmental sector, a sector that impacts the entire planet and its people. So we quickly went from that handful. I started as executive director about two and a half years or so ago. And we were at that time, about a hundred, we are now 280 strong on 220 boards.

So first and foremost, we use our collective power on the governance and decision making bodies as fiduciaries of those organizations to shape the trajectory of not only the individual organizations, but the entire sector. Understanding that for far too long, People of the global majority, black, brown, indigenous peoples, have been marginalized, have been rendered invisible, and have been sacrificed, quite literally. We are the sacrifice zones.

And so we are front and center, seizing our power, saying no to sacrifice zones, saying that as people of the global majority with lived experiences in frontline and fence line communities, shoreline communities that are being impacted disproportionately by the climate crisis that our voice, our vision, our climate solutions need to be heard, need to be centered, need to be financed. And so, yes, we are increasing our numbers, but it's also increasing the vision.

Of what's possible in the environmental sector and not only provide services to our members, we do onboarding and training for people who are new to boards, everything from how to read a financial statement. Why is that important to what? Where are your investments going as an organization? If you have an endowment, where is that endowment going? To what extent are you using your resources across the board? Okay. To be sure that you are living your values in terms of a fossil free future.

So we are training, organizing, we are advocates. And so that's a core of who we are. We have a six month leadership training and onboarding for people who are new to boards. We create a cohort, we have mentors with each of those fellows. Uh, we call them our Cecil Corbin Marks, named after an extraordinary human who was, um, one of the early leaders at WE ACT for environmental justice in Harlem, centering environmental justice work.

So, and unfortunately left us much too soon, joined the ancestors much too soon. So we lift up his name, his honor. and his, his vision as we train others to carry forward that mandate. And so, yeah, training is a big part of what we do. We do matchmaking. We understand that, you know, too far too often boards say, Oh, well, We don't have enough people. Uh, we, we, you know, we, we tried to do recruitment, but you know, uh, if people did not stay on the board, right?

So we take a lot of effort to do best practice presentations for boards, everything from, you know, How to um, how to set a path that's centering justice and equity on your board To you know how to also make sure that belonging Is a is a key component of your of your work as a board so that you are not only recruiting But retaining extraordinary leaders on your board, but we do a matchmaking That not only includes our members.

We also have what we call our board You Talent roster and Bruce, I have to tell you at the moment is about 190 strong, brilliant visionaries who want to serve on boards, but some are lawyers and, uh, others are artists and communications experts. Some are consultants that are doing work on issues like diversity and equity. Some are frontline community leaders that have faced the brunt of this crisis and can. Orient an organization in the way that that leads it.

So we have really leaned in on expanding again. You know, two years ago we were about 33 percent women. We are now 50 percent women as our collective. We have really leaned into young leaders who are now part of our board talent roster to two spirit LGBT leaders to indigenous leaders to make sure that our membership also reflects the world. And Bruce.

The world is clear, it's 50 percent women, it's 30 percent two spirit LGBT, I it is 80 percent people of the global majority, black, brown, and indigenous. We are pushing to make sure that all boards reflect the world, and we're doing it by making sure also that our, our pathways in, our tributary as we call it, that also reflects the world. dynamism, the creativity, the, the solutions, this broad community of the human family.

by your thoughts related to intersectionality in the environmental community to foster this work. Could you talk a bit more about that?

It is, in its nature, intersectional. So, you know, many of us come from a background of, of, of activism, of feminism, of, you know, racial justice. We bring a lot to the table. And across the board, we are lifting up. Particularly, the harms to human beings, to members of our human family that have lived in the shadow of the fossil fuel industry since the days of industrialization, really, right?

That, that have suffered the, the, the harmful effects, whether it is Flint, um, you know, one of our earliest green leadership trusts, one of our early advocacy actions. was around the Flint water crisis, and in its essence, that was, it is, a crisis of, yes, of lack of, of clean water, you know, lack of infrastructure to, to deliver clean and healthy water, basic necessity of life.

It is also, A clear case of issues of democracy, of rights, of responsibilities, of duty holders not bearing fruit for communities that have been basically ignored for far too long, for communities that have not, where their worth, their value has been degraded. For centuries, in some cases, right? 400 years in the case of the U. S., probably longer in the case of Canada, right, in terms of the indigenous communities. And so at our essence, we are interdisciplinary.

