Checking In With Suzanne Pierre, Ph.D.

Young Leaders Award recipient Suzanne Pierre is an ecologist and biogeochemist who is pairing science with social organizing to address the climate crisis. She is the founder and executive director of the Critical Ecology Lab, a national environmental research and social impact institution producing original scientific research, training professionals and the public, and changing the climate narrative to create pathways to justice and sustainability. Pierre holds a doctorate in ecology and biogeochemistry from Cornell University and specializes in the cycling of carbon and nitrogen in plant and soil ecosystems across scales. She is based in the California Bay Area.

We recently checked in with Suzanne to learn more about her background and plans for the conservation and regeneration of the planet.

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WS: Could you start by telling us a bit about yourself and what inspired you to embark on your current project (i.e. work that you are focusing on while in YLA)?

SP: I am an immigrant daughter of a South Indian mother and Haitian father. I was born and raised on the unceded territory of the Algonquin tribes, known today as New Jersey. I have been dedicated to social justice and the wellbeing that equitable societies can enable and maintain, and have been a social organizer for justice since high school. Alongside these principles, I also am a scientist by nature and by training, and have connected my passion for nature with my propensity for inquiry. Together, these core aspects of who I am have led me to an inevitable goal in life: to study the effects of human injustice on the functioning of natural ecological systems, to organize other scholars and communities to do this work, and together, to bring about a better pathway towards social and ecological wellbeing. My current project is the Critical Ecology Lab, a scientific and cultural institution building the capacity for researchers, creatives, and community members to understand global environmental change and make social and political change for good. The Lab is an institution that fills a necessary but unexplored void in climate change solutions by directly addressing the root social causes of harmful environmental transformations caused by humans, and making that information part of science and social education.

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WS: How might receiving the Walking Softer Young Leaders Award affect your project? 

SP: The Walking Softer YLA will definitely be a capacity-expanding transformation for the Critical Ecology Lab project. Like many new initiatives, our ability to plan for the future based on a well-developed mission and vision is constrained by our leadership and staff capacity. The YLA has provided resources to free-up time for deeper planning and strategy to achieve our impact goals.

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WS: What have been some of the biggest challenges you've faced while working on your initiative? How have you overcome these obstacles, thus far?

SP: I have experienced a number of challenges in the sense that my organization is very different from the traditional model of how scientific research is done. Most academic grade research is done within the context of the university, and often nature is not studied through the lens of disparities in power. Both the approach that we take to studying environmental change, as well as our formation as an independent institution, has created resistance around support for the lab from funders and some in the scientific community. Furthermore, we are held to a different standard than academic institutions that produce discovery based research. Our commitment to centering communities situated in the environments and social conditions we study can make it challenging for us to produce findings and solutions that can help society because we are balancing many responsibilities and stakeholders in communities that universities do not.

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WS: Could you share a particular success story from your project that you feel proud of?

SP: This year, I have seen more engagement and outreach to the Critical Ecology Lab from people from all walks of life who want to be involved in what we do. From people interested in working as staff members, to students involved in research wanting to partner with us, to educators and community organizers who think that we can support their efforts, I have been overwhelmed by the outpouring of engagement. While I don’t know the total number, and I should (!), it has been the most affirming metric that we are doing what we are supposed to be doing, and we are doing something that the world truly needs.

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WS: Where do you see your project in the next five years? What are your long-term goals for expanding or evolving your work?

SP: In the next five years, the Critical Ecology Lab will be the leading research institution and a people’s think tank focused on shifting everything that society understands about the way that humans shape our planet. We will be a convener of dialogues among the grassroots communities who have been most oppressed by capitalist environmental change as well as leaders making decisions about public and private interventions. My long-term goal is for schools across the world to teach students that the human fingerprint on the planet has looked one way for several centuries, but that it can change. In order to change, we must understand what that fingerprint has looked like with the same granularity that we would study cancer.

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WS: Lastly, how can people learn more about your work, and what can they do to support or get involved in your project?

SP: People can learn more about our work through our website and via Instagram @critical_ecology. At this time, we are developing our organizational structure, as well as research and outreach programs. You can help us build our capacity by contributing to our general operations funds, which helps support the people who are doing this organizational development work. We welcome emails at criticalecologylab@inquiringsystems.org for any other ideas or contributions folks want to share.

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Learn More about Suzanne's work:

Critical Ecology Lab Instagram

Critical Ecology Lab Website