A rice field under feet of brown water – the color that occurs when you mix all other colors together. An endless expanse of forest seen from above, barely, through smoke so thick it seems as though the camera lens was coated in dust. A heat map of our earth, this singular and exceptional orb encased in a purple and green magnetic field, with ice sections top and bottom now so nearly invisible. These are the images that remain with me after ‘Before the Flood’, and they flood my mind with the complications of what it means to fully understand…
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.
We all have strong reactions to words like war, hunger and destruction. We immediately produce images of tragedy – it comes easily as we have been immersed in violence either personally or through film and television for most if not all of our lives. When we think of the word peace however, it is more difficult for us to articulate what we may imagine. Moreover, what we each see or identify as peaceful could be widely different. One thing unites us as we consider peace, however – it is the freedom from distress, from violence and from harm. What would…
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Alice Kaahwa lives on the edge of an important forest. She is a resident of Kyakatemba village in the Hoima district of western Uganda, a village in between the Budongo and Bugoma Forest Reserves which provide a home to more than 1154 chimpanzees and other wild animals. For the last 10 years, the Jane Goodall Institute (JGI) in Uganda has engaged communities on the forest edge in conservation activities intended to reduce dependence on these natural forests for survival while also improving their livelihoods. One of JGI in Uganda’s sustainable livelihood project activities involves introducing energy saving stoves into the…
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Good ideas take little to spread and blossom once they take flight. With a bit of positive pollen, each of us is capable of both learning more about our environment, and transferring that information to others for the benefit of all. At the Kona-Kohala Greenschool in Honaunau and Kapaau, Hawaii, students and educators are idea keepers and took wing to study and report on pollinators – and the result is a swarm of impact. The students at the Kona-Kohala Greenschool realized that sometimes the smallest creatures have the largest role in the circle of life. On the island of Hawaii, the Great…
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Dr. Jane Goodall and JGI know the power of social media can connect far more people much more quickly than any one person could do on their own. This is why social media is Jane’s Fifth Reason For Hope – and why #JanesTrafficStop is going to bring people from across the globe together like never before to work toward finally ending the illegal wildlife trade. Jane’s Traffic Stop Jane’s Traffic Stop is a global social campaign to end wildlife trafficking, and we know that with each of you helping, we can. All of our efforts to save wildlife will be…
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This one is for the kids (and adults) who feel like playtime is time for imagination and being whoever you want to be! Many toy dolls today offer opportunities to children who want to journey into discovery of identity and fantasy through the stories of incredible women. Add on the tasty layer of The Queen’s Treasures® Dr. Jane Goodall 18 inch doll accessories and clothes, and there is no limit to where play and dreaming can take us! Jane Goodall often remarks of her entry into imagination – a portal created by a happenstance gift of a stuffed chimpanzee toy…
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Dr. Jane Goodall and JGI know the power of social media can connect far more people much more quickly than any one person could do on their own. This is why social media is Jane’s Fifth Reason For Hope – and why #JanesTrafficStop is going to bring people from across the globe together like never before to work toward finally ending the illegal wildlife trade. Jane’s Traffic Stop Jane’s Traffic Stop is a global social campaign to end wildlife trafficking, and we know that with each of you helping, we can. All of our efforts to save wildlife will be crippled…
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The Pipe It is interesting that in an era of consolidated messages for use in digital channels, campaigns for justice often develop shortened, “catchy” taglines. These phrases provide a touchstone for unified voices and repeated commitment to a cause – the sound of people fighting together, building on more and more voices when these voices may otherwise be drowned out. “No Dakota Access Pipeline,” or #NoDAPL, emerged as a response to thousands of voices being silenced, and it was heard. It is a term defining North Dakota’s Standing Rock Sioux’s, other First Nations’ and nonnative allies boundless efforts to halt construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline.…
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On September 21st of each year, the whole of the world grows a little brighter in a moment of reflection for a very important reason: Peace. This year, the United Nations Day of Peace will center on Sustainable Development Goals: Building Blocks For Peace. It is at this time in history that we must all unite to address suffering, inequity and environmental destruction – issues that without question we can improve or solve while working together. It is through these Sustainable Development Goals (see how JGI is addressing these goals here) that we set out on a journey toward peace. “We are…
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As children, we were provided imagery of gorillas as being enormous, ancient beasts. King Kong reduced humankind to the size of helpless ants, while humans, consumed by a need to display power over nature and power over this “monster,” reduced Kong to a side show. In the story of Kong, people do not do enough to stop the misunderstanding and wrongful actions toward this giant ape in time. In the stories we write now for our future, will we be able to stop the fall of great apes? Last week, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) listed the…
