Environmental Advocacy, Pageants, and Transitioning from Country to City Life with Kylie Johnson

Welcome back to Environmental Professionals Radio, Connecting the Environmental Professionals Community Through Conversation, with your hosts Laura Thorne and Nic Frederick!

On today’s episode, we talk with Kylie Johnson, Southwest Ohio Regional Director for the Ohio Environmental Council about Environmental Advocacy, Pageants, and Transitioning from Country to City Life.   Read her full bio below.

Help us continue to create great content! If you’d like to sponsor a future episode hit the support podcast button or visit www.environmentalprofessionalsradio.com/sponsor-form 

Showtimes: 
2:44 Nic & Laura Talk about  writing a good email
9:18  Interview with Kylie Johnson Starts  
11:04  Pageants
15:29  Environmental Advocacy
21:12  Transitioning from Country to City Life
25:31  Field Notes

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This podcast is produced by the National Association of Environmental Professions (NAEP). Check out all the NAEP has to offer at NAEP.org.

Connect with Kylie Johnson at https://www.linkedin.com/in/kyliejanejohnson/

Guest Bio:
As the Southwest Ohio Regional Director for the Ohio Environmental Council (OEC), Kylie Johnson works to advance environmental justice and make protection of Ohio’s land, air, and water a priority of local and state leaders. She began her career with the national nonprofit Action for the Climate Emergency (ACE) where she educated high school students about the science, consequences, and solutions of climate change and empowered them to take action. Prior to joining OEC in 2021, Kylie managed the Green Learning Station - a retrofitted gas station transformed into a LEED Platinum certified environmental education center and green infrastructure demonstration site. Kylie earned her B.S. in Conservation Science from Muskingum University and M.S. in Environmental Studies from Ohio University, where she was funded by the USDA Forest Service and Georgetown University to conduct urban composting research in Edinburgh, Scotland; Washington, D.C.; and Baltimore, Maryland.

Music Credits
Intro: Givin Me Eyes by Grace Mesa
Outro: Never Ending Soul Groove by Mattijs Muller

Chapters

• 2:44 Nic & Laura Discuss Writing a Good Email
• 9:18 Interview with Kylie Johnson Starts
• 11:04 Pageants
• 15:29 Environmental Advocacy
• 21:12 Transitioning from Country to City Life
• 25:31 Field Notes

Transcript

Transcripts are auto-transcribed

[Intro]

Nic 
Hello and welcome to EPR to favorite environmental enthusiast Nick and Laura. On today's episode RNI discuss writing good email. We talked to Kylie Johnson about environmental advocacy, pageants and transitioning from country to city life. And finally, you can't taste food without saliva. In order for food to have a taste chemicals from the food must first dissolve into your saliva. It's only once they've been dissolved in a liquid that the chemicals can be detected by the receptors in our tastebuds. And you can actually test this out which is pretty cool. So if you want to get out a clean towel and rub your tongue dry, then play some dry foods on your tongue, one by one such as a cookie, pretzel or other kind of dry food. I love tortilla chips this would be perfect. After the session, drink a glass of water and then repeat and you should be able to tell the difference. I thought that was really cool.

Laura  
That is cool. That is crazy. I wish I'd known that trick when I had to eat brussel sprouts when I was younger.

Nic 
Yeah, exactly. So if you don't, if your food is gross, just dry out your mouth and there you go.

Laura 
into it really fast.

Nic 
Yeah really, really fast.

[NAEP Event News]

Laura 
Registration is now open for nhps next advanced NEPA workshop on Wednesday, November 9 from 10 to 6:30pm. Eastern time. These workshops are intended to provide participants with practical tips and tools about how to refine preparation and review of environmental documents prepared pursuant to the National Environmental Policy Act. Check it out@www.naep.org So we keep asking for sponsors every week and no one's doing it. So we decided you were gonna fill the spot with your own made up junk so ready you have like 30 seconds to come up with your idea and spit it out. Alright, here we go. The comedian here so butterfly.

