YLCoastal: Conservation Conversations (Pt 3)

Philanthropy + Partnerships 

In part three of our YLCoastal Conservation Conversations, Liz Russell joins us from the Foundation for Louisiana. Coastal and climate change impact everything we care about, and Liz will share how our communities experience these direct impacts NOW.  Without action, coastal and climate change, and our institutional responses to those changes, will exacerbate existing inequities. The Foundation for Louisiana invests and transforms to build people power, advance just climate policies, and cultivate new narratives to cultivate a more healthy, just, and vibrant Louisiana

YLC Members who join today's webinar are invited to tomorrow morning's Coffee Talks with Charles: a brief discussion to ask one-on-one questions or learn additional information about the information provided in today's session.

Attendees in today's webinar will walk away with:

• vital next steps for reducing the current impact on our communities
• direct actions and institutional outreach opportunities to advocate for our state's future

Liz Russell, Climate Justice Program Director: Foundation for Louisiana

Liz Russell directs the investments and activities of the Climate Justice Portfolio at the Foundation for Louisiana. The program works to build people power, advance just policies, and cultivate new narratives in support of economic opportunity, environmental justice, and equitable development statewide. Existing in the tension between the world as it is and the world as it could be, she has the capacity to both dream and implement. As a New Orleans native with deep roots in Louisiana, Liz is no stranger to disaster. She interrogates the ways that land use, planning, and development solidify inequities, allowing tremendous variations in investment, social services, real estate valuation, criminalization, and access. She is committed to rooting out injustice and bringing about a more healthy, just, and vibrant Louisiana.

Years in coastal planning and architectural design cultivated an explicit, nuanced understanding of the ways that disparities are solidified within the built environment, even as a changing climate heightens inequality. Her experience provides her with a unique perspective from which to have greater influence on systems and processes. In her time at the Foundation for Louisiana, Liz has centered equity and justice while growing a leadership development program; managing a public planning process for climate adaptation; supporting ongoing assessment of coastal and climate trends influencing Louisiana; cultivating cross-field collaboration; advancing water workforce development trainings; founding a coastal business incubator; and moving more than $5 million in grants leveraging more than $54 million.

With a background in architecture and experience in landscape and urban design, her design and implementation proficiencies range from fabrication and construction detailing to community engagement, ecological design, and future planning. Liz has held a range of academic positions, having taught within the School of Architecture at Louisiana State University, the Department of Architecture and Landscape within the University of Greenwich in London, London College of Contemporary Art, and Birmingham City University.