FY 2019 Annual Report • September 1, 2018 - August 31, 2019
EPI
ALUMNI
• CELEB
ALUMNI
Denham Award
FOR COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT IN CONSERVATION
Leadership Award
EPI strives to inspire lifelong conservation action in the
students that participate in our courses. To that end, EPI
annually offers the Alumni Leadership Award to provide
funding to students who are passionate about pursuing
their own conservation projects. This year, EPI granted
three Leadership Awards to forward-thinking and
creative alumni.
NICOLE XIAO is passionate about pollinators,
and concerned by their declining populations
and diversity. She used her Alumni Leadership
Award from EPI to build native bee boxes: one in her
Moscow, Idaho, high school garden and ten more for a
local native wetlands restoration project. The boxes will
not only help native bees thrive, but also help the new
plants and trees spread in the wetlands by encouraging
the presence of pollinators. Nicole is also putting up
educational signage and will be monitoring the nest
boxes’ success and use.
DEFNE YUKSEL wants to create awareness
of the challenges facing bees by painting
a community mural with local elementary
children on the greenhouse at the Palouse-
Clearwater Environmental Institute. Her aim is to help her
community explore the idea of a world without bees, and
what that might mean for humans, who are often unaware
of the far-reaching and essential role that bees play as
pollinators.
KERRY WONG wants to galvanize her
community to pursue a ban on plastic in her
hometown of Cupertino, California. Kerry asked
EPI for mentoring, rather than a monetary
award. EPI put Kerry in touch with EPI Mexico’s Eco Club,
the Californios Verdes. As a result, Kerry was inspired to
work toward approaching her mayor to propose banning
all single-use plastics. She enacted a public education
campaign by tabling at many community events—and
purchased all her materials by resourcefully collecting
plastic bottles in her neighborhood for their deposits.
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At EPI, we believe that lasting conservation depends on
local community support and engagement. The Denham
Award for Community Engagement in Conservation
celebrates and recognizes scientists, philanthropists, and
NGO leaders around the world who share this vision.
DENHAM AWARD WINNER JOËLLE DE WEERDT, Founder
of ELI-Scientific, is focused on using science to both
learn and teach. ELI-Scientific is developing a science and
education program in Nicaragua that will engage local
communities and the government in gathering data on
cetacean species in the area. The data will then be used to
teach educational workshops, train local fishermen about
eco-tourism safeguards, and empower local leaders to
become representatives for the project.
Joëlle recognizes that scientific research alone is not sufficient
to make significant change. She believes that this collaborative
approach to collecting and sharing data will ultimately lead to
increased awareness on both a local and global scale, making
conservation efforts more far more effective.