Nic 
Let's see do you want to work out but not really. Boy oh boy. Do I have anything for you? This is the no flex. That's right, folks. You do nothing. You do absolutely nothing. And you look the same. Actually nothing changes at all. It's not great. It's awful. But we will take your money, no problem. three easy payments 99 Nine, and you can look exactly the same way you do right now but also also we'll throw this in for free. With those in for free. You get one compliment a day about how you look beautiful. You look great. You look wonderful. That's what you're getting for your 99 you know your three easy payments and that's what you get. That's what you get. It's part of the show.

Laura 
Dang dang Dang, he did it. Alright, people go visit the sponsor form on the website, please.

[Nic & Laura discuss writing a good email]

Laura
I think that people don't realize that emails aren't just emails. They're a form of communication. That's correct. Yeah. And also, I think maybe like five years ago, when WhatsApp and other things started to get popular, people thought, Oh, we're not going to be using emails anymore. That is way not true. And I as researching for this workshop, I discovered that you know, emails are still on the rise. They are actually being used more than they ever have before. And I think probably because you know, there are risks involved with people taking conversations at work offline. I can't track it. I don't know. So I think some of the things like Slack internal communication, people are using things to talk internally but still outward facing to clients and customers. You know, still using email pretty heavily.

Nic 
I would argue even internally you have to do the same thing with groups of people that you don't know, you know, you know, Dawson's 1000 people. I talked with the construction crew, semi regularly but it's always through email, because I don't know them that well. I don't work with them on a daily basis. And it's almost like a marker like hey, don't forget about me come back to this.

Laura 
Yeah. So I have a formula for emails that you've seen for me probably. Yeah. And basically, you have to still have a greeting and you have to use the person's name has to be the right name.

Nic  
Should be correct. Pause you here because this is very, very important. To people like me, who have two first names. My name is Nicolas. Frederick, not Frederick Nicholas. That guy is way cooler than me. And if you decide that mine first name is Frederick, do not call me Fred. All right, because you don't know you do not know if I go by that or Frederick. Come on. What are we doing?

Laura  
Right so first thing right here. That's why you gotta get the name right because you're automatically going to piss somebody off. Yeah. I don't think it's a big deal. It is. It may not be to you and it may not be to them but there are some people who would is and I also find that if I get an email from someone high up and leadership and they should know me, and they call me Lauren or Lori or something instead, that's very offensive. Like we've talked, you should know who I am.

Nic  
I don't have a screening tool to write like, I mean, like, if someone doesn't know your actual name, you can almost be like, Okay, first make sure it's not spam. Second, if it's somebody who's trying to reach you that doesn't know you, you can be like, Well, I don't have to ignore this per se, but this is less important.

Laura 
Right? Recently, I got one from somebody who tried to pretend they knew me. And they said hi, comma, so and so asked me to reach out to you because whatever and I was like this is obviously sent blind copy to a million other people. So no, thank you. Bye. So in a lot of cases, it makes sense. I use it as a screening tool in my hiring. If I use my name and they know my name and they email me with interest and don't say hi, lower back. You know, I want to know that you can write a professional email so their first thing, name or ingredient, you know, good morning, hi, hello, something.

Nic 
What is the next thing? I would say? I would argue like, so my name right? And I see there's a reason. There's a reason for that amoment HMI name it's me indicated spelling it this way, you know, asking us the world, right, whatever. But when I write an email, it's very interesting. I always pay attention to who gives me the C or the K, or calls me fret, right? Always pay attention to that like, okay, so if you are somebody who has an eye for detail, you will get my name, right, if you're nice, and you won't, and I'll know that it's just a thing to put my memory in,