We look at issues of health, of rights, of democracy, of understanding the power of the human being. of people to really change the trajectory of their communities and creating space for their voices, for their climate solutions to be implemented, to be unleashed. You know, it's, it's past time. So as Green Leadership Trust, we have groups, we call them, you know, the big greens, you know, the Sierra clubs, the, um, the National Wildlife Federation.

Um, there's so many that you think of when you think of environmental work. We also recognize the. the importance of groups like Physicians for Social Responsibility, may not have environment in their name, but very much centered on health and well being and understanding the connectedness of people having clean air, clean water, access to healthy foods, access to, again, all of those building blocks of healthy societies and communities.

It is that that is at its intersection, as well as the access to political power so that the needs, the interests, the desires, the visions, the values of those communities are reflected in all the decision making that happens that impacts that community. So it is by nature intersectional. It is by nature interdisciplinary. And in its essence, it is about unleashing. the potential, the voice of everyone from, I have to say, from the youngest child.

I was at Climate Week, Bruce, and, um, it was beautiful. One of my best events at Climate Week was a 12 year old, uh, representing the Vessel Project in, uh, Cancer Alley, New Orleans, in Cancer Alley, Louisiana. In New York for Climate Week, this 12 year old speaking tooth to power outside of Citibank talking about investments going into fossil fuels that are then contaminating the air that she breathes as a 12 year old. And so, it's all ages.

It's all genders, it's all sexual orientations, it's all of us, including those that are the elders that have so much, uh, knowledge, including traditional knowledge, to be brought to bear as traditional stewards of land and rights. It is all of us that are needed. So we think of interdisciplinary across the board, from issue areas to, um, you know, to intergenerational spaces.

Understanding that it is sovereign nations that have historically been at the forefront of, of care for this planet and yet have been, um, historically bearing the highest costs. of the climate crisis. I was recently in Alabama and I have to share this um, beautiful story because it does have a Canadian connection and there is a community that has an ecovillage in Alabama.

This community had been in that land for centuries and yet suffered the indignity and the horror of the Trail of Tears, uh, moving from there to Florida to Oklahoma. And yet, young leaders in the community had the vision to seek out land that had traditionally been their homeland.

And they found land in Alabama and have created a beautiful eco community using solar energy To power basically everything in ingenious ways, but most interestingly The riverways in Alabama had been depleted of their sturgeon fish, and the community essentially went to the headwaters in Canada to get the sturgeon fish to repopulate the waterways in Alabama, to begin to again have nutritious food for the community.

there and to honor everything from traditional corn that had gone out of practice of farming, but to be able to now reseed the land with the traditional corn, to be able to return buffalo to the land. It was fascinating to see how integrated, the processes were, it wasn't, Oh, let's just put solar on the rooftop.

No, it's let's change our lifestyles so that our community is eating more healthy foods, is able to survive, have jobs for the future, all of that woven in, but also protecting traditional language, right? So as someone who didn't speak the language, I was not able to speak to any Children. in the community because of that desire to cultivate the language that had been, that is being lost, right? So our indigenous leaders think in such a way. brilliant, expansive, integrated ways.

And they're often reaching back to ancestors and that knowledge, and they're reaching forward seven generations to what's needed, and they're weaving it all together beautifully. So yeah, we lean in. We lean in and we take lessons from and guidance from.

And one of our founders, we have to say, uh, one of the founders of Green Leadership Trust, we are honored, um, to have John EchoHawk, um, as one of the founders of Green Leadership Trust, who for me, you know, I feel like he's one of the people who literally, this is a U. S. context, but, um, The baton from Thurgood Marshall, the historic African American leader, uh, founder of the Legal Defense Fund for the NAACP, National

Association for the Advancement of Colored Peoples, um, their NAACP's Legal Defense Fund, was founded by Thurgood Marshall and that was the inspiration. Thurgood Marshall literally was at meetings with John Echo Hawk and, uh, inspired the creation of the Native American Rights Fund.

