“As long as I’ve been a scientist, my colleagues have had the solutions to some of Earth’s most pressing issues,” Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant said while moderating a panel at South by Southwest.
Hope for the future. Needed change for the betterment of wildlife and humanity. These were themes across Dr. Rae’s spring speaking engagements. As co-host of Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom Protecting the Wild, Dr. Rae, alongside Co-Host Peter Gros, brings stories of wildlife conservation success to over a million viewers each week. But the work doesn’t end there. Dr. Rae traveled across the country to share her story and to spread the important message of conservation.
Dr. Rae’s speaking engagements
‘Can Science Safeguard Earth’s Wildlife?’
In March, Dr. Rae moderated the panel “Can Science Safeguard Earth’s Wildlife” at South by Southwest in Austin, Texas. She was joined by three wildlife professionals: Jack Gilbert, deputy director of Research, Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego and Department of Pediatrics; Nadine Lamberski, chief conservation and wildlife health officer, San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance; and Christian Walzer, executive director of health, Wildlife Conservation Society.
The panelists spoke of the importance of biodiversity, especially today when species are declining faster than any other time in history. Despite the statistics, Dr. Rae brought a message of hope.
“We know exactly what to do to reverse or fix these issues. Whether or not policymakers or governments are able to make that happen or choose to make that happen is really the issue. But we know what to do. We know how to create a very different trajectory than one that we’re on.
“I find that very helpful in maintaining my optimism, maintaining my morale. It’s one of the things that keeps me in science and one of the things that allows me to keep science and scientists in the deepest respect,” Dr. Rae said.
The four talked of innovations in conservation, including San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance’s Frozen ZooÒ, a “wildlife biodiversity bank.” The Frozen Zoo is a collection of 11,000 individual samples from over 1,600 species. It’s used to help bring back endangered or extinct species and to help protect genetic diversity.
One of the Frozen Zoo’s success stories is that of the black-footed ferret, a species once thought to be extinct. The zoo used its cell bank to clone the black-footed ferret, bringing hope for many more species to come.
Watch Protecting the Wild Season 1, Episode 21 “Conservation Comeback” to learn more about the Frozen Zoo.
Wildlife conservation and social justice
As part of the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden’s Barrows Conservation Lecture Series, Dr. Rae spoke on “At the Intersection: Wildlife Conservation, Social Justice, and the Non-Traditional Pathway to Leadership.” There, she also received the zoo’s Thane Maynard Wildlife Conservation Award.
In her lecture, she told stories of how she came to be a wildlife ecologist and television host and what it means to be a Black woman working in conservation.
Dr. Rae recalled when she studied in Kenya during college and received a care package from her family back home. Among the snacks and burned CDs was a Time magazine issue with the headline, “An American Tragedy,” a special report about the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. Being cut off from American news, this magazine was her first insight into what had happened.
“I was in Kenya and feeling empowered,” Dr. Rae said. “And then I was hit with this news about death and the racial disparity surrounding death. At 20 years old, I had to reconcile the fact that I care about what was happening in the Black community in America and I wouldn’t be able to leave that behind.”
“I realized that as I grew into more of a science professional, I would somehow have to incorporate the caring for underserved communities or marginalized communities as part of my work to do wildlife.”
It was a pivotal moment for her, one that changed her perspective on how to protect wild animals while uplifting local communities and the people who live with wildlife.
“I want to make sure that we’re not designing conservation programs and projects that ignore the social issues that are going on in these landscapes,” Dr. Rae said. “It allowed me to start deliberately connecting with people, learning about issues, learning about the environmental and social history of the places we were working that really give rise to why we were having conservation issues in the first place.”
She took this with her when she researched lions in Tanzania. One day, a fellow researcher heard over the radio that poachers had killed a giraffe nearby. Dr. Rae and the researcher drove to where the park rangers had captured the poachers.
“What I was left with was an understanding that I had been educated on the kind of black and white of poaching, that it’s just bad,” Dr. Rae said. “But I hadn’t given any thought to who poachers are and what their motivation is.”
She said the poachers weren’t “evil people that hated wildlife.” They were people who needed to bring money home to their families that day.
“I realized this is a justice issue, a community issue and a conservation issue because we need to keep these animals alive. But also figure out how local communities can be well resourced so that poaching isn’t appealing as a money-making scheme.
“It was another turning point for me where I realized there is so much intersection in all this work that we have to really radicalize and reeducate ourselves how to get conservation work done.”
Learn more about Dr. Rae’s path to becoming a wildlife host in her memoir, “Wild Life: Finding My Purpose in an Untamed World.”
‘Shaping a Sustainable Future’
Oprah Winfrey once said, “success is not an arrival, but rather an unfolding.” For Dr. Rae, this quote speaks volumes of her journey, from one chapter to another.
“I remember starting on Protecting the Wild in 2023 and feeling very much like, ‘oh my gosh. Is this real?’”
Hosting a wildlife TV show was something she’d always dreamed of, Dr. Rae shared with Mutual of Omaha’s Women in Leadership Employee Resource Group during an event for Women’s History Month, “Shaping a Sustainable Future.”
“I received my first DM on social media from a Black woman my age who had seen the show,” Dr. Rae said. “She was saying, it was so amazing to see you doing this. I wanted to be a wildlife conservationist also, but I didn’t think I could.
“It was in that moment that I thought, you know what? I am successful because I have impacted at least one person, who is changing their belief system about what’s possible and that means a lot to me.”
Dr. Rae is the first Black woman to co-host a nature show on broadcast television.
“I very much appreciate all this attention on me as the kind of glass ceiling breaker, but I have to turn this back on Mutual of Omaha because if I had the power to give myself a nature show, I would have done that 20 years ago. Mutual of Omaha made this happen.”
She noted that sometimes it’s less of the individual person and more of the teams of people working behind the scenes that move society forward.
“So, in that way, we’re all responsible for making sure that although this is the first, it’s not the last,” Dr. Rae said. “This isn’t just an image thing, but an actual deeply meaningful shift in the society we want to see in the future.”
On the theme of “Shaping a Sustainable Future,” Dr. Rae spoke of how women can be the change.
“It’s about our foundation. I believe that as women, if we pay particular attention to our foundation, our baseline, we can break generational curses and cycles,” Dr. Rae said. “We can allow more women, ourselves included, to have a sturdy jumping-off point and be more powerful in the future.”
One area Dr. Rae focused on was mental health, noting that if women are able to prioritize mental and physical health, they can have a more stable baseline.
“And when there’s stability, we are better able to show up as our best selves in the workplace. And when you show up as your best self, you’re able to get recognized and you’re able to move up and become a leader.”
She said a female-driven future starts with individuals focusing on what their stability looks like, what’s missing and what’s needed.
“Understand that you’re not wasting your time if you’re taking care of yourself and getting your act together,” Dr. Rae said.
Follow Dr. Rae on Instagram @raewynngrant to learn about upcoming speaking engagements.
