The next generation of green leaders

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Laura Buckmaster, 29 Social media manager, Trout Unlimited

Laura Buckmaster believes people need to get outdoors to feel inspired to protect the environment.

“I’m super passionate about making big environmental issues fun and approachable for people,” said Buckmaster, an outdoor enthusiast who enjoys canoeing and fly fishing. “If you don’t have a connection to some of these places, it’s hard to stand up when they are threatened.”

Buckmaster spent a lot of time on the Chattahoochee River as a kid.

“My parents put me in a canoe when I was six months old,” she said with a laugh. “It’s so funny, before I was even born, they had one little life jacket from REI hanging in the closet.”

Buckmaster studied environmental issues and psychology at the University of Oregon, learning how to rally people around advocacy issues.

After college, she worked as the stewardship trips and outreach director with the Georgia Conservancy, where she would take 2,000 people annually on nature trips around the state.

Another career highlight was working as a trail restoration fellow on Georgia’s Cumberland Island, leading a volunteer program to restore 50 miles of trail on the barrier island.

“We made the first GIS map of the island,” she said. “We wanted to break down those barriers of accessibility … We just wanted to get people out exploring.”

Now, Buckmaster is the first-ever social media manager for Trout Unlimited, a national nonprofit dedicated to conserving, protecting and restoring North America’s coldwater fisheries and their watersheds. Her job is telling great stories to engage people and support the organization’s work.

“This is my absolute dream career,” she said.

Buckmaster also recently joined the board of the Southeastern Trust for Parks & Land, an organization that works to preserve land for conservation, research, education and recreation.

“Their mission really resonated with me to protect these places, but to protect them for recreation access as well, because recreation is such an important component of cultivating stewardship and advocacy,” she said.

Jennifer Duenas, 24 Clean water associate, Environment Georgia

At Environment Georgia, Jennifer Duenas is advocating for safe drinking water at schools across Georgia.

“Lead is still an issue in the United States today,” said Duenas, who was born in Dunwoody and raised in Lawrenceville. “It leaches into our drinking water through lead pipes and corroded faucets. Lead is a neurotoxin that affects the development of a young child’s brain … It is very, very bad for our children’s brains and their success in school.”

She added that about 20% of lead exposure comes from drinking water. Most schools have at least some lead in their pipes, plumbing or fixtures, according to Environment Georgia, which creates a risk of contamination. So, Duenas is working to educate school systems across Georgia on the dangers of lead and the state and federal funding available for testing, removing lead pipes and installing filtered hydration stations.

“We have been advocating for all of these resources, because the solution is right in our hands,” Duenas said. “We are trying to get the word out about how dangerous lead is. It’s a crisis and our children matter.”

Duenas said she had an early love for nature, inspired by summer trips to Asientos, a small town in the Mexican state of Aguascalientes, where her family is from.

An AP environmental science class in high school really piqued her interest, leading her to study geosciences at Georgia State University.

During college, she interned for the Georgia State Office of Sustainability. She was also on the executive board for the student environmental team, which secured funding to start an urban garden at Center Parc Stadium.

Duenas said her long-term career ambitions include continuing to advocate for clean water and educating Hispanics on environmental issues.

“I’m really proud of being a Hispanic, young woman rising up within this community,” Duenas said. “I feel proud that I can be a part of really trying to uplift different voices within the environmental movement.”