By Sydney Williams
WEN and Loud Spring at SF Environment event in San Francisco - Soko Made, Anya Deepak, Kalie Granier, and Elodie Vidal Masson. Photograph by Sara Gulick Lanning.
Across the nation, everyday people, community groups and nonprofits have risen up to help make sustainable changes for the betterment of our planet, as the need for climate intervention grows ever more urgent. While the names of Al Gore and David Attenborough are arguably most recognizable in environmentalism, women have been at the forefront of championing this cause from Greta Thunberg to Isha Clarke, Leila Salazar-López and Mindy Lubber to name a few. In California, the environmental work of women is as expansive and intertwined as the roots of our redwoods.
Joyce Ganthavorn, Vice President for Women’s Environmental Network and Administrative Analyst for the City and County of San Francisco.
In 1997 the Women’s Environmental Network (WEN) of the San Francisco Bay Area was born from a shared belief that we needed more women in environmental leadership roles to affect change. Since then, WEN has existed to create and empower a community of women working to protect the environment. “Similar to our founders, our Board of Directors believes it is crucial to provide a safe space for women working in the environmental sector to find their own leadership style and their tribe,” shared Joyce Ganthavorn, Vice President for Women’s Environmental Network. This is done through networking events, leadership events, peer to peer mentoring cohorts, spotlighting women who are inspirational and sourcing ideas for all of these from our members.”
With Earth Day around the corner, WEN and many other women across the state are rolling up their sleeves to not only celebrate our planet, but also to raise awareness of how our everyday lives have such a direct effect on its longevity and the quality of life of future generations.
In honor of Earth Day and the ever-growing need for sustainable practices in the Bay Area, we chatted with Joyce Ganthavorn, who concurrently holds the position of Administrative Analyst for the City and County of San Francisco.
How do you commemorate Earth Day and how do you encourage others to do the same?
Each year I reflect how I live and access my daily habits. A couple of years ago while I was visiting my birth country, Thailand, I was saddened by the amount of single-use plastic that littered the beach. As I collected the trash I encountered, I thought about how I use plastic in my own life and where I can make changes to cut back. My goal of the year was to incorporate more reusable items into my life. As I do so, I am also able to invite my family and friends to participate in adapting more sustainable practices in their own lives. Action first starts with ourselves.
WEN Board Members - starting at the top moving clockwise: Erica Warren, Joyce Ganthavorn, Cinndy Erickson, Ruby Tumber, Soko Made, Talia Arbit, Shahira Esmail, Anya Deepak.
Can you tell us a bit about WEN’s approach to empowering women to advance into leadership roles in the environmental field? Can you share a success story?
All of our events and spotlights focus on connecting women to each other, directly or indirectly. Our most popular events are storytelling salons in which invited speakers talk about their career trajectory and all the people, wins and failures that got them there. Then we go into breakout rooms with our members to discover each other’s stories.
Seeing yourself reflected in someone that has emerged a leader can be very powerful. To match our diverse membership, we bring diverse speakers to share about their journeys, in turn helping members see their own selves as successful leaders.
One success story from this past year was when we decided to launch our peer to peer mentoring program (WENtorship). In the fall 2020 cohort of WENtorship, we had 25 women focus on zeroing in on their values, building their resumes, asking for informational interviews, applying for jobs and promotions, refreshing their LinkedIn profiles and finding opportunities through volunteering. The cohort met for 7 consecutive weeks to tackle each of the topics, graduating out as confident and resourceful leaders with 25 new accountability partners. Many of them still keep in touch and lift each other up in ways beyond what our little program could have done.
Can you speak to recent news surrounding environmental sustainability and one or more issues WEN has specifically been working to address?
It is very important to us to reflect the diversity of our members on our board. As our board gets more diverse, we see members from many sectors, levels and identities find a community in us. But we are still missing a large group of women who do not think of themselves as environmentalists - not in small part due to systemic racial inequities and active discouragement from the environmental community - but also not seeing themselves in the women we appoint to the board, invite to the events or spotlight. Moreover, because WEN has always been a professional network, it may discourage students and others thinking of joining the environmental force from seeing themselves as members.
Without Black, Latina, Indigenous and non-cisgender women, we will never be a wholesome community. We are working to fix this through our board recruitment (going on currently), the questions we ask to qualify speakers, bloggers and women we spotlight, and the type of events we host.
Are there any upcoming events we may invite our readers to attend?
Yes! We have a virtual event coming up this June 3rd from 5:30pm till 7pm, where we lead a conversation focused on empowering women’s leadership styles. Because so many industries are male dominated, the qualities that are interpreted as effective leadership are traditionally masculine. It forces women to adapt or leaves women out. Traditional leadership models miss out on the values women have for the role.
With this event, the goal is to help women find their balance in masculine and feminine styles of leadership - turning the eurocentric philanthropy-based leadership model for nonprofits on its head; helping BIPOC women lean into their own style of leadership; helping women take on the challenges and pressures of leadership roles and providing them mental and emotional support to transition to a balance of traditional and matriarchal / egalitarian leadership styles. The event is going to have elements of storytelling and role playing. Considering our members are women in the environmental sector, it is even more essential that we lean into leadership styles that bring us in alignment with the earth and not away from it.
In light of the COVID-19 pandemic that we are still working to overcome, so much has changed: home life, social life, workplace dynamics, the economy, policy, and the environment. Like all of us, WEN has been put to the test in their ability to be adaptive and creative. As put by Joyce Ganthavorn, “During this year I grew a deeper appreciation of the simple things in life I often take for granted. This pandemic has been a challenge for all of us. It has forced us to come up with creative solutions we once thought were impossible.”
As women continue to rise to leadership roles in environmental sustainability, creative and adaptive strategies are evolving to rescue our dying planet. WEN hosts regular events, led by an all-volunteer board. To donate and learn more, visit WENCal.org.
This interview was edited for length and clarity.