Dr. Sarah Jaquette Ray teaches in and chairs the Environmental Studies Department at Humboldt State University. I am finding that I desire to show up for so many things in my full life, that I simply cannot afford to not be present and resourced. The rippling crises from climate and COVID have led me to meditation and an Insight Mindfulness sangha & dharma practice, and opened my heart to my family, my students, my colleagues, and myself in ways that burnout and despair had been preventing. My recent book, A Field Guide to Climate Anxiety, is written for the “climate generation” (college-aged youth), so I’m keenly focused on how to help them cultivate the existential wisdom we all need in order to stay engaged in climate justice for the long haul.

With a background in community organizing, non-profit fundraising, and environmental activism (formerly with Greenpeace USA), I find joy and purpose in forever seeking transformative opportunities for radical collaboration, and community co-creation. I am a co-founder and co-creator with the EcoVista project; an attempt to develop a localized model of grassroots, bottom up “just transition” in college communities and beyond. In pursuing a systems-level approach to problem solving and solution design, I have amassed a diverse body of experiences as a non-traditional student, mother, dreamer, activist, researcher and communicator. Across all areas of my work I seek to co-create opportunities for meaningful dialogue, community based strategy, healing, and design informed by decolonized practice and methodologies.