Rachel Carson Awards Council

The Rachel Carson Awards Council is a group of thirty women who help select the Rachel Carson awardees. The Council also promotes education and information on the environment. Council members meet and share information on mainstream and emerging environmental challenges annually. In addition to reviewing the mission and achievements of Rachel Carson Award nominees from across the country, the Council provides leadership for the Women in Conservation website, and helps direct the Rachel Carson Scholarship for girls and young women. Audubon has multiple outstanding women scientists, researchers, environmental educators, and policy advocates who brief the Council at a private meeting annually.

The Rachel Carson Awards Council is made up of a cross-section of women committed to the environment - some are filmmakers and writers, local food advocates and organic farmers, green CEOs and lawyers, parks commissioners, journalists, philanthropists and foundation program officers. Over 70 percent of past honorees serve on the Council, representing their respective worlds of focus and achievement. The Council has served as a liaison between Audubon and the worlds each member comes from, sharing resources on information AbOUT great nominees, wonderful knowledge about different aspects of the environmental movement with which they are most familiar.

Allison W. Rockefeller, Rachel Carson Awards Council, Founding Chair

Allison Whipple Rockefeller is the Founding Chair of the Rachel Carson Awards Council and a keen supporter of National Audubon's Women in Conservation Program. Allison has focused much of her work on the creation, preservation and promotion of American parkland and open space on the national, state, and local level. She is a prominent advocate for sustainable community development and brownfield remediation and reuse. She is also committed to environmental education and connecting youth with nature.

Council Members

Jane Alexander, Raluca Allison, Emilie Antonetti, Frances Beinecke*, Katie Carpenter, Majora Carter*, Jayni Chase*, Lynn Chase*, Susan Cohn Rockefeller, Ann Colley, Joyce M. Critelli, Ide Dangoor, Laurie David*, Helena Durst, Margot Paul Ernst, Alice Gabriel, Justina Pray Gagne, Deirdre Imus*, Fernanda Kellogg, Shelly Malkin, Nicole Miller, Liz Neumark, Laura O’Donohue, Wendy J. Paulson, Julia D’Amico Rockefeller, Elizabeth Barlow Rogers, Connie Rogers Roosevelt, Margie Ruddick*, Peggy M. Shepard*, Laura Baudo Sillerman, Tracy M. Snyder, Virginia K. Stowe

- The * indicates a past Rachel Carson Award Honoree (please see main page for all past honorees)