Building a Sustainable Community

National Geographic Emerging Explorer Alexandra Cousteau is part of one of the world's most famous environmental dynasties. She is grand-daughter of legend Jacques-Yves Cousteau who first started teaching her to dive at the age of seven. Today, she takes that rich legacy of environmental advocacy, exploration and storytelling and moves it forward with Blue Legacy, a Washington, D.C.–based nonprofit that she founded in 2008 to leverage new and emerging technologies to connect mainstream audiences with their local watersheds and their water planet.

Kathleen Rogers, President of Earth Day Network, has worked more than 15 years as an environmental attorney and advocate, focusing on litigation, community development, and international issues. She explains how Earth Day Network convenes women leaders to create strategic goals and objectives, and an international framework for allowing women to rise quickly in businesses that contribute to a green economy.

Dr. Jane Carter Ingram obtained a Bachelor of Science degree in biology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Master of Science and Doctor of Philosophy degrees from the Environmental Change Institute of the School of Geography and the Environment at the University of Oxford; and completed a Post-Doctoral fellowship at the Earth Institute of Columbia University. In her role at the Wildlife Conservation Society, she has been working with rural communities to try to conserve the ecosystem services that are so important for rural livelihoods.