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Allison
Aston and Michelle Smith
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Jeanne
Leff, Marion Grossman, and Judi Sorensen
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Rachel
Hovnanian
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Somers
White with Tiffany models
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Earlier
this month the National Audubon Society held its second annual
Women in Conservation luncheon at the Metropolitan Club
and honored four exceptional women with the Rachel Carson Award.
The Award was created last year to honor visionary women whose
contributions, talent and energy have advanced conservation and
environmental education locally and on a global scale, and named
for the woman whose landmark book “Silent Spring” had
such an enormous impact and led to the banning of the use of
DDT.
The four honorees were: Margaret Wittenberg, Vice President of Marketing
and Public Affairs for Whole Foods Market, Inc. Ms. Wittenberg is
a nationally recognized expert in the natural and organic foods industry,
author of three food and nutrition books, and a member of numerous
advisory boards related to pesticide reduction and concerns about
genetic engineering. This year, Wittenberg has spearheaded the launch
of the Animal Compassion Foundation, to provide education and research
to assist and inspire ranchers and meat producers around the world
to achieve a higher standard of animal welfare excellence while still
maintaining economic viability.
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Cornelia
Bregman and Mark Gilbertson
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John
Flicker, Bernadette Castro, Kay Kelley Arnold, and Carol
Browner
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Bernadette
Castro is the Commissioner of New York State Office
of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, appointed by
Governor Pataki in 1995. She has successfully protected one of
the oldest, most complex and beautiful park systems in the country,
while also ensuring interesting experiences for the parks 65
million visitors each year. During her tenure, the park system
has grown by 20 percent, adding 19 new state parks. And in 2003
New York’s park system was voted the best in the country.
Kay Kelley Arnold is a former member of Governor Bill Clinton’s
gubernatorial cabinet and now serves as Vice President, Public Affairs, at Entergy
Corporation – influencing its community environmental initiatives, overseeing
the company’s political action committee, EnPAC, and serving as Vice Chairman
of the Entergy Charitable Foundation. In the 1980s, Arnold began the effort that
acquired and protected the bottomland hardwood forests surrounding the Cache
River in Arkansas. Launched with a 380-acre parcel, the refuge has grown to 55,000
acres today and provides habitat for diverse wildlife including the Ivory-billed
Woodpecker.
Mae Jemison flew aboard the space shuttle Endeavour
on September 12, 1992, becoming the first woman of color to go into
space. But the space flight was just one of a series of her great
accomplishments. Dr. Jemison entered Stanford University as a scholarship
student at age 16 and later earned a medical degree from Cornell
University. Dr. Jemison also served as the Area Peace Corps medical
officer for Sierra Leone and Liberia in West Africa for 2 1/2 years.
Carol Browner, chairwoman of the National Audubon Society, presented
the awards. Chairwomen for the event were Karen Clark, Ann Colley, Fernanda
Kellogg, Allison Rockefeller and Tracy Snyder.
This second annual luncheon was very successful – the room
was packed. Tiffany provided their own version of a rare sighting with Jean
Schlumberger’s famous “Plumes” necklace which was
worn by Somers White Farkas, one of New York’s most stylish
women. Somers is only the second woman to wear the fabled necklace which was
created by Schlumberger in 1960 for Fiona von Thyssen-Bornemisza,
then the wife of Heinie Thyssen. Made of rubies, sapphires,
and diamonds and sculpted in platinum and 18-karat gold, the design emulates
an exotic breed’s long brilliant-color feathers unfurled in sleek unruffled
fashion.
Audubon is celebrating its centennial year of protecting birds and other wildlife
and the habitat that supports them. Its national network of community-based nature
centers and chapters, scientific and educational programs, and advocacy on behalf
of areas sustaining important bird populations, engage millions of people of
all ages and backgrounds in positive conservation experiences. |
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Joanne
de Guardiola and Linda Lambert
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Lynn
Chase, Renee Landegger, Margo Langenberg, and Linda Phebus
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Anne
Rapp, Renee Landegger, Margo Langenberg, and Dawn Mangrum
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Maria
Hackley, Robyn Joseph, Shelley Carr, and Carol McNierney
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Ursula
Lowerre, Yaz Hernandez, and Cece Black
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Somers
White and Allison Stern
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Maggie
Norris and Patty Raynes
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Stephanie
Krieger and Ann Ames
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| Photographs
by Gabriela Maj/PMc |
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