Mia MacDonald is the Executive Director of Brighter Green, a New York-based public policy "action tank" that aims to raise awareness and encourage dialogue on and attention to issues that span the environment, animals, and sustainable development, both globally and locally. Brighter Green's work has a particular focus on equity and rights. Mia has worked as a consultant for United Nations agencies, foundations, and international non-profit organizations, including the UN Population Fund, UNICEF, the Ford Foundation, the Sierra Club, Friends of the Earth, and the Ms. Foundation for Women. She is also a senior fellow of the Washington, D.C.-based Worldwatch Institute. She holds a master's degree in public policy with a concentration in international development from Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government and has a strong interest in the impacts of the globalization of factory farming on animals, the environment, people's livelihoods, and public health. We asked Mia a few questions about her work and her views about the power of humane education.
IHE: What role does education play in creating a better world?
MM: A big one: creating awareness, allowing people and groups to become "conscientized," and laying the groundwork for action.
IHE: What personal and professional experiences have led you to your current vision and work as a method of changemaking?
MM: I believe strongly in the role of civil society and citizen-activists in bringing about social change. I also believe that most of today’s problems –- and particularly, ecological challenges and crises –- cannot be resolved by the actions of one sector of society or only a handful of people. This complexity demands (with apologies for the policy speak) cross-sectoral understanding, partnerships, and buy-in. This is my model for Brighter Green -– to analyze problems and encourage policy responses from a number of entry points: the environment, animals, and global development, while maintaining a commitment to sustainability, equity, and rights. For more than a decade, I’ve done international work on conservation, gender, rights, population and reproductive health, and indigenous issues. Through this, I’ve seen how at the ground level the issues (or entry points) aren’t separate. They are inter-related. That’s led me to wanting to work for change in a holistic manner. I’ve also been influenced by the example of a number of outstanding advocates, community organizers, writers, and gadflies, many of them women that I’ve met or had the honor of working with in regions of the global south (Asia, Africa, and Latin America).
IHE: What do you see happening in the world that gives you hope for a more just, compassionate, sustainable future?
MM: Greater awareness of the centrality of environmental issues to everything we do and have; more respect for animal welfare and rights, including in the area of food production; the passion and strategic discernment of many younger activists; and the many women and men doing extraordinary work in often hostile circumstances, with many resource constraints, in the developing world.
IHE: What are the biggest challenges in creating a humane and peaceful world?
MM: Having people wake up to these issues and to then move beyond self-interest and what sometimes seems like (at least in the U.S.) an epidemic of narcissism. I also worry about the increasing “niche-ification” of media, of interests, of social networks –- how can we get through? -- but I also see new media and some technologies offering many opportunities for social change and social movements to gain strength and influence. One of the challenges for humane educators is to find effective, strategic ways to tap into these.
IHE: What advice do you have for aspiring humane educators?
MM: I like to paraphrase something said by Nobel Peace laureate Wangari Maathai, with whom I’ve been extremely privileged to work: It’s those of us who know who are called to action. Keep at it, but also take time and space to renew yourself. If you can, find supportive networks or people or practices. Believe that change is possible, while acknowledging that evidence of it may take a long time to see -- and that some work will have to be done over and over again. Also, use complexity in the service of expanding individuals’ recognition of their role in solutions. Even though we see it all around us, dumbing down probably doesn’t lead to deep change.
~ Marsha
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