Laura  
right? That's the point. And then if I email you and I say Nick, and I see K or something, which is what I'm used to, and then you reply and you put Nic, I will immediately say, oh, my gosh, sorry, right Nic, you know what I mean? I'll acknowledge it, like didn't didn't know now I know. And they, you know, if I call up and you would prefer they, and I didn't know it, I will correct that on I see that you've replied that way. So that's the first thing. Second thing is that some sort of nicety, we'll jump right into the work. I'm very guilty of that, like I'm so straight business with this formula. The formula saves you from looking like a business driven aihole who doesn't care about anybody but yourself. So you know, it's so easy. Takes a second it's like if it's Monday, it's hope you had a great weekend. It's Tuesday. Hope your week is off to a good start. You know, you can see where this goes Friday Happy Friday. Yeah, yeah. And then you know, anything change that up to any number of things could be Hey, was great to see you last. Week, you know, personalize the thing. Which then is just, you know, respectful. If you're talking to somebody who does seem contentious to kind of just says, Well, I'm still taking this down to a cordial level, whatever the conversation is, and then your content, which of course has to be clear and succinct and all those things and we could do an entire other thing on that. Just I had a three hour workshop and writing emails. And then so the last thing is a sign off like a real sign off Best regards, whatever that you need that to be in your actual name. I hate on someone emails me and they're like, oh, I need all this stuff from you. And then doesn't even say like, Thank you. Have a nice day. You know, like, appreciate you something. just round it out. You know, like, you got the book Instagramming in the sign off.

Nic 
Thank you very obviously, there's so many there's so many. And I like I can say a name is really important. We have like taglines, most companies will have a gangland so have your blog that has your information and information on it which is great. It's good it should be there. But yeah, if you if you don't like my full name Nicholas right is always is as part of my blog. I don't go by that. Like if I if I get called Nicholas, I'm in trouble. Like, you know what I mean? Like it's my mom, telling me you know, I did something wrong. So, Nick, I always sign everything with the name I Coba. Right.

Laura 
And then yeah, and then you know, that signature block thing that's still important to you. I can't tell you how many times I have tried to find someone's contact info, whether it's their website or their phone number or something and I'm digging for 15 minutes and they don't they don't have that their automatic replies like just their name or nothing and you're like so it's all about being helpful and cordial. And like you said, having attention to details being respectful. So there it is. That's the role model email formula. You'll have no

Nic 
they got no more about emails. I'll never get another copy. Whenever again. That's good stuff.

Laura  
Don't get them they won't give them well, yeah, they'll revise the bad ones.

Nic 
We'll send them to you. Some of our bad ones to Laura. And that's Laura. Thoren at don't

Laura 
spell it right.

Nic  
Laura. thorny. All right. All right. That's good. Let's get to it.

[Interview with Kylie Johnson Starts]

Laura 
Welcome back to EPR. Today, we have Kylie Johnson, Southwest Ohio, Regional Director at Ohio Environmental Council on the show. Welcome, Kylie.

Kylie Johnson 
Thank you so much. It's a pleasure to be here. Awesome.

Laura 
Well, I'm super excited to have someone here from the Midwest and even more so close to my birth city in Lima, Ohio. So you're in Cincinnati now. Did you grew up in Ohio?

Kylie Johnson 
Yes, I'm an Ohio native. I'm originally from Southeast Ohio though in a small town called Zanesville I grew up there on an 86 acre family farm surrounded by woodlands with a creek that ran through the property. So just you know, a nature lover from the start.

Laura 
Oh, that's awesome. How did you choose conservation science before you got into college?

Kylie Johnson 
Yeah, so I I knew caring about the environment that I wanted to go into an environmental field, but it's really difficult, especially if you don't have mentors to guide you to know where that could be. Because it's, you know, so all encompassing. And when I was in high school, I worked at a grocery store. And I regularly would bag groceries for this gentleman who turned out to be the director of the conservation sciences program. So just building that relationship with him while I was bagging his groceries and learning about the program. He encouraged me to apply and and that's just one of those moments in life where you're just sort of at the right place at the right time. And you never know what opportunities are going to arise this you have conversations with people.

[Pageants]

Laura 
Yeah, that's awesome. We actually hear that quite a bit. So being open to those opportunities is in listening and paying attention when you see that that's great. And you're a former Miss southeastern Ohio, Miss Northeast Ohio and Miss Muskingum Valley posting the right

Kylie Johnson  
that's correct. Yes, I'm impressed that you said Muskingum, right

Laura 
well, that's I mean, that's super incredible. And you told us in our show notes that the pageant isn't the same today as people might think. So how did you get into that? And then how did it end up shaping your career? Because I know it played kind of a role in that.

