Audubon’s 15th Annual Women in Conservation Luncheon Honors Gina McCarthy, Mary Powell, and Dorceta E. Taylor

NEW YORK - The National Audubon Society celebrated the legacy of female leadership in conservation by presenting three conservation champions with the Rachel Carson Award during its annual Women in Conservation luncheon at The Plaza Hotel in New York City. The prestigious Audubon award recognizes visionary women whose dedication, talent, and energy have advanced environmental and conservation positive change locally and on a global scale.

“Audubon is thrilled to honor Gina McCarthy, Mary Powell and Dorceta E. Taylor as the 2018 Rachel Carson Award recipients,” says Ana Paula Tavares, executive director of Audubon New York & Connecticut. “Their outstanding accomplishments and unwavering commitment to environmental protection bring the spirit of Rachel Carson to life by inspiring women and girls to continue advancing conservation locally and globally.”

As guests dined on a locally sourced vegetarian menu catered by Liz Neumark, owner of Great Performances and member of the Rachel Carson Awards Council, Allison Whipple Rockefeller, the founding chair of the Rachel Carson Awards Council, spoke at the ceremony with a nod to the award’s namesake and shared her passion for the projects and people the program honors.

Guests included:  Gina McCarthy, former EPA Administrator, Director of C-CHANGE (Center for Climate, Health and the Global Environment) at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and Advisor at Pegasus Capital Advisors; Mary Powell, President and CEO, Vermont Green Mountain Power; Dorceta E. Taylor, Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion & James E. Crowfoot Collegiate Professor at University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability; Anne Thompson, Chief Environmental Affairs Correspondent for NBC News; Allison Whipple Rockefeller, Founding Chair of Audubon Women in Conservation, David Yarnold, Audubon President and CEO; Ana Paula Tavares, Executive Director of Audubon New York and Audubon Connecticut and senior advisor to Audubon’s International Alliances Program; Jane Alexander, Connan Ashforth, Lowell Baier, Laureen Barber, Katie Carpenter, Barbara Cates, Jayni Chase, Ann Colley, Norma Dana, John and Margot Ernst, Gloria Fieldcamp, David B. Ford, Alice Gabriel, Jeanine Behr Getz, Mark Gilbertson, Marian Heiskell, Kaiulani Lee, Diane Lewis, Shelly Malkin, Anne Manice, Josephine Merck, Bibhu Mohapatra, Laura O’Donohue, Veronique Pittman, Warrie Price, Peter Rockefeller, Susan Cohn Rockefeller, Simon Roosevelt, Peggy Shepard, Tracy Snyder, Flo Stone, Gini Stowe, Karen Thomas, George and Victoria Whipple, Cordelia Dietrich Zanger.

When: Tuesday, May 15, 2018

Where: The Plaza Hotel, NYC

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About Audubon's Women in Conservation
Established in 2003 in honor of Rachel Carson, author and monumental figure of the modern environmental movement, Audubon Women in Conservation strives to recognize the female environmental leaders who change our world, and inspire the next generation of young women who will join them in environmental careers and activism. Proceeds from Audubon Women in Conservation support Audubon’s conservation efforts, including our Long Island Sound and Coastal Stewardship Program and the Audubon Women in Conservation Internship. For more information, visit audubon.org/WIC.

About the National Audubon Society
The National Audubon Society protects birds and the places they need, today and tomorrow, throughout the Americas using science, advocacy, education and on-the-ground conservation. Audubon’s state programs, nature centers, chapters and partners have an unparalleled wingspan that reaches millions of people each year to inform, inspire and unite diverse communities in conservation action. Since 1905, Audubon’s vision has been a world in which people and wildlife thrive. Audubon is a nonprofit conservation organization. Learn more at www.audubon.org and @audubonsociety.

Media Contact: Chandler Lennon, clennon@audubon.org, (212) 979-3063