BIPoC Outside

Brittany Leavitt is a jill of all trades in the climbing community as an educator, instructor, athlete, and community organizer. She is also a founding member and now Executive Director of Brown Girls Climb; a national non-profit which strives to facilitate mentorship, provide access, uplift leadership, and celebrate representation in the outdoors and climbing for People of the Global Majority. We had the opportunity to sit down wi...

Alison Mariella Désir is an endurance athlete, author, activist, mental health advocate, the mind behind PBS's Out and Back series, and the founder of Harlem Run, Run for all Women, and the Meaning Through Movement Tour. We had the opportunity to sit down with Alison to discuss her work and comprehensive approach to community building, how exclusionary histories inform the spaces we move through, how racialized bodies move differen...

Dr. Nicole (Nykkie) Lugosi-Schimpf is a world traveler and polyglot. She is also an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Native Studies at the University of Alberta and a qualitative scholar specializing in: International Indigeneity, BIPOC-Indigenous relations (Canada and Central Europe), nation(hood), identity, and structural racism. We had the opportunity to sit down with Nykkie to discuss what inspires her work, how to both te...

Tori Baird is a canoeist and wilderness adventurer who has expeditioned in some of Canada's most rugged, remote, and wild places, often with her boys and dogs in tow. She also runs "Paddle Like a Girl," outdoors' skill-building and canoeing workshops that are geared to women. Tori paused her most recent adventure to chat with us about her expeditions, remote wilderness, back country, and water risks and planning, the additional pla...

Guarina Lopez is a Yaqui citizen, visual artist, storyteller, cyclist and the Founder of Native Women Ride & The Indigenous Cycling Collective We had the opportunity to sit down with Guarina to discuss her work, how culture comes first, the roots of the problem with environmentalism and feminism, the cycling space, the wild west of social media, building solidarity by respecting individual agency, and the Carlisle 200; Guarina'...

Teresa Baker is an outdoor diversity activist, writer, and founder of several organizations which most recently includes the In Solidarity Project. We had the opportunity to sit down with Teresa to discuss African American National Park Event, retracing the route of the Buffalo Soldiers, overcoming fear, breaking the mold of the outdoor person, giving people space to make mistakes, bringing humility to the work, authentic storytell...

Jose Gonzalez is a professional educator, conservationist, artist, community builder, the co-founder of the Outdoorist Oath, and founder of Latino Outdoors. We had the opportunity to sit down with Jose to discuss Latino Outdoors, making structural changes to our approach to environmental conservation, education, engagement and inclusion, the spectrum of nearby nature to far away wilderness, and the power that comes when we build co...

Dr. Lydia Jennings is a soil scientist, science communicator, educator, and long-distance runner. We had the opportunity to sit down with Lydia to discuss her work, environmental policy impacts, Indigenous data sovereignty, the cultural history of spaces, running to decode land, 50 Miles for 50 Indigenous Scientists, disrupting deficit narratives, celebrating #LandBack at the Boston Marathon, and building relationship with place.  

Mardi Fuller is an Outdoors Woman, fully and unapologetically. She is also a multi-sport athlete, outdoor educator, and outdoor leader. We had the opportunity to sit down with Mardi to discuss the White Mountain region of New Hampshire, the opportunity cost of being in the outdoors as a racialized person, the ridiculousness of 'firsts', ski bum culture, racial literacy, water safety in Black communities, and the importance of claim...

James Edward Mills is a freelance journalist, contributor to National Geographic Magazine, a Fellow of the Mountain & Wilderness Writing Program of the Banff Centre in Alberta, Canada, a professional educator, and a recipient of the Paul K. Petzoldt Award For Environmental Education. He is also the author of “The Adventure Gap: Changing the Face of the Outdoors” and the co-writer/co-producer of the documentary film “An American Asc...

Ruandy Albisurez is a multisport athlete, professional sports photographer, mountain bike educator, community organizer, and the founder of Warpaint Magazine, filling the gap in media coverage of BIPoC folk in the outdoors. We had the opportunity to sit down with Ruandy to discuss his career and community work, problematic narratives in traditional sports media, extractive journalist practices when working in the global south, the ...

Patricia Cameron is the chair of Outdoor Leadership and Recreation Technology at Pikes Peak State College, Vice-Chair of the Board of Food to Power, and on the board of the Trails and Open Spaces Coalition. She is also a Wilderness First Responder and a Wilderness First Response, First Aid, and Heartsaver CPR instructor, a Certified Interpretive Guide, a Leave No Trace Master Educator, and a 4 times NOLS graduate. 

She was honoured...