Celebrate International Biodiversity Day on May 22 with two powerful youth leaders who are creating a thriving future for all life on Earth. Planet Women is delighted to welcome Isabella Cortes Lara and Roshan (Rosie) Khan for a conversation about activism, art, advice for aspiring leaders and how to counter environmental alarmism with optimism
If you need a jolt of energy and inspiration, then this is the conversation for you! You’ll leave with concrete ideas for how to take action to protect biodiversity and how to incorporate creativity into your activism. We’ll save plenty of time for Q&A so you can connect directly with these leaders.
Isabella Cortes Lara, Director of Conservation, Women for Conservation
Isabella Cortes is a passionate conservationist and artist, born in the Andean mountains of Cauca, Colombia. She has a degree in Wildlife and Fisheries Management and Conservation Ecology from West Virginia University. Presently, Isabella is the Director of Conservation for Women for Conservation, a nonprofit that empowers women in rural communities around Key Biodiversity Areas. Also, she directs two nature reserves in northern Colombia. Isabella has the great honor of a new species of hummingbird named after her, Eriocnemis isabellae listed on the IUCN Red List as Critically Endangered. As a muralist, she creates interactive art designed to educate people on the importance of endemic species and their conservation. Her main interests are reducing habitat loss, establishment of protected areas, saving endangered species, sex education and establishing successful community engagement programs. She currently lives in the Sierra Nevada of Santa Marta, Colombia. In her free time, she loves to dance, paint, sing, run, travel and rock climb.
Roshan Khan, Co-Founder of Gen Z for the Trees, Rainforest Partnership
Rosie works for Rainforest Partnership where she is the leader of Gen Z for the Trees, a youth-led initiative that is shifting the narrative on climate change and researching the drivers of deforestation. Rosie is also a founding board member of Women for Weapons Trade Transparency. She recently graduated from University of Texas, Austin with a quintuple-major in Plan II, Government, Economics, International Relations & Global Studies, and Chinese. She’s a writer and aspiring policymaker who’s passionate about taking an interdisciplinary, intersectional approach to problem-solving. She is interested in building the movement for environmental and social justice by reshaping the narrative around economic development, studying how governments should protect human rights, and calling on creative visions to become our solutions to the climate crisis. Outside of my academic and career pursuits, she plays the piano, tends to windowsills full of plants, and practices martial arts with Texas Wushu.