Rachel Carson Award

The Rachel Carson Award is awarded each spring by the National Audubon Society's Women in Conservation to recognize "women whose immense talent, expertise, and energy greatly advance conservation and the environmental movement locally and globally".^[1] Honorees are drawn from diverse backgrounds, including the worlds of journalism, academics, business, science, entertainment, philanthropy and law.^[2]

Rachel Carson Award
Carson c.1940
Awarded for	Women in conservation and the environmental movement
Country	USA
Presented by	National Audubon Society
First award	2004; 21 years ago (2004)
Website	Official website

Background

The award is named in honor of Rachel Carson, the undisputed founder of the modern environmental movement.^[3] Each year the Rachel Carson Award is created by Tiffany & Company. The Rachel Carson Awards Council was founded by Allison Whipple Rockefeller in 2004.

The award is presented to honorees each May at the Rachel Carson Award Luncheon, held annually at New York City's Plaza Hotel. Proceeds from the luncheon support Audubon's Long Island Sound Campaign, the Sound having undergone unprecedented pollution, habitat loss, and ecosystem disruption in recent years.

Audubon's Women in Conservation Program, in conjunction with Audubon's Rachel Carson Awards Council, supports a website which connects women to leaders in the environmental movement and to pressing environmental issues. Audubon's Women in Conservation also supports an internship program and hosts an educational school panel in which past Rachel Carson Award honorees speak at a local all-girls school.^[4]

Award recipients

2004 to 2009

Year	Name	Role
2004	Jayni Chase	Environmental activist, philanthropist
	Lynn Chase	Wildlife artist, philanthropist
	Maria Rodale	Rodale Publishing, chairman[5]
	Peggy M. Shepard[6]	West Harlem Environmental Action, Inc. executive director
	Alice Waters[7]	Chef, author, restaurateur
2005	Kay Kelley Arnold	Entergy Corporation, vice president of public affairs
	Bernadette Castro	New York State Parks, recreation and historic preservation, former commissioner
	Mae Jemison[8]	BioSentient Corporation, founder
	Margaret Wittenberg	Whole Foods Market, vice president of global communications and quality standards
2006	Kathleen Bader	NatureWorks LLC, former president and CEO
	Margie Ruddick	Environmental designer, founder of Margie Ruddick Landscape
2007	Frances Beinecke[9]	President of the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC)
	Majora Carter[10]	Sustainable South Bronx, founder and executive director
	Laurie David[11]	Global warming activist, producer, author
	Deirdre Imus[12]	Deirdre Imus Environmental Center for Pediatric Oncology, founder and president
2008	Jean Clark, Norma Dana, Marguerite Purnell, Phyllis Cerf Wagner, and Elizabeth Barlow Rogers	Central Park Conservancy
	Teresa Heinz Kerry	Philanthropist
	Bette Midler	New York Restoration Project, founder
2009	Dr. Sylvia Earle	National Geographic 'Explorer in Residence'; Deep Search Foundation, founder
	Sally Jewell[13][14]	Secretary of the Interior
	Elizabeth Cushman Titus Putnam[15]	Student Conservation Association, founding president
	Elizabeth Colleton, Jane Evans and Susan Haspel	NBC Universal's Green is Universal Initiative

2010 to 2019

Year	Name	Role
2010	Suzanne Lewis	Yellowstone National Park, superintendent
	Isabella Rossellini	Actress, director, writer and environmental activist
	Dr. Beth Stevens	Disney World Wide Services, Environmental Affairs, senior vice president
	Fernanda M. Kellogg	Tiffany & Co. Foundation, president
2011	Maya Lin[16]	Artist, architect and environmentalist
	Sigourney Weaver	Actress and environmental activist
2012	Sally Bingham[17]	The Regeneration Project/Interfaith Power and Light, president
	L. Hunter Lovins	Natural Capitalism Solutions, president
	Janette Sadik-Khan[18]	New York City Department of Transportation, commissioner
2013	Marian Heiskell[19]	Conservationist and philanthropist
	Lady Bird Johnson[20]	First Lady and environmental pioneer
2014	Ellen Futter[21]	American Museum of Natural History, president
	Kaiulani Lee[22]	"A Sense of Wonder" playwright and performer
	Nell Newman[23]	Newman’s Own Organics, co-founder and president
2015	Warrie Price	Battery Park Conservancy, president and founder
	Flo Stone	Environmental Film Festival in the Nation's Capital, president and founder
2016	Dominique Browning[24]	Moms Clean Air Force, co-founder and director
	Rebecca Moore[25]	Google Earth Outreach, founder and director
	Dr. Kathryn Sullivan	Oceans and Atmosphere, under secretary of commerce; National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, administrator
2017	Jamie Rappaport Clark[26]	Defenders of Wildlife, president and CEO
	Dr Heidi Cullen[27]	Climate Central, chief scientist
	Anne Thompson[28]	NBC News, chief environmental affairs correspondent
2018	Gina McCarthy[29]	Public Health Practice, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, former EPA administrator and professor
	Mary Powell[30]	Vermont Green Mountain Power, president and CEO
	Dorceta Taylor[31]	University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability, director of diversity, equity and inclusion and James E. Crowfoot collegiate professor
2019	Rose H. Harvey
	Garden Club of America

2020 onwards

Year	Name	Role
2021	Lisa P. Jackson	Apple, Environment, policy, and social initiatives, vice president
	Fern Shepard,	Rachel's Network, president
	Kristine McDivitt Tompkins	Tompkins Conservation, co-founder and president
2022	Abigail Dillen	Earthjustice, president
2023	Susanne Durst	McEnroe Organic Farm
	Kathleen Finlay	Glynwood Center for Regional Food and Farming, president; Pleiades, founder
	Laura O'Donohue	Snow Hill Farm, founder and CEO

See also

• List of environmental awards