Meet the 2020 Brookie Award Recipients

In 2020, NRCM Rising is announcing our first class of Brookie Award winners. The Brookie Award (also known as “The Brookies”) is recognition given to young changemakers who demonstrate outstanding leadership, creativity, and collaboration and who have made a significant impact in Maine’s environmental movement.

The Brookie Awards were named after the brook trout. While one of the smaller trout species, they are mighty and captivating to watch. When brookies rise in the rivers and streams of Maine, their impact ripples far beyond that leap. The Brookie Awards recognize the young and mighty individuals whose positive impact on Maine’s environment ripples beyond themselves, much like true brookies.

The Brookie Awards were made possible by the generosity of the Quimby Family Foundation, Richard F. Kezer and family; Louise H. and David S. Ingalls Foundation, Tony and Beth G. Owens, C.W.E. and Linda Paine; and the Stifler Family Foundation along with many Maine business partners.

The 2020 Brookie Awards are presented to:

Gabrielle Hillyer of Orono

Gabrielle is the co-developer and project coordinator of the Maine Shellfish Learning Network. Her graduate work at the University of Maine has combined new technologies with a community-based approach to research. Her leadership has led to the development of an initiative that benefits coastal communities throughout Maine.  

The Maine Shellfish Learning Network brings together stakeholders in the shellfish fishery and encourages collaboration and communication between scientists, state agencies, and coastal communities. Together, these stakeholders work together to implement solutions to best protect the longevity of the industry. The initiative has helped support over 20 community-led projects across the state and has promoted coastal resilience within Maine communities. The creation of an online-database and accessible resources has made it easier for state managers and community members to communicate and collaborate. Not only has Gabrielle worked to build relationships with fishery communities, but she has also shown the effectiveness of a powerful method of both scientific research and engagement.   

Gabrielle’s use of drifter buckets, a new oceanographic technology she developed to collect data on water quality, tidal activity, and pollution sources, has been a tool to support coastal community members to support her research process. Gabrielle has also worked with local elementary students in the town of Georgetown who modelled and used drifter buckets designed after hers to create their own experiments. 

Her vision for collaboration between shellfish harvesters and scientists has made the Maine Shellfish Learning network and its growing number of stakeholder partnerships a possibility. 

Gabrielle plans to continue to engage in the environmental movement by bringing science and communities together to stimulate public engagement and meaningful resource management solutions.   

Hear from Gabrielle:

Sirohi Kumar of Bar Harbor

Sirohi is a co-founder of the Mount Desert Island Climate Emergency Action Coalition, the youth representative to the Bar Harbor Task Force on Climate, and the incoming President of the Mount Desert Island High School ECOteam.  

After a transformative internship with A Climate to Thrive, Sirohi developed a new understanding for the gravity and urgency of the climate crisis. This experience sparked a greater passion for Sirohi’s climate activism. 

As a founding member of the Climate Emergency Action Coalition, Sirohi has been involved in every step of its growth, taking on leadership positions in forming and serving on the Task Force in Bar Harbor. Following Bar Harbor’s climate emergency declaration, Sirohi is leading and mentoring a group from Mount Desert to build support for their emergency declaration, too. She wrote a guide on how to declare a climate emergency in any Maine town. 

Sirohi’s work as a part of the Mount Desert High School ECOteam has contributed to more positive change within the community. The team was an essential advocate for installing solar panels that provide the high school with 100% of its electricity. She is the co-authoror of a white paper on the role of youth activism in installing solar panels at schools. 

Through her activism and organizing, Sirohi has shown leadership in supporting community dialogue and engaging others in the climate movement.   

She has also authored the “Climate Emergency Declaration Guide” and co-authored “How Youth Led a Solar Installation Process and How It Can Be Replicated Anywhere.”

Sirohi looks forward to the work she will do as the youth representative of Bar Harbor’s Task Force. She plans on continuing her involvement in the climate movement by urging more towns to declare Climate Emergencies and to push forward positive change.  

Hear from Sirohi:

Logan Parker of Palermo

Logan Parker is the founder of the Maine Nightjar Monitoring Project.  

Logan’s time in the fields and forests near his home led to a passion for Maine’s environment and biodiversity. After an encounter with a whip-poor-will in Western Maine, Logan became determined to better understand and protect these birds.   

He founded the Maine Nightjar Monitoring Project to support data collection of the Eastern Whip-poor-will and the Common Nighthawk—two species that face major threats throughout the entirety of their breeding ranges. Logan approaches this work with hope that these species can rebound. By recruiting and organizing volunteers to observe and report on these beautiful birds, Logan leads citizen scientists across the state in contributing to the knowledge base of these birds. This science can support effective habitat conservation.

