Michelle Welsch
Michelle Welsch has advised Fortune 500 brands, produced large-scale events, and has raised over $700,000USD for various social causes. Her experiences in government, private, academic, and public sectors have provided her unique insight to help businesses and entrepreneurs refine communications and strategy.
After founding Project Exponential, an invite-only dinner series, she helped bring solar to a monastery in Nepal. Her experiences teaching English to Buddhist monks led to the establishment of Khata: Life, a nonprofit encouraging education and leadership. Her attention is now focused on the Learning House, a community center she built from the ground up to foster creativity and learning.
Michelle earned her masters from Columbia University in New York City and graduated magna cum laude from the University of Colorado. She considers Seth Godin one of her greatest teachers.
3 words to describe Nature?
Wild. Inspiring. Free
3 things Nature taught you?
To pause
To be grateful
To listen
3 most treasured Nature spots?
Wonderland Lake in Boulder, Colorado -- so many memories here.
Phewa Tal (Fewa Lake) in Pokhara, Nepal -- a place I visit to ground myself and find perspective.
Central Park in New York City -- the perfect spot to unwind and remember what is important in life.
When you look at the ocean, it makes you feel...?
Insignificant, in awe, and thoughtful
When you see a forest, it makes you feel...?
Curious and filled with wonder
When you see a volcano, it makes you feel...?
Energized yet apprehensive
When you see a sunrise or sunset, it makes you feel...?
Thankful and at peace
When you hear thunder, it makes you feel...?
A bit of grumbling can be relaxing; louder booms unsettling!
When you hear the wind howling, it makes you feel...?
Depends where I am, but howling wind tends to make me anxious.
Are you an Ocean, Mountain, Forest, or Desert person?
Mountain-Forest combo
On a scale of 1 to 10, how important is Nature to your well-being?
10
Share with us a childhood nature memory?
Growing up in Colorado, nature was always important to me. We didn't have a lot of money, but my mom made sure we took advantage of our "backyard playground." From fishing to hiking, picnics in fields, or drives up into Estes Park, I was fortunate to learn early on that nature isn't something to fear but something to respect and embrace. I could spend hours in the grass watching clouds pass. No matter where I have lived --- New York City, Nepal --- nature has been my grounding point, the place I return when I need clarity or inspiration.
Scott Carney
Photo credit: Jake Holschuh
Investigative journalist and anthropologist Scott Carney (scottcarney.com) has worked in some of the most dangerous and unlikely corners of the world. His work blends narrative non-fiction with ethnography. Currently, he is a senior fellow at the Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism and a 2016-17 Scripps Fellow at the Center for Environmental Journalism in Boulder, Colorado. His books include the New York Times best seller "What Doesn't Kill Us" as well as "The Red Market" and "The Enlightenment Trap”.
Carney was a contributing editor at Wired for five years and his writing also appears in Mother Jones, Men's Journal, Playboy, Foreign Policy, Discover, Outside and Fast Company. His work has been the subject of a variety of radio and television programs, including on NPR and National Geographic TV. In 2010, he won the Payne Award for Ethics in Journalism for his story "Meet the Parents”, which tracked an international kidnapping-to-adoption ring. Carney has spent extensive time in South Asia and speaks Hindi.
3 words to describe Nature?
Stunning. Brutal. Fair.
3 things Nature taught you?
That there is no division between ourselves and nature.
That the outside world is also the inside world
How we think about the environment is also how we think about ourselves.
3 most treasured Nature spots?
The Nubble Westport, MA
Hampi, India
Outside Iquitos, Peru
When you look at the ocean, it makes you feel...?
Calm, like the horizon has no limits.
When you see a forest, it makes you feel...?
Like there will be something unexpected just around the next bend
When you see a volcano, it makes you feel...?
In awe of the power of the earth.
When you see a sunrise or sunset, it makes you feel...?
Like I'm at the beginning or end.
When you hear thunder, it makes you feel...?
Usually a little surprised. I count the seconds between the flash and the clap to try to figure out how far away it is. The other day I got stuck in a thunderstorm and the bolts crashed fifteen feet from me. It was pretty terrifying. My instinct was to lie flat on the ground.
When you hear the wind howling, it makes you feel...?
IT depends where I am. If I'm inside a house watching a storm pass it's a strangely comforting feeling. If I'm outside it can be brutal.
Are you an Ocean, Mountain, Forest, or Desert person?
Ocean
On a scale of 1 to 10, how important is Nature to your well-being?
I am nature. And so are you. 10
Share with us a childhood nature memory?
I remember climbing up the Nubble, a small but high rock that guards the Harbor in Westport, MA, while my mother yelled at me to get down. She was scared I would fall, but I just had to make it to the top.