Kylie Johnson 
Yeah, absolutely. And I will say this is something that I don't share professionally very often. But I'm really happy to talk about it now. And this is something that I started back when I was attending Muskingum University for undergrad. It was my sophomore year there. And my best friend was in the same program as me for conservation science. And she had been competing in the Miss America program for a couple years and said, Hey, you should do this with me. You should compete in this missing value program. And I said, No, no, no. I turned her down for a long time because as I said, I grew up on a farm I was the shy girl that never didn't like to wear makeup or heels or dress. up or do any of that. And the thought of being onstage in front of an audience was terrifying. But she eventually wore me down and I think part of that was there was just this voice inside of me saying do it like push yourself. Step outside of your comfort zone and I completely shocked my family. I shocked myself by doing it but I'm so glad that I did. Because, you know a lot of times people think of the Miss America program as a beauty pageant or someone would say, oh, you're a beauty queen. And I would correct them to say that Miss America is one of the largest providers of scholarship for women in the country. And iron personally over $10,000 in scholarships while I competed in the program, and not only that, but its main focus is on community service. So you come with a platform in mind that if you are a title holder that you work with the community on mind being go green, think globally, act locally. So goes right along with my passions. And then it just really pushes you with interview skills, making sure that you're up to date on current events and can talk about them. And there's also the talent portion of the competition as well, which I've been a violinist since sixth grade so I was able to incorporate that. So really just bringing all of those different parts of life and skills that are important to build to attention, and just helping me along in my professional career as well, especially with the interview skills.

Laura 
Yeah, that's really awesome. appreciate you sharing it. I think for us in sharing people's backgrounds and how they got into their jobs and stuff. It's it's important for people to hear that there are all kinds of paths and whatever your interest is, or in also just pushing outside your comfort zone. There's no like one makeup of environmental scientist or conservationist. How did doing the interviews with Miss America help you like like, how have you seen that helped you in your job?

Kylie Johnson 
Oh, yes, it's I think interview skills are so important and previous positions that I've applied for in my position currently I was told there are over 200 applicants for my position, and it's very competitive in the environmental field or and many job fields, but especially ours, I would say and so making sure that you have good interview skills, good interpersonal skills can really give you that edge because you could be just as qualified as somebody else. But if you have those interview skills on top of it, that's really going to set you apart in the candidate pool.

Nic 
What do you think are those skills like what would you say is one of the more important things that help you get the job you have now?

Kylie Johnson 
I would say confidence for sure. Just making sure that you have excellent communication skills and you know, that's always fluid. It depends on the day right? Making that connection with the people that are interviewing you to and showing them that you're not just a robot or this something represented per person represented on a piece of paper, but you're an actual person with different interests and skills that culminate to make you the best candidate for the position.

[Environmental Advocacy]

Nic  
Yeah, that's great. And you know, it's a good segue into what you're currently doing. So what do you do in your current role as a regional director of the iron bowel Council?

Kylie Johnson 
Yeah, so I'll start with the Ohio Environmental Council and who we are we're over a 50 year old, nonprofit environmental advocacy organization with a mission of securing Healthy Air land water and a strong democracy for all Ohioans. And about six years ago, OEC started the field advocacy program to have regional directors and each different region of our state to really make sure that we're making progress at the local level. And we've seen that you can still have wins and successes at the local level, even if there's poor national or state leadership when it comes to protecting the environment. And certainly I've seen that in southwest Ohio with Cincinnati, showing up as a national leader and sustainability in a lot of the work that they're doing. And so I've been in this role for a year and a half now. And I have mostly been focused in on building relationships with our elected leaders, our environmental champions that are in office, supporting them and advocating for environmental policies that are going to protect communities, especially those that are most vulnerable to the worst impacts of climate change. And also building relationships and working to expand the environmental movement and expand those different communities and voices that have historically been left out of this work and making sure that they're hurt.

Nic 
Yeah. And so when you approach this role, you know, there's a lot of parts to that there's a lot of nuances to it. Did you have a plan of attack on your own when you first started or how did you kind of develop how you do all these different things?

