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, Founder

Allison Rockefeller is a lifelong conservationist with a deep love of nature and the American landscape. She is dedicated to the communication and celebration of America’s natural heritage and nature’s central role in shaping our history, values and national character. Connecting all Americans, especially young people, to nature is a passion. Much of Allison's work has focused on parks and open space across the national, regional and community level; community and main street revitalization; supporting girls and women working in the environment, and by recognizing excellence in women’s environmental leadership.

Allison served as the first alumna Board Chair of the Student Conservation Association; she has served as a Commission Member for the New York State Department of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation under four governors; and she is a longtime Board Member of the Central Park Conservancy’s Women Committee. Allison also is the founder of Cornerstone Parks, the "Pumps-¬to¬-Parks Initiative” designed to create a network of small parks and community centers from the more than 150,000 abandoned gas stations in towns across the U.S.

Allison's most recent work includes an effort to add information about citizen ownership of our national parks and public lands to the U.S. citizenship exam, introducing new immigrants to American environmental stewardship; and co¬-authoring Ten Principles on Conservation, a campaign aimed at reducing severe public partisanship over the environment by emphasizing common values.

Allison is the founder of National Audubon’s "Women In Conservation", the highest goal of which is creating a nationwide community of women in the environment which shares knowledge, fosters relationships, builds political influence, celebrates achievements and assists girls and younger women in environmental and conservation opportunities. Allison presides over the centerpiece of Audubon's Women in Conservation, its prestigious Rachel Carson Award, one of the most important national awards for American women and the environment.

Council Members

Jane Alexander                                          Lee Gunn Falchi

Elizabeth Titus Putnam                           *Raluca Allison

Alice Gabriel                                               Deborah Rivel

Laureen Barber                                         Jeanine B. Getz

Lydna Johnson Robb                                Wendy Mills Gross

Frances Beinecke*                                   Marian S. Heiskell

Susan Cohn Rockefeller                          Sally Bingham*

Deirdre Imus*                                          Julia D'Amico Rockefeller

Katie Carpenter                                        Fernanda Kellogg

Betsy Barlow Rogers                                Majora Carter*

Diane Lewis                                               Connie Roosevelt

Jayni Chase*                                              Cynthia Lufkin *In memoriam

Margie Ruddick*                                       Lynn Chase*

Shelly Malkin                                             Janette Sadik-Khan            

Ann Colley                                                  Alexis Maybank

Victoria Shaw                                            Joyce M. Critelli

Nicole Miller                                              Peggy Shepard

Erin Crotty                                                 Liz Neumark

Tracy Snyder                                             Laura O'Donohue

Virginia K. Stowe                                       Laurie David*

Valerie Ohrstrom                                      Anne Thompson

Helena Durst                                             Veronique Pittman

Mikel Witte                                                 Margot Ernst

Victoria Rose Whipple                              Flo Stone

Warrie Price                                               Ide Dangoor

* Past Rachel Carson Award Honoree

Men's Council Chair

Peter C. Rockefeller                                   Simon C. Roosevelt

Men’s Council Members

Lowell Baier                                                David B. Ford

Adrian Benepe                                           Douglas Blonsky

David Reden                                               David Rockefeller Jr.

Bruce Fowle                                                Trip Gabriel

Douglas Brinkley                                        Albert E. Caccese

Theodore Roosevelt IV                             Theodore Roosevelt V

Paul Growald                                              Henry Johnson 

Chevy Chase                                               Ed Cox

B. Holt Thrasher                                        George C. Whipple III

Dan Lufkin                                                  Harold Osborn

John Ernst                                                   Michael Northrop

David Yarnold                                            John Flicker