Equity, Inclusion & Diversity

Meet Audrey Galo, NatureBridge’s new Equity and Inclusion Director. Audrey (she/her) lives in Vallejo, CA, and embodies a rich cultural heritage as a result of growing up in Chicago with Central American roots.

Miho Aida, a long-time educator at our Golden Gate campus, was recently named NatureBridge's new Director of Equity, Inclusion & Diversity. We sat down with Miho to talk about equity, inclusion and diversity work at NatureBridge and learned how Miho's past is indelibly connected to EI&D work.

Now a highly valued and respected Board Emeritus, Linda Brownstein helped NatureBridge weather some of the organization’s most difficult crises through the years. She turned significant vision into reality and created the space for new policy ideation and strategic planning. “It changed how I live my daily life — supporting other environmental causes, recycling, composting, organic farming…some of the most impactful things I've done have really been from NatureBridge.”

Miho has dedicated her life’s work to increasing visibility and access to environmental education, careers, public lands and outdoor adventure for those whom our system has failed to provide these opportunities. Miho’s journey with NatureBridge began in 2000 as an Environmental Science Educator at our Golden Gate National Recreation Area campus, on the traditional territory of Coast Miwok, Ohlone and Graton Rancheria.

At NatureBridge, we work to increase access to our parks and provide safe, inclusive experiences for all of our students. But is it enough to increase access? Can we guarantee the safety of our black and brown students beyond the confines of our national park classrooms? Can we say, with confidence, that these are your public lands, that you can experience and enjoy them without fear? That in these spaces you will be regarded and treated equitably?

Less than one year after California wildfires led to the closure of our Southern California campus, Boeing generously granted NatureBridge $120,000 to support environmental science education for Southern California kids at our campus in Yosemite National Park, enabling hundreds of transformative experiences.

Educator Jasmin Gonzalez shares her perspective on inclusivity in the outdoors through the lens of a group of sixth grade students from Davis Middle School in Compton, California.

Harold Galvez of Vine Street Elementary School has been working toward making a NatureBridge trip a reality for his students for nearly 10 years. And on February 18, he’ll accompany 34 sixth grade students to Yosemite National Park—a first-time trip for almost the entire group. 

Longtime partner REI donated 250 sustainable “Outdoors for Everyone Poncho” to our Olympic campus, helping all kids feel like they belong by ensuring that they stay dry and comfortable during programs in the often inclement Pacific Northwest weather.