Thurgood Marshall, I feel like, then handed the baton to John Echohawk, who started the Native American Rights Fund and has continued to provide leadership for Indigenous leaders fighting for their sovereignty, was one of the founders of Green Leadership Trust. Gerald Torres, who is probably the most decorated, uh, law professor, teaches at Yale Law, Indigenous Law. And, um, he was also, Gerald Torres, one of the founders of Green Leadership Trust.

So our DNA is to take the leadership and guidance from our Indigenous leaders. And, um, And we are so grateful that they had the vision to help found this organization and that they have, um, continued to play a vital role in who we are, how we are, and grounding our values in, uh, Indigenous rights and sovereignty.

And you know, one of the incredible environmental leaders that's been with us since the beginning of Green Leadership Trust, David Hahn Baker said he was on the board of the Natural Resource Defense Council, NRDC. When there were more men named John. than women and people of color on that board. I say that to say, you know, yes, we'd say in our origin story that this, uh, experience with President Obama, but our community, we are all leaders. We are recognizing the, that change is possible.

We're on these boards and work to change the organizations, but we're also literally understanding our role as change agents in this world. And so we are on all of those. We are at the ready. We have marine biologists that are quite literally at the ready, that are understanding what's happening with our oceans and the warming oceans and, and doing research in their day to day, um, training other scientists coming.

you know, mentoring other scientists and both in academic settings and outside of academic settings. So, you know, in addition to the board service, we have our day jobs where we are at the forefront, at the cutting edge of environmental activism and, and in all its forms. And so I feel like it's the, the canaries in the mine, you know, we, we feel it.

Strongly, and I'm lifting up the scientists and the professors, but we have to also understand that frontline people in communities, I was talking before about the vessel project in the Gulf, understand that the air they breathe is causing cancer to their families. And it is mothers that are speaking out. It is mothers that are saying, no, we've got to do this differently. Grandmothers, aunties say we have buried too many people. So we are. At the forefront, we are almost always at the ready.

That's how we've been. And I do believe that if we look back in human history, change happens because of ordinary people being at the ready, doing extraordinary things at critical moments in history. You know, so whether it's, I think of the, the anti apartheid struggle where we felt like this entrenched racism was there for far too long and needed to change. And people standing up saying, not on our watch, made change happen. Still work to do, but made change happen.

I look at um, Gaza today, young leaders saying, not on our watch, it's a difficult, complicated series of things, but to watch young leaders take over college campuses and say, not on our watch, we can do different. We can be different as a human family and standing up to make it happen. I think the Jim Crow laws and segregation, I mean, all of that fight for civil rights. It was people saying, no, we've got to uphold the dignity of all human beings.

And that fight, that struggle is very much with us. Throughout the world, and I think Canada has been at the forefront of that struggle for rights and dignity. And so, yeah, we're at the stage where, you know, I think we all are at the ready.

We've needed to be at the ready and we will continue because in a fundamental way, we recognize that it's past time for action, that we're poised to implement the climate solutions of our communities and that, you know, You know, sometimes it may feel impossible, but again, I love the words of Nelson Mandela, who says it, it, it seems impossible until it's done. So we, we take that as our mantra to keep working, to keep fighting for the future that we want our children's children to inhabit.

It's an amazing way of working.

But we're also able to share the solutions and those solutions are equally plentiful. We would need another hour on just the solutions, right? The solutions of, of communities that are fighting already sea level rise and our understanding how to survive in estuaries in ways that can protect homes and protect lives.

mutual aid opportunities that are happening in ways that show that we have learned from the experiences of the horrors of Katrina and the, the Helena, the latest hurricane that has hit, but we're learning each step of the way. And as the planet continues to warm in such dramatic fashion, These learnings have to be put into practice in more deliberate and intentional fashion.

And it is our role as leaders on these boards and within the senior leadership of these pivotal organizations to make sure that we are, are centering the climate solutions of people of the global majority, those solutions that are already being implemented. You can think of them as Shovel ready, you know, like maybe that's a way to think about them, but you know, they are at the ready and I think the more we implement the better we as a human family can.

Be in limiting, um, the worst effects of the climate crisis in limiting global warming to under 1. 5 degrees celsius

So what do you foresee as critical changes that need to happen in order to sustain the momentum that you've built up over the last 10 years?

