Dorceta Taylor facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Dorceta E. Taylor
Born	Dorceta E. Taylor 1957 (age 68–69) Jamaica
Nationality	Jamaican
Alma mater	Yale University, Northeastern Illinois University
Occupation	Environmental sociologist and historian
Notable work	People and the Environment in American Cities, 1600s-1900s, Toxic Communities, "The Rise of the American Conservation Movement"
Scientific career
Institutions	Yale School of the Environment, University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability

Dorceta E. Taylor is an American environmental sociologist. She is well-known for her important work on environmental justice and understanding racism within the environmental movement. She helps lead efforts for diversity, equity, and inclusion at the Yale School of the Environment. There, she is also a professor who teaches about environmental justice.

Before joining Yale, she worked at the University of Michigan's School for Environment and Sustainability (SEAS). She was the director of diversity, equity, and inclusion there. Dr. Taylor's research covers many topics. These include environmental history, how people get fair treatment in the environment, and how different groups are involved in environmental work. She also studies things like food access and farming in cities.

Dr. Taylor's work has won many awards. Her 2009 book, The Environment and the People in American Cities: 1600s-1900s, was the first book to tell the history of environmental unfairness in America. Her 2014 book Toxic Communities is considered a very important book for understanding environmental justice. Another book, The Rise of the American Conservation Movement, helps readers think differently about environmental history.

Early Life and Education

Dorceta Taylor was born and grew up in the countryside of Jamaica. She studied Environmental Studies and Biology at Northeastern Illinois University in Chicago. She earned her first degree with honors in 1983.

She then went to Yale University. She earned a master's degree in forest science in 1985. She continued her studies, getting two more master's degrees in 1988. In 1991, she earned a special doctoral degree from Yale. It was a joint degree in sociology and environmental studies. She was the first African American woman to earn a doctoral degree from the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies.

Academic Career and Achievements

After her studies, Dr. Taylor received a special fellowship in 1991. This allowed her to study how minority groups in Britain worked for environmental causes. She did her research at the University College of London. In 1992, she received another fellowship at the University of Michigan.

In 2010, she won an award for her book, Environment and the People in American Cities, 1600s-1900s. From 2012 to 2013, Dr. Taylor led the Environment and Technology Section of the American Sociological Association.

In 2012, she started leading a big project. This project, funded by the United States Department of Agriculture, looked at how different racial and income groups in Michigan had access to food.

The city of San Francisco honored her in 2014. They recognized her as one of 29 Black environmentalists who made "real and lasting change."

In 2015, Dr. Taylor became a special professor at the University of Michigan. She also became the Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion for their School for Environment and Sustainability.

In 2018, many important environmental groups honored her. She received the Rachel Carson Award from the National Audubon Society. She also won the Freudenburg Lifetime Achievement Award. The National Science Foundation gave her a Presidential Award for her work in mentoring. She also received awards from the University of Michigan and the Detroit Audubon Society.

In 2021, Dr. Taylor made history again. She became the first Senior Associate Dean of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at the Yale School of the Environment.

Working for Diversity in Environmental Groups

Dr. Taylor started her work on racial fairness in the environmental movement in 1989. She wrote many articles about this topic in the early 1990s. In 2014, she wrote a very important report. This report showed that environmental groups were not including many different kinds of people in their leadership. This report caused a lot of discussion. The report was requested by the Green 2.0 group. This group still tracks how diverse the largest environmental organizations are.

To continue this work, Dr. Taylor published an updated report in 2018. This report looked at diversity in over 2,000 American environmental non-profit groups. In 2019, she published new research about why many environmental groups don't report their diversity information.

Helping Future Environmental Leaders

With money from the Joyce Foundation, Dr. Taylor started the Multicultural Environmental Leadership Development Initiative (MELDI) in 2003. She organized national and international meetings in 2005 and 2007. These meetings aimed to see how diverse the environmental field was and to plan for more diversity in the future.

Dr. Taylor also led four studies on diversity. These studies were published in important science and education journals.

Environmental Fellows Program (EFP)

In 2015, Dr. Taylor started the Environmental Fellows Program (EFP). This program works with the Environmental Grantmakers Association. The EFP helps make the environmental and conservation fields more diverse. It offers paid summer internships for graduate students. These internships are at partner foundations and non-profit organizations. The program helps students from backgrounds that are not often seen in environmental jobs. It connects them with mentors and gives them real-world experience.

Doris Duke Conservation Scholars Program (DDCSP YSE)

Also in 2015, Dr. Taylor began the Yale School of the Environment branch of the Doris Duke Conservation Scholars Program (DDCSP). This program helps make the conservation field more diverse. It gives opportunities to students from underrepresented backgrounds. It also helps those who care about diversity, equity, and inclusion. Through this program, about 20 college students get experience each summer. One summer they do lab research, and the next summer they intern with environmental groups.

Conferences for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

In 2018, the New Horizons in Conservation Conference took place in Washington, D.C. Dr. Taylor led this event. More than 200 students, teachers, and environmental professionals attended. Most of them were people of color. They met to celebrate and check on diversity, equity, and inclusion in the environmental world. This was a big moment in conservation history.

Dr. Taylor said that the students and young professionals at the conference are "the future of conservation." She added, "They are multicultural, multi-faceted, and talented, and they are poised to take on leadership roles in this sector. Diversity benefits us all, and there is strength in it." The conference included many speakers, community building, and career help.

