Rachel’s Network announced the awardees and finalists of its 2025 Catalyst Award. Now in its seventh year, the Catalyst Award honors women leaders of color for their commitment to a healthy planet, and provides them with financial and leadership support, and public recognition.
This year’s Catalyst Award interviews made it clear that the devastating federal funding cuts are putting significant strain on the women in our community. While women of color leaders and their organizations are consistently underfunded even in “normal” times, our applicants are facing even greater stress this year, with bigger funding gaps, and more burnout. Catalyst Program Director Shreya Durvasula offers ways for funders to step up.
What could a non-extractive agriculture project look like? In June, Rachel’s Network visited Urban Growers Collective in Chicago to find out. Catalyst Program Director Shreya Durvasula shared observations and lessons learned from the trip to Green Era Campus and the South Chicago Farm.
As an organization committed to supporting the most marginalized leaders in the environmental movement, Rachel’s Network is appalled by recent moves to rollback DEI in the Trump administration. We stand with our grantee-partners and broader network in continuing to shine a light on injustice and ways to dismantle it. We will also continue to run the Catalyst Award, our annual program for women environmental leaders of color.
Rachel’s Network hosted its first in-person event exclusively for Catalyst awardees and finalists at the Kripalu Center For Yoga & Health in Stockbridge, Massachusetts in November for a gathering focused on care and restoration for women environmental leaders of color.
