The North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission is a state government agency created by the General Assembly in 1947 to conserve and sustain North Carolina's fish and wildlife resources through research, scientific management, wise use, and public input. The Commission is the regulatory agency responsible for the enforcement of NC fishing, hunting, trapping and boating laws.
Dorceta E. Taylor is an American environmental sociologist known for her work on both environmental justice and racism in the environmental movement. She is the senior associate dean of diversity, equity, and inclusion at Yale School of the Environment, as well as a professor of environmental justice. Prior to this, she was the director of diversity, equity, and inclusion at the University of Michigan's School of Environment and Sustainability (SEAS), where she also served as the James E. Crowfoot Collegiate Professor of Environmental Justice. Taylor's research has ranged over environmental history, environmental justice, environmental policy, leisure and recreation, gender and development, urban affairs, race relations, collective action and social movements, green jobs, diversity in the environmental field, food insecurity, and urban agriculture.
Graig R. Meyer is an American politician serving as a Democratic member of the North Carolina Senate. He has represented the 23rd district since 2023. He previously served as a member of the North Carolina House of Representatives, where he was elected to the 50th district seat 4 times. In 2022, Meyer announced his candidacy for District 23 of the North Carolina Senate, that district includes all of Caswell, Orange and Person counties, and was elected to that seat in November 2022.
Yvonne Lewis Holley is an American politician who served as the North Carolina state representative for the 38th district from 2013 to 2021. A member of the Democratic Party, her district consisted of part of Wake County. She was the Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor of North Carolina in the 2020 North Carolina lieutenant gubernatorial election, which she narrowly lost to Mark Robinson.
DeAndrea Salvador is a Democratic member of the North Carolina Senate. She has represented the 39th Senate district since 2021. She is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Renewable Energy Transition Initiative (RETI), a nonprofit that educates communities and leaders about energy conservation and affordability. She was a 2018 TED Fellow. Elected at age 30, Salvador is the youngest Black woman ever to serve in the North Carolina General Assembly.
Anita Earls is an American civil rights attorney who has served as an associate justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court since 2019. She previously served as the executive director of the Southern Coalition for Social Justice, as well as a deputy assistant attorney general in the Civil Rights Division of the United States Department of Justice during the Clinton administration. On November 6, 2018, Earls defeated Republican incumbent Justice Barbara Jackson in a three-candidate election to win a seat on the state's highest court.
Joseph Drew Lanham is an American author, poet and wildlife biologist who in 2022 was awarded a fellowship in the MacArthur Fellows Program for his work "combining conservation science with personal, historical, and cultural narratives of nature."
Corina Newsome is an American ornithologist, birder, science communicator, and graduate student at Georgia Southern University. In response to the racism faced by Black birder Christian Cooper in Central Park, Newsome co-organized Black Birders Week to celebrate Black birders.
Mark Keith Robinson is an American politician who has served as the 35th lieutenant governor of North Carolina since 2021. A member of the Republican Party, he is the first African American to hold the office of lieutenant governor in North Carolina. He is the Republican nominee for Governor of North Carolina in the 2024 election. Robinson defeated Democratic nominee Yvonne Lewis Holley in the 2020 lieutenant gubernatorial election. Robinson has promoted various far-right conspiracy theories, engaged in Holocaust denial, denied sexual assualt allegations against various prominent figures, and has often made inflammatory anti-LGBT, antisemitic, racist, anti-atheist, and Islamophobic statements.
Black Birders Week is a week-long series of online events to highlight black nature enthusiasts and to increase the visibility of black birders, who face unique challenges and dangers when they are engaged in outdoor activities. The event was created as a response to the Central Park birdwatching incident and police brutality against Black Americans. The inaugural event ran from May 31 to June 5, 2020. The week of events was organized by a group of STEM professionals and students known as the BlackAFinSTEM Collective.
Earyn McGee is an American herpetologist and science communicator. She is an American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) IF/THEN Ambassador and a 2020 AAAS Mass Media Science & Engineering Fellow. In response to the racism faced by Black birdwatcher Christian Cooper in the Central Park birdwatching incident, McGee co-organized Black Birders Week to celebrate Black birders.
Naia Butler-Craig is a science communicator and an American aerospace engineer.
Michael Stanley Regan is an American environmental regulator. He has been serving as the 16th administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency since March 11, 2021. He is the first African American man to serve in the role.
BlackInChem is an organization which aims to highlight and increase the visibility of black chemists. The organization was created as a response to Black Birders Week. The inaugural event ran from August 10 - 15, 2020.
Shaundra Bryant Daily is an American professor and author known for her work in the field of human-centered computing and broadening participation in STEM. She is a professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Computer Science at Duke University.
Camille Stewart is an American technology and cybersecurity attorney, public speaker, and entrepreneur. She served as the Senior Policy advisor for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security under the Obama administration from 2015 to 2017 under the Barack Obama administration. She also served as the Head of Product Security Strategy Google after serving as the Lead for Security Policy & Election Integrity, Google Play & Android at Google.
Caren Beth Cooper is an American professor and scholar at North Carolina State University, citizen science advocate, and author of two books on citizen science. Her doctoral dissertation addressed the effects of habitat fragmentation on the Australian passerine. Her scientific publications concentrate primarily on ornithology as well as citizen science contributions to science and diversity, equity, and inclusion in underserved communities.
Chelsea Connor is a Dominican herpetologist and birder. Her research concerns the interaction between native and introduced Anolis lizards in the Commonwealth of Dominica. While a student, she co-founded #BlackBirdersWeek. She is an advocate for Black people in the United States being out in nature, and feeling safer when they do so.
Brooke Locklear Clark is a District Court Judge for Robeson County, North Carolina since she was sworn in on August 1, 2018. Clark is a Robeson County native born in Pembroke, NC.
Ashley Gary is an American science communicator and co-organizer for #BlackBirdersWeek.
