Fall 2018
Newsletter
From the Board Chair


Board Chair
Adrienne Alvord
As Switzer Fellows and friends of the Robert and Patricia Switzer Foundation, we want you to be the first to know that after 20 years of leadership,
Lissa Widoff has announced her intention to step down   as Executive Director. Lissa served as the Foundation's first Executive Director and helped the Foundation become a strong and collaborative organization, engaging Fellows and environmental leaders as partners to achieve our mission. Lissa's vision, commitment, hard work, and personal warmth have had a huge impact on the growth and success of the Fellowship and she has served as a mentor to countless Fellows.  Her leadership and personal qualities will be very much missed!

The Switzer Foundation's Fellowship Program is a model for leadership programs across the country and internationally. Our programs and values have evolved to meet the demands of a rapidly changing world while taking the time to build equity and inclusion into our practices. Lissa has lent a thoughtful voice and compassionate ear to Fellows in their work and lives. The professional development offered by the Switzer Foundation is a lifelong commitment, as we all grow and learn to lead in new ways and in new contexts.

We are supportive of Lissa's intention to move on to new opportunities and know that the groundwork she has laid is both solid and flexible, as we all must be in these times. Lissa will remain with us until spring and is working with staff to ensure a smooth transition and a smooth landing for new leadership. Stay tuned for send-off celebration news!

In the meantime, the Switzer Foundation Board has formed an Executive Search committee and has engaged California Environmental Associates to help lead the search for her successor.

We have posted the job announcement and ask that you share it with your networks to help us find the strong leader to carry forward our vision and hope for a healthy environment and planet for all. Please join me in extending our deep gratitude to Lissa for all she has done and our best wishes to her in her future endeavors.

With warm regards,
 
Adrienne Alvord, Switzer Foundation Board Chair
Western States Director, Union of Concerned Scientists
2018 California Fellows
Meet the 2018 Fellows

The core program of the Switzer Foundation, the Switzer Fellowship Program,  supports highly talented graduate students who show outstanding leadership potential, and who are working towards environmental improvement. Through their determination, ability, and integrity, Switzer Fellows are effecting positive change throughout the U.S. and around the world. Coming from diverse academic, social, and economic backgrounds, they are on the leading edge of environmental and social change across a wide spectrum of issues.

This year twenty environmental leaders, comprising the 32nd class of Fellows, joined the Switzer Network of more than 600 Fellows located across the country and around the world.

Learn about their work on development economics and land governance in Latin America, restoration ecology of tidal marshes, urban resilience and climate policy, Native American water rights in the western U.S., emissions reduction strategies and environmental equity, identifying and mapping conservation opportunity "hot spots", and other critical issues.

Read more

Environmental Leadership, Equity and Impact

Over the last two years, the Switzer Foundation has explored how our core values and programs can better reflect the intersections of environmental issues with many other perspectives and disciplines.  We believe that environmental leaders must: be prepared for complex social and political contexts; find collaboration across differences of race, class and gender; and be able to build networks that intersect with a variety of expertise areas and backgrounds. By including a social equity lens in our work we can ensure positive outcomes for the future that benefit all.

Executive Director Lissa Widoff has posted in her On Leadership column several times about this process, including  the Fellows' survey that started us thinking about the need, the impetus for us to undertake it now, and the final outcome of the process.

Now we are pleased to present our updated
Mission, Vision and Values, and invite you to share your thoughts! Contact Lissa with your feedback.

Fellow Nick Jensen
Current Leadership Grants

The Switzer Foundation helps advance the professional careers of Fellows by awarding Leadership Grants  of up to $25,000 to qualified organizations that can benefit from Fellows' expertise on critical environmental issues.

$22,000 to Silent Spring Institute (Newton, MA) to hire Lauren Richter as Research Scientist to lead a community-based participatory research project on highly fluorinated chemical contamination of drinking water in New England.

$25,000 to New Hampshire Sustainable Energy Association (Concord, NH) to hire Henry Herndon as its first Director of Local Energy Solutions, leading a network of policymakers, businesses, municipalities and individuals working towards a transition to clean energy.

$25,000 to California Native Plant Society to create the position of Southern California Conservation Analyst for Nick Jensen, in which he leads this statewide organization's conservation and advocacy efforts throughout southern California.  

Fellow Josh Stoll holding an oyster
Network Innovation Grants

The Foundation supports Switzer Fellows working together across disciplines to solve complex problems through the  Network Innovation Grant  program. This program provides grants of up to $10,000 to convene two or more Fellows to plan, convene, or seed-fund the development of a strategic initiative. A key and unique element of the program is that interested Fellows engage the Switzer Fellowship Network to obtain input across issue and sectoral expertise to contribute to solutions.

$8,000 awarded to Manomet (Brunswick, ME) for Maine-based Fellows Marissa McMahan, Josh Stoll, and Caitlin Cleaver to lead an effort to develop an open, deliberate, science-based, participatory planning process to articulate a long-term vision for aquaculture in Maine's coastal waters.

$5,000 awarded to American Bird Conservancy (The Plains, VA) for Fellows Brad Keitt, Jonathan Scheuer, and Jason Delborne to lead the development of a strategy to engage local Hawaiian communities in a proposed solution to the spread of avian malaria.

See all recipients of Network Innovation Grants

Environmental Leadership, Equity and Impact

Over the last two years, the Switzer Foundation has explored how our core values and programs can better reflect the intersections of environmental issues with many other perspectives and disciplines.  We believe that environmental leaders must: be prepared for complex social and political contexts; find collaboration across differences of race, class and gender; and be able to build networks that intersect with a variety of expertise areas and backgrounds. By including a social equity lens in our work we can ensure positive outcomes for the future that benefit all.

Executive Director Lissa Widoff has posted in her On Leadership column several times about this process, including  the Fellows' survey that started us thinking about the need, the impetus for us to undertake it now, and the final outcome of the process.

Now we are pleased to present our updated
Mission, Vision and Values, and invite you to share your thoughts! Contact Lissa with your feedback.


Switzer Network in Action

Fellow Rachel Morello-Frosch's research was featured in the New York Times. She found both communities of color and whites who live in racially divided communities are exposed to higher levels of pollution than those who live in more integrated areas.

Fellow Bridie McGreavy has edited a new book, "Tracing Rhetoric and Material Life: Ecological Approaches". Her chapter shares how Maine clamming communities use poetic forms to identify and respond to changes in intertidal ecosystems.

What foods are better for the Earth? Fellow Nicole Tichenor Blackstone studied the link between environmental sustainability and the 2015-2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans and published her results in The Lancet Planet.

Fellow Lauren Richter published in Social Studies of Science on how the risks of PFASs have been both structurally hidden and unexamined by existing regulatory and industry practice.

Fellow Melissa Nelson co-edited a new book from Cambridge University Press, Traditional Ecological Knowledge: Learning from Indigenous Practices for Environmental Sustainability.

Trustee and Fellow Joe Aldy was quoted by CNN on why red and blue states divide over green policy.
Upcoming Dates
2019 Switzer Environmental Fellowship deadlines
Application period now open!
January 7, 2019:  Applications due
May 2019:  Final selection interviews in Boston and San Francisco
We are seeking graduate student applicants with outstanding leadership potential who are based at academic institutions in any of the six New England states or California for the Switzer Environmental Fellowship!  Candidates must possess the self-awareness and personal commitment to developing their leadership skills over the course of their career, and value being a member of an active, vibrant, engaged network of environmental professionals.  We accept applications from both master's- and PhD-level candidates.
A vibrant community of environmental leaders