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Doris Duke Conservation Scholars Program (2013-2025)

group photo of 2024 summer alumni

Program History

In 2013, in response to a lack of diversity in the environmental profession, the Doris Duke Foundation launched the Conservation Scholars Program, a 2-year fellowship aimed towards undergraduate students holding identities historically excluded from careers in conservation. The program at the University of Washington was multidisciplinary, with a curriculum that integrated a wide breadth of knowledge systems and cultivated partnerships with a diversity of conservation practitioners from federal, state, tribal governments, nonprofits, and academia. The Doris Duke Conservation Scholars Program at the University of Washington had more than 200 participants and was one of only two programs that had functioned for the entire ten years of the project.

The vision of conservation at DDCSP@UW was one that emphasized biocultural conservation and centered equity and justice in an effort to respond to the needs of all members of a community, both humans and non-human. Our theory of practice was to create a supportive community of peers who would learn from conservation professionals and from each other in an environment based on trust, reciprocity, respect and that affirmed lived experiences and social identities.

Over two summers, our scholars immersed themselves in nature, visited an array of conservation projects, engaged in practical internships, practiced storytelling to disrupt single narratives, and conducted critical analysis of conservation practice past and present. The scholars deepened their knowledge of, and skills in, different modalities of conservation, strengthened their capacity to examine self and broader systems, nurtured social-emotional wellbeing, honed a sense of personal agency and capacity to enact change, and influenced our program vision which was responsive to student needs. Over the last 10 years they each have developed their own conservation praxis, and collectively have labored to evolve a more just, equitable, inclusive, and thriving conservation movement.

In addition to the program at the University of Washington, DDF funded Conservation Scholars Programs at Northern Arizona University, University of California Santa Cruz,  University of Michigan, and the Collaborative, which was a consortium of 5 university partners. More information about the individual histories and pedagogies of these programs can be found on DDCSP alumni website.

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