Workshop Organizers

Diversity Workshop

Workshop Organizers

Marcelo Bonta, Courtney Cuff, and Joshua Feldmark are Environmental Leadership Program Senior Fellows. They are organizing this workshop through the use of the Program’s activity fund project seed money (see Workshop Funding section). They by no means claim to be experts on diversity or generational issues. They simply claim that diversity issues in the environmental field need to be successfully addressed and have found the need and value in engaging emerging voices on this issue.

Marcelo Bonta
Marcelo Bonta consults with environmental organizations and institutions on diversity issues, including outreach, partnerships, recruitment, retention, and pipeline issues. He has organized workshops and given presentations to various audiences, like the Land Trust Alliance and the Association of Partners for Public Land . He serves on a steering committee that will create an organization focused on diversity issues among environmental institutions in Portland. Marcelo is helping to plan a national environmental diversity leadership summit that will convene professionals from the various environmental segments to work together to build a more inclusive environmental movement. He also serves on the advisory board of Emerge, an organization that develops future political leaders, especially young people, people of color, and women, who support environmental and social justice issues in the Portland metro area.

Previously, Marcelo worked for Defenders of Wildlife with whom he focused on conservation planning and policy issues. He coordinated and supported nationwide efforts to create effective state and regional conservation strategies. As one of the few people of color on the professional staff, he co-led an effort to start a diversity council. He has also worked for the National Park Service’s Rivers, Trails, and Conservation Assistance Program, the Massachusetts Audubon Society, and the Center for Conservation Medicine. He received a joint master's degree in environmental policy and biology from Tufts University and a bachelor's degree in psychology from Yale University. He is a published author in the journal, Conservation Biology.

Courtney Cuff
Courtney Cuff is the Senior Regional Director for the National Parks Conservation Association’s (NPCA) Pacific Region. Courtney began her tenure with NPCA in March 2001. She designs and manages the Pacific region's campaigns on parks, including one of our nation's crown jewels, Yosemite. In 2003, Courtney launched a campaign to build a coalition of diverse, allied voices in the Central Valley to encourage key leaders to take action on behalf of national parks and critical environmental policies that protect them. The Central Valley field office design closely mimics that of the desert field office that Courtney opened in 2002. NPCA's “Defending the Desert” campaign brings attention to the incredible biodiversity in the southern Californian desert lands and the serious threats bearing down upon these unique ecosystems, and works to cultivate community grasstops to raise their voices in support of conservation.

Previously, Courtney was the legislative director for Friends of the Earth. She has also served as co-creator and director of the Green Scissors Campaign, teaming fiscally conservative groups with environmental organizations to cut wasteful, environmentally harmful spending and subsidies from the federal budget. Courtney was the field director for the League of Conservation Voters 1998 Wisconsin Senate campaign and has worked on a number of U.S. House races. While in Washington, she sat on the League of Conservation Voters Political Advisory Committee. Currently, Courtney sits on the board of Taxpayers for Common Sense. She has a B.A. and graduated cum laude from Wake Forest University.

Since becoming an Environmental Leadership Program fellow, Courtney has worked to achieve multi-cultural representation among the seven staff in her region, bringing three people of color on board since 2003.

Joshua Feldmark
Joshua Feldmark is the Executive Director of EnviroCitizen, an organization dedicated to building leadership and replenishing progressive movements with a diverse base of innovative emerging leaders. Joshua started his activism at Rutgers University by founding the Rutgers Sierra Student Coalition. He graduated magna cum laude with a degree in Human Ecology. After graduation he served a year in AmeriCorps and eventually found his calling in grassroots political organizing. Josh is now back in is hometown of Columbia (MD), with his partner Jessica. He currently serves as the Wilde Lake representative to the Columbia Council, representing over 6500 residents. So far in his political career he has been called a "subversive radical" and an "annoying young whippersnapper." The last campaign against him ran on the message that "Josh is just 26 years old." Despite the fact that Joshua had no defense to these accusations, he managed to win by 14 percentage points. In May of 2004, Joshua was elected Chair of the Columbia Council and added "boorish behavior" to the list of accusations against him.

Workshop Facilitators

ChangeWork is a group of trainers, educators and organizers working to build strong progressive democratic organizations and institutions within the United States. Their mission is to strengthen the organizational capacity of grassroots groups and institutions serving diverse communities in this country.