The 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, 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
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
