To honor Juneteenth, the day in 1865 when enslaved people were emancipated, we celebrate some of the amazing people working to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion in the outdoors.
We have a long way to go before the outdoors—and society at large—is truly equitable. But it’s the work of people like these (listed in alphabetical order by last name) that’s taking us in the right direction.
Rahsaan Bahati
Bahati grew up in Compton, California, amid gangs, drugs, and crime. Early exposure to cycling changed the course of his life. He created the Bahati Foundation in 2009 which runs youth cycling camps, mentorship programs, scholarships, and community outreach activities. Bahati’s goal is to engage and inspire young people from disadvantaged backgrounds and using cycling as a tool for personal growth, education, and positive life choices.
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Teresa Baker
Baker is a co-founder of the , and the founder of the African American National Park Event and the Outdoor Industry CEO Diversity Pledge, which asks C-level executives at outdoor companies to commit to creating, promoting, and enforcing policies that expand the diversity, equity, and inclusion of their employees, board members, and customers. She is a self proclaimed “good troublemaker” who works tirelessly to promote inclusion in all outdoor spaces.
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Kareemah Batts
Batts is a cancer survivor, paraclimber, and diversity, equity, and inclusion professional who founded the nonprofit which is the U.S.’s largest nonprofit climbing group for people with disabilities. For her tireless work with brands, events, and guiding companies on accessibility issues, she received the 2019 Climbing Advocate Award from Access Fund. Hear more of her story–in her own words–on The Daily Rally podcast.
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Faith Briggs
Briggs is an ultrarunner, intersectional environmentalist, former sprinter, documentary filmmaker, and co-host of . Her goal: use media as a tool to raise awareness, and ultimately to change lives. One of her recent projects includes a series called , a three-part short documentary series highlighting how communities of color can reclaim water as a healing and enjoyable experience for all through the lens of each subject.
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Patricia Cameron
Cameron is the founder of , a nonprofit that lowers the financial barrier to entry in outdoor recreation and teaches people the basics of hiking, camping, skiing, swimming, and more. Before founding Blackpackers, Cameron struggled as a single mother with the means to take her young son outdoors to enjoy nature. She saved up money working overtime as an EMT to buy her first set of backpacking gear—an experience that motivated her to help others find the means to get outside. Cameron recently achieved her Wilderness EMT certification and launched Blackpacker’s Outdoor Skills School to teach free Wilderness First Aid (WFA) and Wilderness First Responder (WFR) courses, free to her community.
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Jamicah Dawes
Dawes is the founder Slim Pickins Outfitters (SPO), the first Black-owned outdoor gear shop in the U.S. Just three years after opening, the pandemic forced the Texas store to close. It might have been for good, but a digital media company decided to create a short documentary about Dawes, his family, and his store, which launched SPO into the big time. Dawes uses his platform (which has grown to almost 32K followers on Instagram) to share family stories, product highlights, inspiration, and to uplift marginalized voices.
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Alison Desir
Desir is a co-founder of the , a nonprofit that aims to unite the running industry to provide resources, measure progress, and hold the industry accountable to equitable employment, leadership, and ownership positions and improve inclusion, visibility, and access for Black, Indigenous, and people of color. She’s also the author of Running While Black: Finding Freedom in a Sport That Wasn’t Built For Us and the host of the Out & Back podcast. In 2022, Alison was recognized with an Award for Excellence by Running USA for demonstrably driving positive change in the running industry.
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Latasha Dunston
Dunston is a trained in scientific and preparatory medicine illustration who specializes in plein air landscape painting. Through her work, she aims to challenge the underrepresentation of people of color in the outdoors. “I want to showcase myself and the people like me who spend time on trails,” she said of her art. “We are a reflection of nature, and nature is a reflection of us.” Here at ϳԹ, Dunston is one of our favorite artists to work with. She recently created a beautiful for our Earth Month celebration.
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Latria Graham
Graham is a writer, editor, and cultural critic with bylines in The New York Times, The Guardian, The Los Angeles Times, Harvard Law Today, and ϳԹ. Her writing examines the dynamics of race, gender, class, and popular culture. Graham says she uses her talents to write for publications that are “invested in celebrating the diversity of the human experience.”
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Rahawa Haile
Haile is a queer Eritrean-American writer from Miami who currently lives and works in Oakland. “Going It Alone,” her riveting 2017 story in ϳԹ about hiking the Appalachian Trail during the summer before the 2016 presidential election, led to a forthcoming book called , which will present a wider examination of freedom of movement and race in modern America.
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Ron Griswell
When Ron Griswell attended North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University (NCA&TSU), one of 107 Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), he lamented the fact his school didn’t have the opportunities for outdoor recreation that he had grown to love. So much so that he actually thought about transferring to the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, because of its robust outdoor program and giant gear library. “That’s when it clicked,” says Griswell. “These outdoor activities won’t come to my school unless I do something about it.”
