Leaders Who Move Me

Growing up in a farming community afforded me many rich experiences. The days were long but our family was close and worked together under the warm sun many hours a day.

I’ve travelled the world, worked on a scientific research vessel and photographed the great outdoors. Twenty years ago, I landed in Maine to enroll in photography workshops and never left.

Throughout my many experiences one constant remained: my determination to live a sustainable lifestyle. This desire has inspired who I am as a consumer, mother and small business owner.

Paper or plastic. Toxic dryer sheets vs. wool dryer balls. Dispose or recycle. My decisions are easy when I know what’s healthier for my family—and the environment.

So I do my research and along the way, I’ve come across some amazing women business owners and activists who share the same values when it comes to health and wellness, inspiring others with pen and paper and creating products that are eco-friendly alternatives.

We have a lot to teach others when it comes to commerce, specifically the unfair wealth gap between Black and white Americans and that Black business owners face disproportionately more challenges.

Black entrepreneurs make up approximately 18.3 percent of minority-owned U.S. businesses, according to the 2019 Annual Business Survey. Half of those owners are women.

We are all working together to strengthen and educate our communities and, in turn, garner support and grow likeminded individuals.

For the last few years, I’ve been following environmental justice activist Leah Thomas, who takes her mission to social media, blog posts and bookshelves to raise awareness. Her message resonates with me: We cannot save our planet without protecting all of its people. Thomas often points out the water crisis in Flint, Michigan, where 57 percent of the population is Black, and the lack of nutritious food in areas predominately populated by Black, indigenous and people of color.

Education is key, and I admire Leah’s drive to promote her message.

Small business owner, educator, activist and author Leah Penniman also inspires me. On a shopping excursion a few years ago I saw her book, Farming While Black, and have been following her ever since. I absolutely loved Black Earth Wisdom, her 2023 release that explores Black people’s spiritual and scientific connection to land, waters and climate through essays and interviews.

Leah co-founded Soul Fire Farm in New York in 2010 and continues her efforts to end inequity in the food system. I admire the community she’s created on her farm and her work training Black and Brown people to become farmers and to appreciate the earth. She fights for food sovereignty—the right of all people to access healthy and culturally appropriate food produced through ecologically sound and sustainable methods.

This is a mission I wholeheartedly support.

British author and climate activist Mikaela Loach also is supporting the importance of making the world healthier now and into the future through her 2023 book, It’s Not That Radical: Climate Action to Transform our World. She educates readers on climate change, greenwashing and environmental racism, and empowers them to take action while offering practical ways of achieving this.

At age 26, Mikaela is clear and enthusiastic about her ideals, and I am moved by that.

Bird lover Corina Newsome never imagined working as a natural scientist. No one in the field looked like her. But a chance meeting with a Black female zookeeper changed that.

When she’s not at the Nashville Zoo working in animal training, environmental education and outreach, Newsome continues to advocate for more diversity and access within the field of wildlife conservation science.

Looking beyond a stereotype opens doors we never knew existed.

When creating LooHoo Wool Dryer Balls, I’ve been asked, which was my priority—protecting the environment or starting a business. I think that wanting to positively affect the environment came first and creating dryer balls just fell in line with what I value.