What is hope? In the recent film “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story,” a phrase is emphasized several times: “Rebellions are built on hope.” Nearly without exception, every great leader or thinker has had something to say about hope, a seemingly necessary component to achieving extraordinary accomplishments. Many of the top players in our cultural constellation weighed in on hope at some point in their speaking or writing, from Martin Luther King Jr. – “We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope,” to Albert Einstein – “Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is…
Author: Ashley Sullivan
Ashley Sullivan
Ashley Sullivan is the Director of Storytelling & Marketing for Communications & Partnerships at the Jane Goodall Institute USA, where she works to connect individuals with Dr. Jane Goodall's vision, and the JGI mission to create a better world for all by protecting the interconnections between people, other animals, and the environment. Ashley graduated Stony Brook University with a Bachelor's Degree in Anthropology and a minor in Biology, and is pursuing a Master's of Science in Environmental Science & Policy at Johns Hopkins University with a focus on Environmental Justice. Originally from Brooklyn, New York, now a D.C. resident, she has a varied background including 10+ years of expert communications and digital marketing in the social and environmental non-profit sector. Her intersectional approach to this work has been shaped by a holistic world-view, having traveled to Madagascar and Ecuador for conservation research projects, leading communications for youth social justice filmmaking organizations, and as a part of several professional groups advancing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in environmental spaces including Greens REALIGN. With skills ranging from conservation fieldwork, policy and advocacy campaigns, strategic communications, art, digital media, and design, Ashley believes in sharing information to empower and in the magic of storytelling to transform hearts and minds. Through growing understanding, empathy, and justice, she is igniting positive change to create that better, more equitable world, every day.
Luc is a true explorer. He manages to convince his group every morning to take a long walk on the forest throughout the island. Now that the island facilities are more complete, the caregivers rarely have physical contact with the chimpanzees unless there is a situation that requires it such as veterinary care or feeding. For this reason, Luc’s group hikes through the forest are a mystery to the staff. They can only been from the shore of the islands. This is intentional so that the chimpanzees can have as natural an experience as possible without human interference, now that…
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Hugues Boungou is a veterinary assistant at the Jane Goodall Institute in Republic of Congo. He provides support to Dr. Rebeca Atencia, JGI-Congo’s executive director and veterinarian, as well as the rest of the staff at the Tchimpounga Chimpanzee Rehabilitation Center. Hugues previously worked as a nurse in a hospital in the town of Pointe Noire, some forty kilometers from Tchimpounga. With good references from Hervé Tchikaya, the head of nurse at Tchimpounga, Hugues was admitted to the veterinary team of the sanctuary. He quickly adapted to the new work since many of the medications used with chimpanzees are the same…
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The tradition of Halloween breeds excitement for so many for a variety of reasons: the thrill of an alter ego, the joy of a witty costume, plus candy, candy, and more candy. However, the circumstances are usually driven by a happiness that is short lived, and in most cases superficial. Through the eyes of a child, it may just be a holiday of fancy and sweets. But for one child, it was the chance to be something great and do something bigger. That child is Evie Lauzon. Evie chose to be Jane Goodall for Halloween. Wonderfully enough, thousands of children choose…
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Fiction is often a portal into the fantastical. It allows us to imagine places and people not of this earth, a way to think beyond the scope of what is possible. J.K. Rowling has for the last 20 years been a beacon of possibility, ushering in an age of witches and wizards. These individuals are challenged with combating evil, indifference and prejudice, unleashing their true power through the passion, conviction and courage led by a young boy who lived, and his friends who never gave up. This week, Rowling unveils an expansion of the wonderful world of wild magical things…
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At the age of 24, Keith Bitamazire had an experience in Kenya that inspired him to do something about saving forests. He hated the country’s climate because it was very hot and believed it was as a result of not having enough trees. He never wanted the same to happen in Uganda, especially in the region where he would settle. When he returned to Uganda in the 90’s, with the help of his late uncles, his love for nature together with his small savings, he managed to purchase a piece of land which had a heavily depleted natural forest in the…
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I have just been informed that we have reached 1 million likes on Facebook. I want to thank everyone for supporting and following my adventures! – Dr. Jane Goodall We’re celebrating #Janes1Million! Jane and JGI have always been in awe of the magnitude and sincerity of those who believe in Jane and JGI’s message of hope for a better world. It is you, each of you, who provide lift to the vessel of this message and take it to all of the places we could not reach on our own. Everywhere we go people tell stories about how Jane has…
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On this day, November 4th, 1960, a 26 year old girl from England hid among the robust leaves in the lush rainforest of Gombe, Tanzania, and saw something no one else had previously recorded. A chimpanzee (pan troglodyte) she named David Greybeard, with his arched back covered in elegant black hair to her, was using some mechanism to eat ants out of a mound. What she discovered once he left, was long stalks of grass lying around the mound, which she hypothesized had been used to both disturb the ants and collect them. Later, she observed something that both confirmed…
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In the primate world, rank is everything. Because humans are primates, it’s easy to see how power dynamics and relationships in groups play a massive role in our own societies. In chimpanzee societies alike, ranking behavior is also a part of their way of life. The course of history has been changed time and time again by conflict, affecting untold and innumerable outcomes. In the chimpanzee world at Gombe, the events taking place in the name of power may change this group forever.
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Brad Meltzer is a historian, host of the History Channel’s ‘Decoded’ and a best selling mystery and thriller author. So what is he doing writing children’s books? Meltzer is fueled by the notion that we can all be heroes. Through the lens of history, he provides children (and adults) an illustrated portal into the everyday people who made choices to do great things. The books in his series “Ordinary People Change the World” were a clear response to the absence of literature for young people providing that theme – that ANYONE can be someone worth remembering for all that they’ve accomplished. That…
