The Search for Campus Leaders

As the new semester opened with a fresh layer of snow at Wake Forest University, RCC President and CEO Bob Musil stepped into an 8:00 a.m. “Introduction to Environmental Studies” class filled with slightly bleary-eyed but eager students to tell them how and why their lives were about to change and how they could make a difference.

Musil was at Wake to search for, recruit, and develop the next generation of campus environmental leaders to carry on the legacy of Rachel Carson through the Rachel Carson Council (RCC), its campus program, and RCC National Environment Leadership Fellowships. A leading national university with the feel of a liberal arts college, Wake Forest is often noted for its beautiful campus filled with mature trees, ponds and lakes, as well as its commitment to the environment that ranks it in the top 10% of American “green” colleges and universities.

Musil was invited to Wake Forest by Julie Velásquez Runk, Professor of Anthropology and Environmental Studies and Sustainability (ENV) and Director of the ENV program who was recruited to Wake and charged with expanding its program into a top-flight department. Given the interdisciplinary nature of the RCC and of Wake Forest’s integrated, intersectional approach to environmental issues and problems, Musil’s public visit was also sponsored by the Andrew Sabin Family Center for Environment and Sustainability, the Office of Sustainability, and the Environmental and Epistemic Justice Initiative.

While on campus, Musil was housed in the Mews on the historic grounds of the Graylyn Estate and Conference Center where he met for breakfast and lunch in the elegant Manor House with distinguished faculty like Stan Meiburg, Executive Director of the Sabin Center and a former EPA official who served for decades with various presidential administrations, and Justin Catanoso, a professor and director of journalism and a leading national reporter for Mongabay whose investigative stories on the growing wood pellet industry have exposed its destruction of forests and damage to ecosystems and the global climate.

Musil also met with Dedee Johnston, Vice President for Sustainability, head of the Office of Sustainability, and Chief of Staff for the EVP/CFO and Brian Cohen, Assistant Director of Sustainability Engagement, who develops and leads Wake’s environmental internship programs. They discussed Wake’s and the RCC’s philosophy of student and civic engagement, strategies for institutional change and making sustainability and justice central, as well as opportunities for Wake students to become active with the RCC and be considered for RCC National Environmental Leadership Fellowships.

Throughout his stay at Wake, Musil met directly with individuals and groups of Wake students including a seminar with the environmental leadership group and the new organization, dEaCOfriendly, that promotes sustainability on campus. Musil talked with them about their interests and their environmental projects at Wake and in Winston-Salem, why the RCC is committed to climate and environmental justice, and how they were outstanding possible candidates for RCC Fellowships. Among the group were the Editor-in-Chief of Wake’s college newspaper, Ella Klein, who profiled Musil and the RCC for the Old Gold and Black, and Roksanna Keyvan, a self-designed major in Social and Environmental Justice who was so inspired by Musil’s commitment to environmental justice and women’s leadership that she stayed up after talking with him to write a blog about women warriors.

Musil’s visit culminated with a campus lecture, “North Carolina’s Environmental Future and the Legacy of Rachel Carson” at the Z. Smith Reynolds Library. Musil was welcomed by Julie Velasquez Runk and introduced by Les Straker, a professor in the graduate sustainability program and marine ecologist who works on coastal management and restoration. Straker escorted and introduced Musil at various venues throughout his stay and had him teach his Environmental Studies 201 class.

In his speech, Musil reiterated that Rachel Carson was not simply a lone, exceptional woman and did not ignite the modern environmental movement just by writing a best-selling book, Silent Spring, that caught the attention of the public and President John F. Kennedy. Instead, Musil highlighted Carson’s commitment to environmental justice and an ethic of empathy for all living things and stressed that she was connected to a network of influential women who helped developed strategies to make Silent Spring a popular best-seller despite its exposé of chemical corporations and the resulting attacks on Carson’s character and expertise. Among them were Marie Rodell, Carson’s close friend and literary agent who also brought Martin Luther King’s first book, Stride Toward Freedom, to publication, Agnes Meyer, publisher of the Washington Post, and Eleanor Roosevelt, who connected Carson to Jackie Kennedy. Rachel Carson then went on to work directly with the Kennedy Administration and its Secretary of the Interior, Stewart Udall, to lay the groundwork for the EPA and landmark environmental legislation.

Unfortunately, John F. Kennedy was assassinated and Rachel Carson died of breast cancer, but not before she asked her friends and colleagues to found what became the Rachel Carson Council to carry on her work. Today, Musil explained, much of the RCC’s work on climate justice, an end to fossil fuels, for renewable energy, and against false climate solutions like the production of wood pellets in North Carolina, is carried out by undergraduate and graduate students working with and mentored by him and the RCC staff.

Quoting Rachel Carson at her 1962 commencement address to the women at Scripps College, Musil told his Wake audience that they, too, must resist the lies, ignorance and distortion of the truth now surrounding them, commit to fighting for the environment and for the future, and take up what Carson called “a shining opportunity.”

By the end of Musil’s visit, Wake Forest University had become the 74th member of the Rachel Carson Campus Network. Over a dozen Wake faculty and staff and nearly 100 Wake Forest students signed up to be active with the RCC, many of whom sought information about applying for RCC Fellowships and attending the RCC National Advocacy Days and Wood Pellet Forum in Washington, DC March 26-28.