So In 2018, Griswell founded his nonprofit HBCUs ϳԹ as a way to create more outdoor opportunities for Black students and a more diverse pipeline of talent in the outdoor industry. Today HBCUs ϳԹ runs outdoor clubs on seven (and counting!) different college campuses, introducing hundreds of Black students to the joy of outdoor experiences and opening pathways to outdoor careers.
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Bobby and Angel Massie
Bobby Massie is a former American football player (offensive tackle) who played for the Denver Broncos, but had grown up fishing and hunting in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. Angel Massie is a former journalist and TV producer with work appearing in BET (Black Entertainment Television), Complex, Vibe, and Essence, who grew up in urban Baltimore but always felt a connection to the outdoors. “We had a yard with this huge, huge tree,” she told CBS recently. “And I used to wonder to myself, I know that there has to be a place where there are more big trees like that.” Her love of hiking arose through an annual camping trip at her school, and as a young professional in Washington, D.C., she started a hiking group with destinations such as Shenandoah National Park. Today she hikes, fishes, and camps in the Rockies with her husband and their two children. After unsatisfying experiences with other outfitters, the two launched their own business, Wanderland Outdoors, in May. A guiding outfit with a diverse team (currently 11 guides and four wranglers), it is intended to make the outdoors more accessible through outings including fly-fishing trips, trail rides, mindfulness hiking—Angel is a certified Kripalu Mindful Outdoor Guide—and gourmet “excursion meals” cooked by Chef Bobby.
Follow Bobby and Angel Massie on Instagram: @wanderlandoutdoors
Eliot Jackson
Jackson is a former World Cup downhill mountain bike racer devoted to improving diversity in cycling. During his racing career, he was almost always the only Black competitor. Following the murder of George Floyd and time to reflect on his career during the Covid pandemic, he founded the nonprofit to promote education, access, and opportunities that advance diversity and inclusion in the sport he loves. One recent project, a 30,000 square foot pumptrack in Los Angeles, California, is set to open this summer. The pumptrack, which is a circular bike park with berms and rollers, will serve more than 150,000 kids and adults in the urban area who lack access to mountain biking opportunities.
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Mercy M’Fon
M’Fon is the founder and executive director of , a Portland, Oregon-based nonprofit that leads outdoor adventures and education sessions for BIPOC and LGBTQ+ communities. Through their programs, they hope to foster personal connections between members of these communities and the natural world. M’Fon is an outdoor guide and community leader who founded the organization after feeling the effects of the outdoor industry’s lack of diversity firsthand. You can listen to their story on The Daily Rally podcast.
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James Edward Mills
Mills has worked in the outdoor industry for more than 30 years as a guide, outfitter, independent sales representative, writer, and photographer. He is the founder of the Joy Trip Project, a news-gathering and reporting organization that covers outdoor recreation, environmental conservation, acts of charitable giving, and practices of sustainable living. He is the author of and the co-writer/co-producer of the documentary film . A recent project is an online book club called , an exploration of the intersection of the natural world and the cultural identities of the human beings that live within it.
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Kriste Peoples
Peoples is a guide, runner, writer, and mindfulness meditation teacher who serves on the board of the and and is the newly appointed executive director of Women’s Wilderness, which is a nonprofit in Boulder, Colorado. For years, Peoples has been on the front lines of fighting for equality and inclusion for women, girls, and non-binary people in nature. Here more of her inspiring story–in her own words–on The Daily Rally.
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Mirna Valerio
Valerio, a.k.a. The Mirnavator, is an ultrarunner, author, and educator who was named a National Geographic ϳԹr of the Year in 2018. Her memoir, , was a bestseller, and in 2017 she appeared on the cover of Women’s Running. A native of Brooklyn, New York, Valerio now lives in Vermont, where she has become obsessed with skiing and is working on her second book, a novel about a Black woman with Type 1 diabetes who embarks on a solo backpacking trip in the Appalachians, against the advice of her doctor and friends.
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Nailah Blades Wylie
Wylie is the founder of , a nonprofit that helps women of color harness the power of the outdoors to create joy-filled lives. A communications strategist and community builder who has worked with businesses small and large—from startups to Fortune 500 companies—Wylie founded Color ϳԹ after moving from San Diego to Salt Lake City and feeling unmoored, without a community to support her. Color ϳԹ leads coaching, workshops and retreats to help fellow outdoor lovers feel welcome and joyful doing what they love.
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Rue Mapp
Mapp is the founder of , a nonprofit that celebrates and inspires Black connections and leadership in nature. In 2022, 60,000 people across the country participated in over 1,000 Outdoor Afro events to find joy and healing in nature. Last year, Mapp published her first book, .
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