Ayana Elizabeth Johnson

Background

Recent winner of the Earth Award from Time magazine, Johnson is a marine biologist, climate policy expert, and author working on the best possible climate future. Her book What if We Get it Right? Visions of Climate Futures brings together essays, interviews, data, and art to guide the reader through climate solutions that profoundly influence the future of our planet. She hosts a popular podcast and newsletter of the same name, and she is co-founder of the Urban Ocean Lab, a think tank for the future of coastal cities like Houston. 

Previously, she co-edited the bestselling anthology All We Can Save, co-created and co-­hosted the Spotify/Gimlet podcast How to Save a Planet, and co-­authored the Blue New Deal, a roadmap for including the ocean in climate policy. As executive director of the Waitt Institute, she co-founded the Blue Halo Initiative and led the Caribbean’s first successful island-wide ocean zoning effort. Early in her career, she developed U.S. federal ocean policy at the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. 

She is the Roux Distinguished Scholar at Bowdoin College in Maine which includes coastal campuses with top science centers. She earned her BA in environmental science and public policy from Harvard University and a PhD in marine biology from Scripps Institution Oceanography. She serves on the board of directors for Patagonia and GreenWave, and on the advisory board of Environmental Voter Project. Ayana inspires practical optimism in her climate fight, asserting she’s “in love with climate solutions.” 

Generously sponsored by Robin and Mike Bullington, Mary Cubanski and Don Griffin, Ann Hamilton, and Rebecca and Scott McCay.