We awarded two new grants in May, one Leadership Grant and one Network Innovation Grant, as follows:

$22,000 to Silent Spring Institute to work with Fellow Lauren Richter to lead a community-based participatory research project on contaminated drinking water in targeted New England communities. Per- and polyfluorinated compounds (PFASs) are a pressing public health and environmental threat around the country and are found in the water supply of 15 million Americans.  This Leadership Grant will provide an opportunity for Lauren to be part of an interdisciplinary team collecting data, empowering community members to advocate for better regulation of the chemical contaminants, and working for national-scale policy and regulatory change.

$8,000 to Manomet for a Network Innovation Grant that will support three Maine-based Fellows (Marissa McMahan, Josh Stoll and Caitlin Cleaver) to lead the process of creating a long-range vision for aquaculture governance in Maine.  As coastal fishing communities increasingly depend on aquaculture for their livelihoods, these Fellows will work with partners to ensure Maine develops a long-range vision that prioritizes sustainable aquaculture development that benefits local communities.

**Below you will see an update from us about the status of the Leadership Grant program for this fiscal year (which started July 1st).  Please make sure you read this update, especially if you are considering a Leadership grant!**

For the next call in our series on Race and Equity in Environmental Leadership, we will hear from 2016 Fellow Carolina Prado, Senior Research Scientist at the Environmental Health Coalition in National City, California.  Carolina will use her work on community mapping of environmental health indicators in Tijuana, Baja California, to open a discussion on what environmental justice looks like in Mexico and the U.S.-Mexico border region.  (Carolina's work  has been partially funded by a Switzer Leadership Grant .)   

Date:  Thursday, August 2, 2018

Time:  12:30 pm ET/9:30 am PT

This is one of a series of calls on race and equity in environmental work, to help Fellows learn about research, tools and case studies of the intersections between race, diversity, equity and environmental outcomes.  These calls are open to all Fellows.  Reading and discussion are part of each call.  Future topics will include new perspectives on the history of the environmental movement, shifts in higher education opportunities, and a fall presentation with Lissa on the Switzer Foundation's equity and inclusion efforts.  Stay tuned for details on upcoming calls, and feel free to suggest speakers or topics for these and other networking calls!

Fellows who would like to join the Race and Equity reading group, which convenes periodically, please contact Lissa.  

The Leadership Grant Program has been an important opportunity for Fellows seeking to leverage their Fellowship into work with nonprofit organizations that create a leadership opportunity for the Fellow.  We are presently reviewing how best to continue this grant program as our resources increasingly focus on the leadership training experiences for new Fellows and interested alumni.  

We will likely reduce the program to one cycle per year, and also may reduce the maximum grant amount to $25,000.  We will keep you updated about changes to the guidelines which will be posted by October 1st.  For the time being, there will not be a fall 2018 cycle and we may shift to one midwinter cycle instead.  Pl ease contact Erin with any questions.  

There are no anticipated changes to the Network Innovation Grants program at this time, but if that changes we will let you know.  Thanks for your understanding!

It's almost fall retreat time, and we are looking forward to seeing our new Fellows, and to re-connecting with alumni!  This year we are thrilled to offer a new leadership training for Saturday:  Equity as a 21st Century Leadership Competency.  Angela Park, a consultant who has been working with Switzer Foundation trustees and staff on deepening the Foundation's commitment to social equity in environmental work and supporting leadership pathways for Fellows from a wide array of backgrounds, will be leading a new training for Fellows in both New England and California.  Alumni, you haven't taken this one yet, so consider joining us!  Details are being finalized and we will keep the website up to date with retreat agendas.

New England Fall Retreat:  September 14-16th, Warren Conference Center and Inn, Ashland, MA

California Fall Retreat:  September 28-30th, NatureBridge at Golden Gate, Sausalito, CA

Save the dates!  Registration information coming soon.

It's that time of year when we help new Fellows connect with alumni for networking and coaching!  And the only way we can help make accurate connections is if we have the most up to date information on where you are and what you're doing!  Please help us out (and, in turn, help the new Fellows) by making sure your profile is up to date on the Switzer website.  It's easy!

1.  Go to our Fellows Directory and search for your name.

2.  Review your profile (whole thing please, not just the bio!).

3.  If any updates are needed, you can either log in to the site and update it yourself, OR you can contact Laine Kuehn and she will do it for you.

Thanks in advance for taking a few minutes to do this important task!!