Inclusive Birding

Please register for this free event here: http://bit.ly/ruizevent

Join Gladys Ruiz, Portland-based bird-lover and equity and inclusion-focused youth programs consultant, in this free virtual workshop where she will discuss how she became a birder, her work nurturing connection to nature in youth of color, and the importance of harnessing what you love. She'll share how to get started with birding yourself and talk about ways to cultivate an inclusive community through nature.

The Corvallis-Benton County Public Library will also briefly demonstrate how to get involved in the Great Backyard Bird Count (February 12-15) - a community science project and a fun way to exercise the birding skills you learn in this workshop.

All ages welcome.

Sponsored by the Corvallis-Benton County Public Library, NAACP Corvallis/Albany, Corvallis Audubon Society, Greenbelt Land Trust, and Oregon State University Libraries.

This event was made possible by a Resilient Communities: Libraries Respond to Climate Change grant - a pilot program of the American Library Association.

About Gladys Ruiz: Gladys is an inspired leader who has honed her love of nature and her passion for mentoring young people into a personal mission of nurturing connection to nature in youth of color. Gladys took flight from New York City through nature, attending the nation’s first environmentally focused high school. As an adolescent, Gladys participated in an internship where she learned that access to opportunity can make a difference in igniting a career connected to the natural world. This passion led her to working as an Urban Park Ranger in New York City’s Central Park, where she worked with youth of color helping to inspire a new generation of conservationist through ecological research.

Moving to the West Coast, she continued working with communities of color, promoting healthy living and environmental education at the Community Cycling Center and Forest Park Conservancy. Joining the Audubon Society of Portland in 2011, Gladys continued her dedication to building diversity, equity and inclusion in the environmental community, first by connecting children of color to meaningful and relevant experiences in nature through Audubon’s Community-based Camps and then through the creation of Portland Audubon’s TALON program, helping connect young adults of color to environmental careers.  Since the fall of 2016, Gladys spends her time working for Center for Diversity and the Environment as a Program Associate and balancing her consulting business, Gladys Ruiz Consulting LLC., a consulting business focused on culturally relevant program design and youth workforce development that's responsive to community needs and leads with a racial equity lens.