The New Horizons in Conservation Conference is now held every year. It brings together people from backgrounds not often seen in conservation. It also welcomes those who believe in diversity, equity, and inclusion. People from all over the country attend. They come from different jobs and career stages. This includes students, teachers, environmental workers, and elected officials. The conference helps connect people and offers workshops and field trips. It also features leaders and thinkers in the field. The second conference was in Chicago in 2019. The 2020 conference was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2021, the conference was held online by the Yale School of the Environment. Over 800 people from many countries joined. The 2022 conference was held in New Haven, Connecticut.

Justice, Equity, Diversity and Sustainability Initiative (JEDSI)

In 2021, Dr. Taylor started the Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Sustainability Initiative (JEDSI) at the Yale School of the Environment. JEDSI looks at how social differences, people's experiences, and environmental results are connected. JEDSI focuses on eight main areas. These include environmental history, how people see nature, environmental unfairness, and food access. It also studies diversity in organizations and programs that help diverse people get into environmental careers.

Work on Environmental Justice

Dr. Taylor's award-winning book, The Environment and the People in American Cities (2009), looked at environmental problems in American cities from the 1600s to the 1900s. She showed how race, social class, and gender played a role as city residents dealt with environmental issues. The book also showed that environmental unfairness started early in American cities. It continued in ways that were both planned and unplanned. This book was the first of three.

The second book in her series, The Rise of the American Conservation Movement (2016), explores how the American conservation movement began. It shows how race, class, and gender affected every part of the movement. This included how parks were created and how people enjoyed outdoor activities. One expert said this book helps readers rethink what they thought they knew about environmental history.

Dr. Taylor's third book in the series is Toxic Communities: Environmental Racism, Industrial Pollution, and Residential Mobility (2014). This book tells the story of how minority and low-income communities in the U.S. have been polluted. It looks at different ideas about why racial minorities and poor people often live near polluting factories. The book explains how unfair housing rules in the past forced minorities to live near polluting industries. This book is considered very important for understanding environmental justice.

Work on Food Access

From 2012 to 2018, Dr. Taylor worked with other researchers. They studied food access in Michigan. They launched a website called Food Access in Michigan (FAIM) in August 2018. The study looked at how people's backgrounds relate to where food stores are located in 18 cities in Michigan. It also looked at ways to improve nutrition and help people get more food.

These issues were studied in many towns across Michigan. These cities have large populations of different racial and ethnic groups. These include Black, Hispanic, Native American, Asian, and Arab communities.

Awards and Recognition

• Recognition for Distinguished Service to the university and to Higher Education, Northeastern Illinois University, 1993
• Recognition for Outstanding Environmental Achievement, Northeastern Illinois University, 1993
• Profiled in the National Research Council's Excellence Through Diversity: Profiles of Forty-Two Ford Foundation Fellows, Washington, D.C., 1996
• Recognition of Leadership in the Yale Forest Forum and the Seventh Forest Congress, Forest Congress Board,1996
• Biography included in the Directory of American Scholars, 11th ed., Gale Group, MI: Farmington Hills, 2001
• Edward P. Bass Distinguished Visiting Environmental Scholars Program fellowship, Yale University, 2005
• Telluride Honors Program Summer Teaching Fellow. University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, 2010
• Allan Schnaiberg Outstanding Publication Award for book, Environment and the People in American Cities, 1600s-1900s: Disorder, Inequality and Social Change, The Environment and Technology Section of the American Sociological Association, 2010
• Harold R. Johnson Diversity Service Award, University of Michigan, 2012
• Black Environmentalists During Black History Month, San Francisco, 2014
• Fred Buttel Distinguished Contribution Award, American Sociological Association, 2015
• Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies Outstanding Alumni Award, 2015
• Charles Horton Cooley Award, Michigan Sociological Association, 2015
• Burton V. Barnes Award for Academic Excellence, Sierra Club Michigan Chapter, 2017
• University of Michigan Distinguished Faculty Achievement Award, 2018
• President's Award from the Detroit Audubon Society, 2018
• Women in Conservation Rachel Carson Award, the National Audubon Society, 2018
• Freudenburg Lifetime Achievement Award, Association of Environmental Science and Studies, 2018
• National Science Foundation Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics & Engineering Mentoring, 2018
• Featured in Women in Leadership Exhibit, Smithsonian Institution - Anacostia Museum, 2019
• EcoWorks Sustainable Communities Champion Award, EcoWorks Detroit, 2020
• Wilbur Cross Medal, Yale Graduate School Alumni Association, 2020,
• Recognized by AARP as one of 8 Leaders Who Carry On Martin Luther King Jr.'s Legacy, 2020
• Recognized by Green America as one of the 8 Black Leaders Who've Revolutionized the Climate Movement, 2020
• Celebrated as a Black Environmental Leader, Environmental Defense Fund,2020
• Seal of Michigan, Michigan Legislative Black Caucus, 2020
• Women in Sustainability Award, Envision Charlotte and Wells Fargo, 2020
• Recognized by LiveKindly as one of 7 Black Environmentalists Shaping the Future, 2021
• Inducted as a Fellow in the American College of Environmental Lawyers, 2021

Selected Publications

Books

• Taylor, D.E. (2009). The Environment and the People in American Cities, 1600s-1900s: Disorder, Inequality and Social Change. Durham Duke University.
• Taylor, D.E. (2010). Environment and Social Justice: An International Perspective Vol: 18. Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
• Taylor, D.E. (2014). Toxic Communities: Environmental Racism, Industrial Pollution, and Residential Mobility. New York University Press.
• Taylor, D.E. (2016). The Rise of the American Conservation Movement: Power, Privilege, and Environmental Protection. Duke University Press.

See also

• Diversity, equity, and inclusion
• Environmental history of the United States