WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 2, 2020 1 conservation7:00 law PM foundation FOR MORE THAN50 YEARS Conservation Law Foundation has embodied the New England spirit and led the fight to create healthy, thriving communities for all. This year – this decade – our work together has never been more vital. Our 2020 Green Gala will be a virtual opportunity for reflection, inspiration, and celebration. Together we will hear local and national voices of action, hope, and change. During our free virtual program we will recognize Brian Skerry, National Geographic Photojournalist, Michelle Wu, Boston City Councilor, with special musical performances by Emi Ferguson and Lake Street Dive. And, while we will gather individually from the comfort of our homes, we will collectively show up, speak up, and emerge stronger for the critical work to come in 2021 and beyond. 2 conservation law foundation On behalf of Conservation Law Foundation’s Board of Trustees, I want to extend a warm welcome to WELCOME all of you for joining us for this special evening of reflection, recognition, and celebration. It is a joy to see longtime friends and supporters, along with many new guests who are just learning about our advocacy to protect the people and communities of New England. It is all of you who inspire, uplift, and amplify our work. Thanks to a generous sponsor, we are also honored to have the CLF staff joining us tonight. The Board of Trustees are amazed each day at what this talented and dedicated team are able to achieve under sometimes impossible odds. Please know that whether you have known us for decades or you are being introduced to our work for the first time, by joining us tonight, you are connected to a dynamic team of climate and environmental champions working tirelessly for the future of the region that we love and call home— New England. We cannot do this work without you. Thank you for joining us. Please enjoy the evening and let’s stay connected. Sara Molyneaux Chair, CLF Board of Trustees 3 conservation law foundation WELCOME Sharon Malt, John Aubrey, and Andrew Baute PROGRAM Green Gala Co-Chairs OPENING REMARKS Brad Campell, CLF President CLF: OUR SUCCESSES A special video presentation CLF’S OUTSIDE-THE-BOX AWARD Michelle Wu, Boston City Councilor A SPECIAL MUSICAL PERFORMANCE BY LAKE STREET DIVE CLF’S PRESIDENT’S AWARD Brian Skerry, National Geographic Photojournalist A SPECIAL PRESENTATION OF BRIAN SKERRY PHOTOGRAPHS BY EMI FERGUSON, RENOWNED FLUTIST CLOSING REMARKS Sharon Malt, John Aubrey, and Andrew Baute Green Gala Co-Chairs 4 conservation law foundation Brian Skerry is a photojournalist specializing in marine wildlife and underwater environments. Since 1998 he has been a contributing photographer for National Geographic magazine covering a wide range of subjects and stories. In 2014 he was named as a National Geographic Society Photography Fellow and named a National Geographic Society Storytelling Fellow in 2017. In 2017 he was also awarded the title of Rolex National Geographic Explorer of the Year. For National Geographic magazine, Brian has covered BRIAN a wide range of stories, from the harp seal’s struggle to survive in frozen waters to the alarming SKERRY decrease in the world’s fisheries to dolphin intelligence, all cover stories. A fourth cover story, in February 2017 focused on protecting special underwater ecosystems in US waters and during this coverage Brian produced the first images of a sitting US President underwater. He is currently at work on his 29th story for National Geographic, about the Gulf of Maine. Brian has also worked on assignment for or had images featured in magazines such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, Paris Match, Esquire, and Audubon. Brian is the author of 12 books including the acclaimed monographs Ocean Soul and SHARK. His latest book, Secrets of the Whales will be released in April 2021 as part of a multiplatform project he created for National Geographic and Disney that will include a cover story in National Geographic magazine and a 4-part television series. Brian is an 11-time award winner in the prestigious Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition. He has also been recognized with awards from Pictures of the Year International, Nature’s Best, Communication Arts and is the only photographer to win the coveted Peter Benchley Award for Excellence in Media. In 2010 National Geographic magazine named one of Brian’s images among their 50 Greatest Photographs of All Time and in 2016 he was awarded the National Geographic Photographer’s Photographer Award, an honor bestowed by his colleagues, 5 conservation law foundation BRIAN SKERRY CONTINUED… other National Geographic photographers. The Academy of Underwater Arts and Sciences awarded Brian the 2019 NOGI Award for Arts, an award frequently referred to as the ‘Underwater Oscar.’ He has had numerous solo photographer exhibits including Portraits of Planet Ocean, a two-year exhibit at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. Other exhibits of his work have been held in cities worldwide including Geneva, Barcelona, Lisbon, and Shanghai and in Perpignan, France. Brian frequently lectures on photography, exploration and conservation issues having presented at venues such as The United Nations General Assembly, The World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, TED Talks, The National Press Club in Washington, D.C., The Royal Geographical Society in London and the Sydney Opera House in Australia. Brian is the Explorer-In-Residence and a Trustee at the New England Aquarium, a founding member of the International League of Conservation Photographers, a consultant to the Conservation Law Foundation and a Fellow National of The Explorers Club. He also serves as a Nikon Ambassador. 6 conservation law foundation Michelle Wu has been a voice for accessibility, transparency, and community engagement in city leadership. First elected to the Boston City Council in November 2013 at the age of 28, Wu is the first Asian-American woman to serve on the Council. In January 2016, she was elected President of the City Council by her colleagues in a unanimous vote, becoming the first woman of color to serve as Council President. Councilor Wu was the lead sponsor of Boston’s Paid Parental Leave ordinance and Healthcare Equity MICHELLE ordinance prohibiting discrimination based on gender identity—both of which passed unanimously WU through the Council and were signed into law by Mayor Martin J. Walsh. She also authored Boston’s Communications Access ordinance, which guarantees translation, interpretation and assistive technology for access to city services regardless of English language proficiency or communications disability. Wu got her start in City Hall working for Mayor Thomas M. Menino as a Rappaport Fellow in Law and Public Policy, where she created the city’s first guide to the restaurant permitting process from start to finish, and was also a driving force to launch Boston’s food truck program. She later served as statewide Constituency Director in the U.S. Senate campaign of her former law professor, Elizabeth Warren. As a former restaurant owner, legal services attorney, and legal guardian of her younger sister, Wu understands firsthand the barriers that families and communities face. She has a background in community advocacy, having worked at the WilmerHale Legal Services Center in Jamaica Plain, providing legal advice to low-income small business owners, as well as at the Medical-Legal Partnership at Boston Medical Center on immigration law cases for survivors of domestic violence. In 2016, Councilor Wu was honored as one of Ten Outstanding Young Leaders by the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce and as part of Marie Claire magazine’s New Guard: The 50 Most Influential Women in America. Michelle Wu graduated from Harvard College and Harvard Law School. She is fluent in Mandarin and Spanish, and lives in Roslindale with her husband Conor and her sons Blaise and Cass. 7 conservation law foundation With their singular mix of soul and R&B and whole- hearted rock & roll, Lake Street Dive make music that’s timeless yet immediate, exuberant yet reflective. In the 15 years since their formation, the band’s infectious vitality has only magnified in appeal, as proven with the release of their 2018 album Free Yourself Up. Along with earning lavish acclaim, the Boston-bred act’s most recent full- length debuted in the top ten on the Billboard 200, and spent a virtually unprecedented seven-and-a- half months on the non-commercial radio charts. Their most intimate and collaborative work to date, LAKE STREET Free Yourself Up finds Lake Street Dive expanding their sound with more intricate textures, fuller- bodied arrangements, and stacks of sublime back- DIVE ground harmonies. The album’s title serves as both an exhortation to listeners and a statement of purpose for the band, its songs unfolding with a joyful swagger even when channeling anxiety over the state of the world. “This album is based in the realities in our time, which have inevitably become part of everyone’s daily life,” notes Kearney. “It’s something you think about and obsess over—and write songs about. Free Yourself Up is about empowering yourself, emboldening yourself, no matter what’s going wrong.” Lake Street Dive came to life in 2004, when the original members were studying at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston; Akie Bermiss joined the band on keys in 2017. Over the coming years, the band steadily built a following through a series of independent album releases, countless club tours, and a few lucky breaks. In 2016 they made their Nonesuch Records debut with Side Pony, an album deemed “irresistible” by Rolling Stone. Arriving in May 2018, Free Yourself Up drew praise from outlets like PopMatters—who, on their Best Pop Albums of 2018 list, noted that Free Yourself Up “cleverly pulls off the rare hat-trick of not only being the band’s most instantly accessible album but also their best”—while lead single “Good Kisser” held fast in the top 5 at Americana radio for over a month.