Kylie Johnson  
Yeah, that's a great question. So I've been in Cincinnati for 10 years now. And the eight and a half years before I started this role, I was working in the environmental education field and so I had been working for a long time to already establish relationships within the community and strong networks and what I love is that the Environmental Network here is very supportive of one another and all wants to work together to collaboratively and make a difference. And all of those relationships really helped me to hit the ground running as I got started in this role. So really, in the beginning, it was just about letting everyone know that OEC has a presence in sharing what it is that we can do to support communities here. And how also the work that we do locally could propel up to have statewide impacts as well. So I think just the foundation of all of that is making sure that we have those strong relationships in place. And then after that it's really finding similar lanes that other organizations or groups are working in that closely aligned with the work that we're doing. Yeah, and

Nic  
is that is that 40 hour a week thing or do you have to do like a lot of extra time and energy and effort to get to use it when you start making those relationships and more effort than

Kylie Johnson 
that's a great question. I I know it it ebbs and flows depending on time of year to right now. We're in a busy election season right now. So OAC is really great about promoting work life balance, but you know, there are times that you just need to put in extra work because it's the work that needs done. And as the thing about being in the environmental field is that you're passionate about the work so sometimes you don't it's okay to go the extra mile to make it happen. So yeah, it just depends on the time of year.

Nic 
Just perfect. It's perfect. I also hear those congratulations in order because you've been appointed to the green Cincinnati planning steering committee and chair of the advocacy education and outreach subcommittee. So what are the current objectives for that and where are you in the process?

Kylie Johnson 
So thanks for bringing that up. So the green Cincinnati plan for those that don't know is the climate action plan for the city of Cincinnati. The first one was established back in 2008. And every year or every five years rather, it's been updated. And now we're working to update for 2023. And so that effort started back in May, with a kickoff at the Cincinnati Zoo. And we had over 300 people in attendance at this meeting. So that just shows you how much energy and enthusiasm there is in Cincinnati for this community and advancing sustainability. And so since then, there have been a set of different community meetings to really make sure that we have diverse voices at the table providing input on these plans and the plans being focused on building a city that's more sustainable, equitable. And resilient. And what's great about the green Cincinnati plan is that every iteration has improved. There have been a lot of lessons learned. And this iteration of the plan. The main focus is equity and environmental justice, which has been mentioned in past plans but now every part of the plan has this done making sure that we're using those pieces and all of the different focus areas which there are eight of them. So we've worked through that community engagement process, and now the plan is being drafted and there are other key stakeholders that are going to be reviewing the plan. And hopefully all of that will result in the adoption by city council in early spring.

Nic 
Very cool.

[Transitioning from Country to City Life]

Laura 
That's awesome. So Cincinnati, we all know the Cleveland rocks for various reasons. Tell us what's going on in Cincinnati. So you move from country grill you said and what's that transition been like moving into the city and what now I guess if you had the choice to go back what keep you in Cincinnati?

Kylie Johnson 
Oh, it was a tough transition for me at first 10 years ago. Just all all of the hustle and bustle of city life, which now I've become accustomed to and I think it would be difficult to to leave especially with the great network of friends and relationships that I've built here. I do love getting back to Zanesville to get out and clear my head as much as possible. And I think that the hard thing was that I am an introvert by nature, so meaning that that peace and quiet was important, but it's been great because I have a two year old Australian Shepherd puppy. I guess he's not a puppy anymore. He'll always be a puppy in my heart but I take him to Cincinnati parks as much as possible and check out all the hiking trails there. So that just helps keep me centered. But there's so much going on in Cincinnati a couple weeks ago. We had the international blank festival. Have you heard of that? I have to check it out. Blink Cincinnati. It's an arts and lights and music festival that happens all across the city. There are murals painted and projection mapping on the murals along with music. They had a drone show over the Ohio River and they have over a million people that come from all over the world. Many international artists that are involved too. So Cincinnati's really put itself on the map, not just for the environmental and sustainability work that's happening but also our arts and culture too.

Laura 
Oh, I love that. That's great.

Nic  
Yeah, that's really cool. That's interesting. So you have to you have to do your you have to have your time that to yourself, you have to have this job. It's pretty demanding has lots of different parts. But we also know you're an avid learner, which is, you know, speaks right to me. How do you make time for doing all this new learning bringing in these new ideas, new thoughts, when you have so much going on? How do you prioritize?

