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Sam Battles

Sam Battles

Sam Battles (he/him) is an alum of the DDCSP@UW 2020 cohort and graduated from Yale with a degree in environmental and ethnic studies. Sam has family ties in New England and Hawai’i, but was born and raised in the Bay Area. He studied food justice and Asian diasporic history, and has a passion for land work and exploring the Bay through public transit. In his time with DDCSP, Sam interned with the Swinomish tribe, supporting their efforts to promote indigenous food sovereignty. Since graduation Sam has continued to work in community-centered agriculture, seeing food as a bridge between ecological and cultural conservation. This has manifested in leading a conservation field crew on O’ahu, spending time at his family’s taro farm on Kaua’i, as well as volunteering with an indigenous land trust on the ancestral home of the Lisjan Ohlone peoples. Overall, Sam continues to forge community around a shared connection to land, food, and art.

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The Conservation Scholars Fund directly supports students who are pursuing a career in conservation through the Doris Duke Conservation Scholars Program at the University of Washington. Effective conservation strategies are inclusive, involving a diversity of stakeholders and incorporating multiple values. Yet, the conservation community does not reflect the collective voice of our country. Without a significant, serious and immediate increase in diversity and inclusion, the conservation community will become a movement of the past instead of a guiding principle of the future. Our program aims to change that.