The Lawrence Hall of Science

The public science center of the University of California, Berkeley.

Working Towards Racial Equity: Exploring Systems Change in Environmental Learning

By Valeria F. Romero, Kelly Grindstaff and Aujaneè Young

Working Towards Racial Equity (WTRE), funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF-AISL Award #2005829), is a collaborative project of the Lawrence Hall of Science, Justice Outside, and Informing Change to develop and implement a model focused on building individual and organizational capacity to center racial equity in environmental learning organizations, with a particular attention to cultivating racially-just and equitable work environments for professionals who identify as Black, Indigenous, or People of Color (or BIPOC, as used below). The WTRE model draws on a Water of Systems Change (Kania et al., 2017) framework, which posits that in order to enact transformative change, organizational efforts must occur at three levels: structural (policies, practices, and resource flows), relational (relationships, connections, and power dynamics) and mental models (guiding ideological paradigms, values, and beliefs).

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https://lawrencehallofscience.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/WTRE-Case-Study-Systems-Change-Cross-Case-Site-Brief-MW-3-14-no2.docx

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Year: 2025

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Topics:

  • Capacity Building
  • Environmental & Outdoor Science Education
  • Environmental Science
  • Equity & Inclusion

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