Kylie Johnson 
I would say that is one of the biggest challenges I've found in my professional career. And I really love to talk to others in the environmental career about this too, because that creativity component is so important, and your job and you don't realize it but taking that time for rest and relaxation is usually when you have your best ideas when it comes to work, or I'll be in the shower and that's when I have some ideas that I wasn't even thinking about and then it'll pop up or or going on a hike the same thing. And I find myself kind of multitasking with those. I absolutely love listening to podcasts and learning and soaking up as much information as I can. So I usually put on my favorite podcast while I do my workouts in the evenings or while I'm driving to pick my dog up from daycare, but I've been trying to find more of those little moments throughout the day just taking 10 minutes to myself without slack messages hanging on my computer without my my phone notifications going off and just clearing your mind for those minutes can really help with that creative aspect.

Nic 
It's perfect so okay, well besides GPR which is obviously your favorite podcast. What is your second favorite? second favorite podcast?

Kylie Johnson 
My second I am subscribed to EPR I really enjoyed some of the recent episodes. My favorite podcast is impact theory by Tom bill. You interesting Yeah, you heard of that one? Oh, what's that about? Oh, it's fantastic. Tom Bill, you he and his wife created Quest Nutrition. And now they've gone on to do a lot of other ventures but it's mostly a professional development podcast. He also has health professionals on there as well. So I learned about a lot about health, but a lot about mindfulness or just different things that you can apply in your your professional world to really cool.

[Field Notes]

Nic 
That's awesome. You know, looking through your your bio in your show notes. You have a lot of really incredible field stories and we do a segment here called Field Notes, where we talk about our experiences working as environmental professionals in the field. And we're gonna start with beekeeping and work our way up to something wild and crazy that cannot wait to get to but get. Tell us a little bit about how you got into beekeeping.

Kylie Johnson  
I got into beekeeping when I was working at the Civic Garden Center of Greater Cincinnati. That's where I managed for seven years the green Learning Station, which used to be an old gas station that was retrofitted and turned into a LEED Platinum certified Environmental Education Center and demonstration site for green infrastructure. And the Civic Garden Center is housed on a Cincinnati park called the Health Botanic Gardens. A lot of people call it the best kept secret in Cincinnati because it's this eight acres of land right in the middle of the city and you could drive right past it and not even realize that there's this beautiful park back there. So my coworker and I have the time talked about getting bees on the property. We went through the whole process to make sure it was okay. And I was just there learning as a beekeeper with this Langstroth hive that we had in our serenity garden. And then my coworker left and so I became the prime beekeeper. And from there we got an observation hive one with the glass panes to put inside the green Learning Station which was fantastic because students coming for field trips could see the bees up close. And personal and so many students were terrified of bees. A lot of these our farm urban schools didn't you know grow up with access to nature and so having that opportunity to see them up close and personal was really transformative and help them look at bees in a different way as pollinators and important for environments that have something that's scary.

Nic 
Oh, that's such a wonderful story. And it's funny though, you talked a little bit about growing up in a rural area coming to a big city. And this is like this is like our what I would call a kind of like a NEPA ish field note but you had to you know, present in front of large crowds may or may not have always gone well so how did you kind of develop a thick skin dealing with all of that what were you dealing with and how did you get developed that thicker skin and may not have always gone
____________
Nic 
They're gone. Well, so how did you kind of develop a thick skin dealing with all of that? What were you dealing with? And how did you get developed that thicker skin?

Kylie Johnson 
Yeah. So I think you're referring to when I first moved to Cincinnati, I was working for the national nonprofit Alliance for Climate Education, which was the name at the time now it's action for the climate emergency. And I was giving presentations to students, you know, some in small classrooms, some auditoriums full of 500 students at a time, and it was a brand new experience. For me, other than competing in Miss America program. I never been on stage where I could be interacting with audiences that way. And sometimes teachers who didn't have the same viewpoints about climate change would ask me tough questions when I was on stage, and, you know, it's one of those things where it just takes repetition and experience over time to do it, develop that thick skin. It doesn't always go perfectly. But you have to remember a lot of times you're the one that's internalizing these mistakes, or what you think of as so called failures. But those mistakes are often the best teachers and you look at successful people and you don't see all of those bumps in the road along the way, but we all have them. And that's what all helps us improve as we go

Nic 
when a brilliant answer to good actually. So no, it's absolutely true. And I'm gonna ask you this follow up here. So when you do have those mistakes, those bumps in the road, right? How do you go back up again?

