Carolyn Finney, PhD is a storyteller, author and a cultural geographer who is deeply interested in issues related to identity, difference, creativity, and resilience. Grounded in both artistic and intellectual ways of knowing (pursuing an acting career for eleven years and backpacking around the world before returning to school to complete three degrees), she is passionate about interrogating our past and dreaming a future that is liberatory, just and green. Along with public speaking, writing, media engagements and consulting, she served on the National Parks Advisory Board and is the author of numerous publications, most notably her first book, Black Faces, White Spaces: Reimagining the Relationship between African Americans and the Great Outdoors (2014). She was a Fulbright Scholar, a Canon National Parks Science Scholar and has received two Mellon Fellowships, including a residency at the New York Botanical Gardens. She is currently working on her second book and is a scholar/artist in residence in the Franklin Environmental Center at Middlebury College.