I first experienced Dr. Heather Hackman and her incredibly accessible presentation style at AASHE 2017 in San Antonio. Her ability to help people see how intrinsically connected social justice and environmental sustainability work is and how important it is to approach sustainability using an equity lens was amazing. She talked about privilege, dominant culture, and the dynamics that are negatively impacting much of the current sustainability movement. I was entranced. Her conference session was easily the highlight for me last year and her closing keynote of the conference was a thing of beauty. It’s not every day that there is one particular person who is a catalyst for a shift in ones own trajectory though I say with certainty that Heather happened to be one of those for me. It could be strongly argued that had I not attended that conference and her sessions, this podcast would not exist and I would be eyeballs deep in mathematics and chemistry right now trying to make my way into the renewable energy engineering world. My what a difference a year can make.
Our paths crossed a second time in June of last year when I attended the 2018 NCORE conference in New Orleans. NCORE is the National Conference on Race and Ethnicity in American Higher Education. There, while attending Heathers session I saw a similar display of awesome wisdom being presented this time from a framework of tying social justice work into environmental sustainability and justice work and I was in awe. And so, seeing Heather once again at AASHE 2018 was really special and it was even more special when she agreed to an interview with me.
Heather Hackman is part of Hackman Consulting Group and if you are reading this or after you get done listening and are thinking, “We need this consulting at my work, school, fill in the blank, then please do reach and set something up. The work they are doing at HCG is perhaps some of the most valuable consulting work that can be done at this point in our collective climate and journey. Racial Justice and using an equity lens in the sustainability movement is crucial right now. Heather Hackman knows this and is doing the important work that needs to be done right now. I am grateful.
As always, thanks for tuning in, folks.
A bonus in my humble opinion to this episode is Nathaniel Talbot’s track “Intuition” off his new album Animal. You may just want to consider getting your hands on that at your earliest convenience, too! Oh, and I’ve mentioned this before when I featured Nathaniel’s music on an earlier episode though I really think if you haven’t already, you also might like to have a look at Nathaniel and his wife Annie’s amazing organic farm, Deep Harvest Farm. You can also purchase some top quality seeds from them if you’d like, they’ve sold out presently though they should be available again right around the holidays so be on the lookout!