My professor said 'Black people are not interested in the environment'. I set out to prove him wrong

"Dorceta Taylor has a long history of firsts. In 1991, she became the first Black woman to earn a doctoral degree from the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies in New Haven, Connecticut. In 2014, she created the first comprehensive report for monitoring racial, gender and socioeconomic diversity in environmental non-profit organizations, foundations and government agencies. And in 2018, she launched the New Horizons in Conservation Conference for early-career professionals of colour."

"After more than two decades as an environmental sociologist at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, she returned to Yale in 2020. Two years ago, she was named the Wangari Maathai professor of environmental sociology, the first endowed chair in the field named after a Black woman. Her newest book, the SAGE Encyclopedia of Environmental Justice, which is due to be published in July, is the world's first such compilation, describing key events, institutions and people of colour in the environmental justice movement."

Dorceta Taylor experienced science education in Jamaica among mostly people of colour, then encountered racial isolation in a 1980 US biology class, motivating work on equity in science. She earned the first Black woman doctoral degree from Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies in 1991 and produced a 2014 report monitoring racial, gender and socioeconomic diversity across environmental nonprofits, foundations and government agencies. She launched the New Horizons in Conservation Conference (2018) for early-career professionals of colour, returned to Yale in 2020, became the Wangari Maathai professor of environmental sociology, and compiled the SAGE Encyclopedia of Environmental Justice documenting events, institutions and people of colour.

Read at Nature