We just watched the, I can't begin to talk about Austria, there's so many. Other spaces where we're being reminded, um, we're being reminded that this work is not linear and that we've gotta keep fighting because the forces against change are also active. And so I think in a US context, we have a, a Supreme court case that that is being used to literally roll back the clock on affirmative action. And so we've got to stand up, stand firm.

to sort of demand a future that centers justice and equity. We've got to understand that there are opportunities even with a Supreme Court case on affirmative action in higher education. There's a lot that can be done to continue work that is needed to build a world for all to thrive. So the, the headwinds are strong. I believe that the tailwinds are with us. That the ancestors are with us, that the future generations are demanding it. So, we've got to keep pushing.

So, I feel like that's the first and most important point. I think, secondly, we have, we have won some very concrete gains on these boards. You know, but it's still not what it needs to be to reflect the world. So there are some boards, Earthjustice, that say, okay, we're going to be 50 percent people of the global majority, uh, Black, Brown, Indigenous by 2025, and they've already reached their mark. Hooray!

We need to celebrate those, but we need to keep pushing because there's The world is 80 percent people of the global majority, 50 percent women, 30 percent two spirit LGBT. We've got to reflect the world in these boards in order for the lived experiences of the leaders to be elevated and implemented on those boards and in those organizations and in our world. So, you know, 28%, we're, we're a long ways from where we used to be, but we still got a long ways to go. I think we've got.

the opportunity when we see young leaders in particular, young leaders have a thirst for change. And so I think being able to be expansive as we think about who a leader is, right? Um, what a leader brings to the table, making sure that particularly frontline and fenceline leaders, young leaders, uh, leaders of all racial, ethnic, Geographic backgrounds and also class backgrounds have an opportunity to lift their voice and, and be, uh, seen. As leaders supported as leaders.

And, um, I think those are the steps that will get us where we need to go.

I also think that again, I credit a lot of our young leaders were much better than we used to be at dealing with issues of, of emotional health. Well, being because this climate crisis is a difficult one. We have many in our communities that are dealing with burnout and our young leaders help us find words to articulate it, to give space for community care, you know, in a deep and intentional way. And I think that's the.

It gives me tremendous hope because it helps us take care of our inner selves and ground us in our spiritual selves in ways that help us do this work better. I think that gives me tremendous hope. The other thing that gives me hope, Bruce, art, music. Poetry activism in all its forms, right? But we've got some visionary creatives that, that have these talents that they're bringing to this work. And so I love being in spaces where you didn't even realize, but you've got this Grammy nominated.

Singer who captures the moment in just the right way that touches people's hearts, you know, Bruce, I worked at think tanks. I can do the papers, but when you touch people's hearts, they're with you for a lifetime. And, and, and so what gives me hope is all those creatives. They call themselves art tivists. I love it. Art tivists. These global art tivists that are igniting passion and sustaining our opportunities to keep our spirits lifted as we do this work.

So, I feel like I got a lot that gives me hope. But, um, change is happening. Again, it's not linear, but it is happening. And in a fundamental way, what gives me hope is knowing that those who came before us had so many more challenges. That they overcame, and they overcame them, and they were able to somehow not just survive, but thrive. And yes, the climate crisis is daunting, but ultimately, we as a human family are enormously creative when we work together, when we use all of our resources.

energies and forces and power. And so what gives me hope is that vision of a future where we're able to fundamentally change structures that oppress. That means fundamentally supporting, strengthening democratic processes in ways that, Help people articulate a future for themselves and their communities. Fundamentally supporting mutual aid, however it is, visioning an economy that isn't just focused on greed and growth, but is focused on well being and people.

And, and sustaining life in an equitable way. Um, and also writing historic roles. So, building new economies, building an environment that sustains us, growing healthy foods, having music and art and culture and dance and all of that. All of those things. Bruce, give me hope.

Do deeply, deeply appreciate you and all that you do and your team, your phenomenal team for, um, not just the podcast, but for all of the work of Imagine Canada. Um, centering diversity, centering justice, centering equity, centering a future that works for everyone. Thank you so very much.