Environmental Speaker Series: Women in Conservation

Ventura Land Trust’s Environmental Speaker Series presents Women in Conservation, a panel discussion at the Museum of Ventura County featuring women who are shaping the landscape of the great outdoors. Panelists include:

Kristine McDivitt Tompkins is the president and cofounder of Tompkins Conservation and the former CEO of Patagonia, Inc. For over twenty-five years she has worked to protect wild beauty and biodiversity by creating national parks, restoring wildlife, inspiring activism, and fostering economic vitality as a result of conservation. Through Tompkins Conservation and its nonprofit partners, and in collaboration with governments and fellow philanthropists, Kris and her late husband Douglas Tompkins have helped protect more than 14 million acres of parklands in Chile and Argentina, making them among the most successful national park–oriented philanthropists in history.

Kate Larramendy worked for 16 years as the Design Director at Patagonia, followed by 9 years as the Director of Design and Sustainability for Toad&Co. Kate spent many years as Toad&Co’s Conservation Alliance ambassador, engaging her colleagues in conservation issues and participating in an annual trip to Washington, DC. She is a founding member of the Ventura Hillsides Conservancy, now Ventura Land Trust. She serves as a trustee of The Conservation Alliance, which seeks to harness the collective power of business and outdoor communities to fund and advocate for the protection of North America’s wild places.

Michelle I. Sevilla (she/they) works on local environmental issues and policy in the California State Legislature and is the first Network Manager of the Central Coast Climate Justice Network. She brings a unique lens as a young immigrant from the Philippines, more than a decade of environmental outreach and education experience in the museum setting, and as a volunteer leader in various organizations working in the nexus of equity and justice in the environmental movement. She serves as a Board Member of the Gaviota Coast Conservancy, a Steering Committee Member of 350 Santa Barbara, and is the first Chair of the County of Santa Barbara’s Equity Advisory & Outreach Committee, now formally integrated into the County’s Regional Climate Collaborative.