Kylie Johnson 
It probably depends on your personality type, I would say first of all, is how how you need to internalize it and process it for me as I mentioned being an introverted, it's something that I want to think about and analyze myself before then sharing with the people that are close in my life for feedback, which I think is so important. You need to get those thoughts out of your head, feelings of impostor syndrome or doubt, and you need to talk about it with others and that really helps you through the process, but I call myself a recovering perfectionist. And it's always a work in progress. To realize that perfect is the enemy of progress and not thinking of of those mistakes as failures. But as pieces that are helping strengthen you for the next phase of your career and the next phase of your life. So I think that's really the process for me of internalizing those and moving forward and getting better.

Nic 
Yeah, thank you. That's a really, really great answer. Thank you. Okay, we have to clear out a little bit here. Because this is just I love this story. And I know a little bit about like, you know, endangered species survival plants, and you know, sometimes human interaction can be a detriment to the conservation of the species. And you have a great story about that exact thing. Working with whooping cranes. Can you tell us a little bit about that?

Kylie Johnson 
Yes, it was Mississippi sandhill cranes, actually, so I'll set the context here a little bit. So when I was an undergrad at Muskingum university, my first intern ship experience was at the Audubon species survival center which is in New Orleans. Louisiana. And I spent a summer there working at the center, which is this 1200 acre expanse of land that's owned by the US Coast Guard and the city of New Orleans by down by the Mississippi River. And when you drive up to the complex, I kid you not It seems just like Jurassic Park. There are multiple sets of gates to get into the complex. And once you're inside, there is a lot of captive care going on for different endangered species clouded leopards Elans Bongo antelope, African Wildcats, and Mississippi Sandhill Cranes so there's eight acres of the land dedicated to helping their population. So the Mississippi Sandhill Crane back in 1975. Their population was dangerously low. There was only about 30 to 35 birds left in existence. So there was the Mississippi Sandhill Crane National Wildlife Refuge that was created to help support them. And then the Audubon species survival center was working on programs to help breed them and then release them back into the wild. So as an intern, I was helping to raise these chicks. One summer that we were going to release back into the refuge but you don't want the chicks to imprint on humans. So we had to wear a crane costume which was essentially this big, gray Canvas suit with a netted hood. And then I would hold a little crane puppet head as well which are used to feed them. And then as the chicks would get older, you would have to take them on walks three times a day to make sure that their feet would grow properly. Otherwise they would rotate improperly and so you're outside in 100 degree weather in the middle of summer in New Orleans 100% Humidity wearing this really heavy canvas outfit purring like a bird as you walk around with these chicks. It was certainly a character building summer and also just a fun adventure to also New Orleans. Being down in South Florida. You said you're from Florida. So you know all all kinds of scary creatures. They're poisonous creatures. So I would open the door to our intern trailer at night and there'd be a cottonmouth snake sitting there in front of the door or you know, a Blackfoot or spiders. So I could be treacherous but that was part of the fun adventure to

Nic 
please tell me are there pictures of this somewhere? You have pictures?

Kylie Johnson 
There are pictures of this. Yes. Oh, I have to send you one and I do have a picture of me in that outfit holding a safe because we have to go in the grass would go really high in the pens and again, we couldn't let the birds see us. So we would use the site so I wrote like the Grim Reaper and some of the pictures that I

Laura  
that's perfect. My internship not not quite as cool. That's really awesome. But speaking of really cool things, you also have some really amazing hobbies. So violin weightlifting, I already mentioned hiking with your cutie Australian Shepherd. You still play violin?

