Since childhood, I’ve been drawn to nature and wildlife. From family fishing excursions and public television shows like Nature to exploring wild places on my own, it developed into a life-long passion. As a New Yorker, I’ve been lucky to visit the Bronx Zoo on school field trips and later as an adult.
Yet a career in conservation seemed unreachable. I knew that there were disparities by race in the Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) field. After majoring in economics and working in the fashion industry, I found myself at the New York Aquarium one day during a visit to Coney Island.
Observing the sea lion demonstration before I began working for WCS, I noted a lack of diversity among the training staff and I wondered about it. I knew it was just a snapshot, and not necessarily representative of the aquarium or WCS. But that observation stuck with me as I moved on in my career, earning my MBA and beginning a marketing consultancy position for the Bronx Tourism Council. It was there that I learned of the Grants Manager position at WCS. I applied and was thrilled to land the position.
Lou Bankston at WCS’s Center for Global Conservation at the Bronx Zoo. Photo credit: Julie Larsen @WCS.
As a Grants Manager, I oversee corporate, private, and government funding for WCS’s Education Department. This includes writing proposals, monitoring budgets, and documenting our programming for our funders.
That programming includes free field trips for New York City children attending Title 1 schools, science career development programs for youth, community conservation events, such as beach clean-ups, career panels, and our online conservation curriculum for educators called WCS Presents Field Sight.
One of the first projects that I worked on was to secure funding for the WCS Career Lattice, our career pathways program. We successfully received support from the New York City Council and the Speaker’s office to ensure that the 1,900 youth that volunteer, intern, and work at WCS have the support necessary to thrive.
Lou Bankston and Christian Cooper at a birdwalk for Black Birders Week in Central Park, NYC. Photo credit: Natalie Cash/WCS.
This program also helps us make internships more accessible to minorities and individuals from under-resourced communities—like kids who may be interested in becoming marine mammal trainers. I’m proud to say that all interns in our zoos and aquarium now receive compensation and our staff provides learning experiences that are crucial to landing positions in STEM, animal care and conservation fields.
As I considered how I could help us inspire a diverse, inclusive movement of conservation advocates, a powerful incident grabbed my attention. A woman in Central Park called the police on Christian Cooper, a black birder, claiming that he was threatening her life after he informed her that her dog wasn’t allowed in a restricted area of the park where ground birds are present.
This was yet another instance of police being called on black people for doing normal everyday things, which I can sadly say also happened to me at a young age.
As a grants manager, I took this anger and put it into action by partnering with Black AF in STEM, a collective of STEM professionals who conceived the Black Birders Week Initiative in 2020. Their goal was to uplift and amplify Black STEM professionals through professional development, career connection, and community engagement.
Black AF in STEM and Outdoor Afro join WCS staff members at the Bronx Zoo for our annual Juneteenth Birdwalk. Photo courtesy Louis Bankston.
Black AF in STEM aims to inspire new audiences to engage in nature and share stories of black conservationists from across the African diaspora. Occurring the first week of June, Black Birders Week includes bird walks, career panels, educational programs and more. I thought it would be great to partner with Black AF in STEM and involve them in our commemoration of Juneteenth.
We invited members of Black AF in STEM and Outdoor Afro (celebrating black leadership in nature) to join us at the Bronx Zoo for a bird walk and participate as panelists in our BLAC employee resource group’s annual Courageous Conversation series. We plan to build on this partnership to bolster our mission.
Juneteenth commemorates the emancipation of enslaved African Americans. I’m grateful that through my passion for nature, I can help connect people of color with wildlife and wild places while helping to advance their STEM careers in fields that we have been historically excluded from. And I’m proud to be part of an organization where our opportunities are continually expanding as we continue to diversify our workforce.