Carolyn Finney (author) facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Carolyn Finney
Education	Ph.D. in Cultural Geography, Clark University
Occupation	Speaker and author. Formerly Assistant Professor, University of Kentucky
Awards	Fulbright Scholar, Canon National Parks Science Scholars Fellowship, Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship

Carolyn Finney (born 1959) is a talented storyteller, author, artist, and educator. She is currently a scholar-in-residence at Middlebury College. Dr. Finney's work helps us understand how nature and the environment are seen differently by people of different backgrounds in America. She explores how race connects to our experiences with the outdoors.

Early Life and Education

Carolyn Finney grew up in Westchester County, New York. Her parents, who were from Floyd, Virginia, worked as a caretaker and housekeeper for a wealthy family. Carolyn and her two siblings were the only family of color in their neighborhood.

She first started studying liberal arts in college but decided to try acting instead. For 11 years, she worked in television, appearing in commercials and five episodes of the TV show Beauty and the Beast.

After her acting career, Carolyn spent five years traveling. She backpacked through Africa, Asia, and Europe, and even lived in Nepal for a while.

When she returned, she went back to college. She earned her first degree from Fairhaven College at Western Washington University. She studied gender and international development. Later, she got a master's degree from Utah State University, focusing on how communities develop in rural areas around the world. Finally, she earned her Ph.D. in Geography from Clark University.

Career and Impact

From 2007 to 2014, Dr. Finney was a professor at the University of California, Berkeley. She was the only African American professor in her department at that time. After facing challenges in her career there, she moved to the University of Kentucky. She later decided to leave traditional university teaching.

Today, Dr. Finney works with many different groups and organizations. She is a popular public speaker, a visiting academic, a consultant, and a writer. She shares her ideas about race and the environment with a wide audience.

Media Appearances

Dr. Finney has been interviewed by many news outlets. These include The Tavis Smiley Show, MSNBC, NPR, and Vice News Tonight. She has also appeared on various podcasts, like the Meat Eater Hunting Collective podcast and the Bike Nerds podcast. On these shows, she talks about important topics related to race and the environment in the U.S. You can find her podcasts on platforms like Spotify, Apple Podcast, Google Play, IHeartRadio, and YouTube.

During the pandemic, when many events moved online, Dr. Finney started using tools like Zoom, Cisco Webex, and Google Meet. This allowed her to continue her live talks and answer questions from her audience in real time.

Important Book

In 2014, Dr. Finney published her first book, "Black Faces, White Spaces: Reimagining the Relationship of African Americans to the Great Outdoors." This book focuses on how African Americans experience nature and the outdoors in the U.S. She explains that Black people have often faced difficulties in accessing outdoor spaces. She also shows how their experiences have often been overlooked in history and popular culture.

Dr. Finney's book discusses how America's understanding of nature during the environmental movement of the mid-20th century was different from the experiences of Black people. She writes that the relationship Black people have with the outdoors has often been controlled by others.

During the pandemic, more people became interested in her book. This led to many requests for her to speak, consult, and work on creative projects.

Dr. Finney has also written articles for well-known publications like Newsweek, The Guardian, and Outside magazine. She is also a regular writer for The Earth Island Journal.

Current Projects

As of July 2025, Dr. Finney is working on several exciting projects. She has a one-woman show called "The N Word: Nature, Revisited." This show is like an imagined conversation with famous naturalist John Muir. It was performed at the New York Botanical Gardens Humanities Institute in 2021.

She is also working with Emmy-award winning filmmaker Irene Taylor. Irene Taylor is creating an upcoming HBO documentary about how humans connect with trees. Dr. Finney's family story will be part of this film.

Additionally, Dr. Finney is writing a new book. This book will be a personal journey into understanding the complex connections between race, land, and belonging in the United States.

Awards and Recognition

Carolyn Finney has received several important awards and honors for her work:

• She was a Fulbright Scholar in 2001.
• She was a Canon National Parks Science Scholar in 2003.
• She received a Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship in Environmental Studies at Wellesley College.

Selected Writings

Here are some of Dr. Finney's important writings:

• Finney, C. 2020. "The Perils of Being Black in Public: We are all Christian Cooper and George Floyd". The Guardian.
• Finney, C. 2020. "Self-Evident: Reflections on the Invisibility of Black Bodies in Environmental Histories". BESIDE Magazine, Montreal.
• Finney, C. 2019. "This Moment". River Rail: Occupy Colby.
• Finney, C. 2019. "A Thousand Oceans". Geographical Research, Wiley Pub.
• Finney, C. 2018. "The Space Between the Words". Harvard Design Journal.
• Finney, C. 2014. Black Faces, White Spaces: Reimagining the Relationship of African Americans to the Great Outdoors. University of North Carolina Press.
• Finney, C. 2014. "Doing it Old School: Reflections on Giving Back". Journal of Research Practice Athabasca University Press, Canada
• Finney, C. 2013. "Ode to New York: A Performance Piece". Center for Humans and Nature.
• Finney, C. 2013. "Brave New World? Ruminations on Race in the 21st Century". Antipode (early view online Wiley-Blackwell).
• Finney, C. 2012. "Child’s Play: Finding the Green in the In Between". In Companions in Wonder: Reflections on Children and Adults Exploring Nature, Julie Dunlap and Steven Kellert (eds.). MIT Press.