Logan helped host the Northeastern Nightjar Monitoring roundtable and launched the North American Nightjar Working Group.  The Monitoring Project also models the importance of regional field naturalism for other species monitoring programs

His leadership shows the power of engaging with others to create a more widespread network of advocates and expertise.  

Logan plans to continue his work monitoring Maine’s biodiversity and advocating for the protection of Maine’s nightjars. 

Hear from Logan:

Jordan Parks of Portland

Jordan is a sustainable materials artist who uses art to cultivate connections between people and places, particularly Maine’s coast.  Her work fosters conversations about climate and environmental impacts, engaging people who may not have otherwise connected with southern Maine islands and waters. 

Jordan’s passion for engaging communities with Maine’s coastal landscape stemmed from her experiences in environmental and outdoor educator. After four years of guiding sea kayak expeditions in Casco Bay, Jordan wanted to share these experiences with people who did not often find themselves spending time on the water.   

Two of Jordan’s exhibitions, Surface First Tilts West and Windward Exhibition, offered a unique form of engagement with Casco Bay. Jordan’s Surface First Tilts West exhibition involved a series of temporary art installations created by herself and other artists on Little Chebeague Island. This initiative brought both artists and viewers to Little Chebeague, where Jordan led viewers on an interactive walk. In Jordan’s Windward Exhibition, a group of artists painted 22 sails that became artwork on Casco Bay. Both exhibitions gave dozens of Maine-based artists an opportunity to showcase their work in outdoor settings, and viewers were able to engage with Maine’s coast in sustainable and responsible ways. Additionally, Jordan has shown commitment to raising awareness of Maine’s environmental and indigenous history through her work.

Jordan’s art educates and challenges individuals to consider new perspectives in environments not familiar to them. Her leadership is an example of how the climate movement can expand by connecting people to outdoor spaces through the arts.  

Jordan hopes to continue to work in outdoor education and use art to narrate and facilitate connections with Maine’s coast.  

Hear from Jordan:

Riley Stevenson of Waldoboro

Riley is a climate organizer and activist from Waldoboro. As the outreach director for Maine Youth Climate Strikes and founder of the Coastal Youth Climate Coalition, she works alongside other youth climate activists statewide to organize strikes, engage youth in climate action, and write and enact climate legislation. 

At the root of Riley’s work with Maine Youth Climate Strikes, she has succeeded in bringing people from different backgrounds, geographic areas, and generations together to work collectively for climate action. Her efforts have contributed to the organization of climate strikes and marches throughout Maine. She is the founder and executive director of the Coastal Youth Climate Coalition, which she started as a means of building and connection climate activist networks in Maine’s Midcoast, specifically.  

Beyond her statewide and regional organizing, Riley educates and raises awareness on climate issues in her own community, a coastal town facing the effects of climate change directly. Riley has worked in her own town to create dialogue around climate change. She presented a Climate Emergency Resolution to the town of Newcastle.  

Riley plans to continue her involvement with the youth climate movement and to continue the fight for environmental protection in Maine and elsewhere.  

Hear from Riley:

Ania Wright of Bar Harbor

Ania is a climate organizer and activist. Her list of initiatives includes serving as the Youth Representative to the Maine Climate Council; helping found both Maine Youth for Climate Justice and the Downeast Climate Emergency Action Coalition; and co-authoring the Climate Justice Syllabus. Ania’s involvement in climate organizing stems from her desire to address issues of climate change with a just and equitable framework. She advocates for changes that will address the effects of climate change that are disproportionately felt by low-income and marginalized communities.  

Ania’s work at global, state, and local levels has allowed her to gain the knowledge and skills to translate the global issue of climate change to local and state action. Her passion for and efficacy in giving youth a voice in the climate movement was recognized through her appointment to the Maine Climate Council as the Youth Representative. While serving on the Maine Climate Council, Ania has organized opportunities for youth to mobilize, network, and aid in the policy process through her creation of the Youth Working Group to the Maine Climate Council. She also helped to organize Youth Voices Day and multiple climate strikes. She is the co-author of the Climate Justice Syllabus, a toolkit of syllabi on teaching the complexities of climate change with a climate justice approach.

Additionally, Ania has fought to bring municipalities into the conversation of climate action. Ania worked with local students in Bar Harbor and at the College of the Atlantic to encourage the town of Bar Harbor to pass a climate emergency resolution and create a Climate Emergency Task Force. These efforts have not only pushed the town to take action to address the climate crisis, but have also empowered students to become more involved in the climate movement.

Ania hopes to continue growing the climate movement in Maine by mobilizing and empowering youth to play a role in addressing the climate crisis.

Hear from Ania:

Watch a webinar with all of our 2020 Brookies winners to learn more about their work: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHUDgC9uJh4