Bonnie Van Alen - A Lifetime of Achievement in Conservation
02/23/23 • 22 min
Last year we aired seven episodes of Environmental Voices – and they all ran roughly an hour long. Today, we’re doing something a bit different. A shorter episode, about 20 minutes, and just one guest.
For this episode we’re featuring a special interview with Jeanne Bonnie Van Alen. Bonnie recently stepped down from the position of Executive Director and President of Willistown Conservation Trust (WCT), a nonprofit land trust and conservation organization she founded over twenty-five years ago in Chester County, outside of Philadelphia.
Bonnie is also being honored this year as one of the women receiving a Lifetime Achievement Award in Conservation from PennFuture’s 2023 Celebrating Women in Conservation Awards presented by Ecosave.
Each year, PennFuture honors the accomplishments of outstanding women conservationists across Pennsylvania. The Ecosave presents 2023 Celebrating Women in Conservation Awards will tell the stories of 11 amazing women from Southeastern PA, and will take place live at the Fitler Club in Philly from 6-9pm on Tuesday, March 21st. Along with the awards, the evening will feature drinks & a dinner with an environmentally conscientious vegetarian menu.
You can visit pennfuture.org to purchase tickets and for more information about all the women being honored at the event.
Unfortunately, Jeanne Bonnie Van Alen will not be able to attend the live event, so we have instead asked her to join this special podcast to learn more about, and to celebrate, her life’s work.
For more information about PennFuture, visit pennfuture.org
Last year we aired seven episodes of Environmental Voices – and they all ran roughly an hour long. Today, we’re doing something a bit different. A shorter episode, about 20 minutes, and just one guest.
For this episode we’re featuring a special interview with Jeanne Bonnie Van Alen. Bonnie recently stepped down from the position of Executive Director and President of Willistown Conservation Trust (WCT), a nonprofit land trust and conservation organization she founded over twenty-five years ago in Chester County, outside of Philadelphia.
Bonnie is also being honored this year as one of the women receiving a Lifetime Achievement Award in Conservation from PennFuture’s 2023 Celebrating Women in Conservation Awards presented by Ecosave.
Each year, PennFuture honors the accomplishments of outstanding women conservationists across Pennsylvania. The Ecosave presents 2023 Celebrating Women in Conservation Awards will tell the stories of 11 amazing women from Southeastern PA, and will take place live at the Fitler Club in Philly from 6-9pm on Tuesday, March 21st. Along with the awards, the evening will feature drinks & a dinner with an environmentally conscientious vegetarian menu.
You can visit pennfuture.org to purchase tickets and for more information about all the women being honored at the event.
Unfortunately, Jeanne Bonnie Van Alen will not be able to attend the live event, so we have instead asked her to join this special podcast to learn more about, and to celebrate, her life’s work.
For more information about PennFuture, visit pennfuture.org
Previous Episode
Influential Voices
Since we launched our Environmental Voices podcast in early 2022 we’ve produced 6 podcasts featuring interviews with 22 different people fighting to protect the environment in Pennsylvania and beyond. We’ve heard from artists and activists, authors and attorneys. We’ve been able to interview some pretty well-known voices including climate scientist Michael Mann, Secretary of the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources Cindy Dunn, and acclaimed activist Bill McKibben, and we’ve brought some new voices to you that you may not have heard from otherwise.
For our last podcast of 2022, we bring you two influential voices, each a leader in advocating for environmental protections in the Commonwealth: PennFuture’s new CEO & President, Patrick McDonnell and author, activist, and Delaware River Keeper Maya van Rossum who will talk about her new book, The Green Amendment.
Maya van Rossum has served as the Delaware Riverkeeper and leader for the Delaware Riverkeeper Network since 1994. She was one of the original petitioners in the landmark Robinson Township v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania case decided by the PA Supreme Court in 2013 which strengthened environmental standing opportunities, declared unconstitutional key sections of the pro-drilling Act 13 legislation, and reinvigorated the strength of Pennsylvania Constitution’s Environmental Rights Amendment. Since then she has created the Green Amendments for the Generations organization. Most recently, Disruption Books has published the second edition of her book The Green Amendment – the people’s fight for a clean, safe, and healthy environment.
Patrick McDonnell, the new CEO & President of PennFuture. Based in Harrisburg, Patrick brings over 20 years of experience on climate, clean energy and environmental issues to PennFuture. Prior to joining the nonprofit, he spent six years as Secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, leading key initiatives like passage of the state’s first carbon trading regulation, acceleration of the Commonwealth’s cleanup of waterways and a new focus on environmental justice issues. He also served as President of the Environmental Council of the States, the voice of state environmental agencies nationally.
For more information about PennFuture, visit pennfuture.org
Next Episode
Earth Day, Environmental Justice, and Democracy
Every year on April 22, Earth Day marks the anniversary of the birth of the modern environmental movement in 1970. It was originally the brainchild of Senator Gaylord Nelson and was inspired by the protests of the 1960s, and so Earth Day began as a “national teach-in on the environment” and was held on April 22 to maximize the number of students that could be reached on university campuses.
Earth Day now includes a wide range of events coordinated globally by EARTHDAY.ORG including 1 billion people in more than 193 countries.
To talk about how PennFuture will be celebrating Earth Day, as well as how it connects to our work in Environmental Justice and Democracy work, we’ve invited two special guests to the show today.
Maria Ocasio serves as PennFuture’s Lehigh Valley Field Coordinator. She is responsible for identifying, engaging, and mobilizing a strong base of volunteers within the community to bring about change and awareness on environmental issues in the Lehigh Valley.
Through PennFuture’s Democracy for All program, Emily Gale is PennFuture's Director of Civic Engagement. In this role, Emily has created a new non-partisan voter registration program for PennFuture, which is currently active in active Monroe, Northampton, Lehigh, Dauphin, York, Lancaster, and Luzerne counties.
Links referred to in this episode:
https://www.pennfuture.org/join-the-ace-program
https://www.democracyforall-pennfuture.com/
For more information about PennFuture, visit pennfuture.org
Environmental Voices: The PennFuture Podcast - Bonnie Van Alen - A Lifetime of Achievement in Conservation
Transcript
Welcome back to another episode of Environmental Voices, the Penn Future Podcast. My name is Travis Dina Penn Future's Director of Development, and I'm your host. And for our first new episode in 2023, we'll start off with welcoming our newest sponsor. Environmental Voices is now sponsored by Infinity Designing and installing Solar power systems for homes and businesses in central and western PA since 2005 . Information on how Infinity can help t
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