Winter 2017

Newsletter Archive

Staff Pick3: Kelly Learned

With the intent of sharing more about ourselves with our readers, we created a bank of potential staff profile questions. Each staff member gets to pick 3 of these questions to craft their staff profile.

Where do you go to find conservation information/news?

• Conservation Biology Institute: https://consbio.org
  • Always has great webinars on offer (for free!)
  
  
• Nature of Cities: https://www.thenatureofcities.com
  • This site provides great essays and discussions on nature in cities from various perspectives and parts of the world.
  • Also, if you love graffiti AND animals check out: http://thenatureofgraffiti.org

What book(s) are you reading right now?

• I am usually reading several books at a time so here is what's actively being pursued these days:
  • "A More Beautiful Question: The Power of Inquiry to Spark Breakthrough Ideas" Warren Berger (So far, this book has been riddled with sticky notes and ideas in the margins).
  • "His Whole Life" Elizabeth Hay (Probably one of my favourite Canadian authors!).
  • Cookbooks with photos. Any one will do!! Love to read recipes. Sometimes I even make the recipes.

A picture says 1000 words - provide a photo and tell the story behind it/how it inspires you to do the work you do/etc.

I joined a professional development organization called LEAD several years ago. The focus of the organization is to build leadership capacity for sustainable development around the world. As part of the training, each cohort is required to experience sustainability challenges in another country and complete an applicable project. The project I was involved in was an economic development project for a favela in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. This picture was taken during my time there and to me represents ingenuity and hope. Life in the favela was not easy, but the small and collective efforts of many to make life better for future generations was inspiring. People did what they could with what they had.

I feel like that concept can be applied to many of Alberta's conservation efforts. As a not-for-profit environmental charity working on land conservation issues, our team seems to always find great collaborative partners and the work we do embraces innovation, is driven by hope for what is possible, and adds up to a larger collective impact.