Kylie Johnson 
I do but admittedly not as much as I would like. I can that's one of those things when you become a professional and you become so focused on your career that at times you lose sight of your hobbies and your your passions, but it is something that I've been picking up again and it really is like riding a bike. You know, you're a little rusty after coming back to playing but it just becomes second nature again. So I've recently formed calluses again on my hand from plucking on the strings, but it's certainly something that I want to continue again another you know, music is such an important creative outlet. Oh, yeah.

Laura 
Yeah, I love that. I mean, I love scientists who are also artistic, you know, work in all parts of the brain and really just understanding that you can do them both. You don't have to just be one or the other. I also have my cello. You can see it across from me in the room and I've been playing it also again recently and same thing I thought, oh god if I pick this up when I have to start over, but I didn't I pretty you know, pretty easy to jump right back in which was very nice. But one thing I have not jumped into is weightlifting so how long have you been doing that? And that it sounds like you still do?

Kylie Johnson 
Yeah, I think I'd started strength training back in high school. So this is something that I'm grateful to my dad for teaching me about he we had something called a solo flex which I think is like the original version of the Bowflex interface that so he set me up with a program and that was really helpful. I started playing softball and soccer and high school and just the more that I've listened to all of these health podcasts, especially for women the importance of strength, strength, training and keeping muscle and also just helping with your energy level. So before the pandemic, I had bought my own weight set. I have a bench and a bar. Then my husband and I moved in together and now we live in a condo five minutes from downtown Cincinnati, and instead of the place where our dining room table should be, that's where I have my weight bench. Not too thrilled about that, but he's, you know, also supportive of my hobbies and it was super helpful for both of us during the pandemic. And all the shutdowns. He couldn't get to his gym so he was able to use my equipment to it's great

Nic 
to give him a little nap now It's good right now. Now I

Laura 
can eat anywhere.

Nic 
Right, exactly. So we're running out of time, but is there anything else you'd like to talk about before we let you go?

Kylie Johnson 
I wanted to mention one other thing about the the green Cincinnati plant. We were talking about that. That's the project I'm working on right now that I'm very excited to be involved in because it's gonna set the trajectory for the next five years and beyond and Cincinnati, the 2018 version of that plan. The overall goal was to reduce carbon emissions by 80% by 2050. And I'm excited to share the the update of the plan. The goal is to reach carbon neutrality by 2050 with a near term reduction 50% by 2030. And those are very aggressive just with the latest science coming out saying that we need to be doing more to help combat climate change and I'm just so proud of Cincinnati and the collective effort that's being put into this work to make that happen. And to hopefully show the rest of the nation and set an example for others to do the same.

Nic 
Yeah, what's what is in the plan, what are the some of the more specific action items that you've seen from the that have actually been updated? From 2018 to 2022? How are we moving forward?

Kylie Johnson 
So a lot of the priority actions are still being drafted currently, since we're analyzing all that input that's come in from the community on on What should these recommendations be? Because in 2018, there were 80 different recommendations to help with carbon emissions reductions. We're trying to hone in a little bit on that so the plan isn't, you know, 250 pages long to read. So we're becoming more focused on that, but I will say that there are eight different focus areas of the plan the section that I'm chairing as the advocacy education and outreach section of the plan, which really weaves into all of the other sections, some examples of the others, zero waste, mobility, food, so looking at just all these different areas of our lives and what we can do to help reduce carbon emissions.

Nic 
That's really cool. That's really interesting. And so when you say advocacy, and I can't do it, I'm rambling on at the end. But when you say advocacy, what does that mean? What does that look like? Well,

Kylie Johnson  
I'm glad you asked that because excitingly, this is the first time that advocacy has been included. In the green Cincinnati plan. And 2018 There was an education and outreach section. But the community has spoken and said they really want advocacy to be included. So that's been part of these community meetings is getting input of what does this look like? What should be included and a lot of it is working to advocate for more funding to help with some of these initiatives and pushing them along. So it's exciting to see what the final draft of that plan will look like. And from what I can tell I've read many different climate action plans and they're very few that have advocacy. As part of that plan. So hopefully, again, this will help set an example for others to do the same.

Nic 
It's very, very neat. I appreciate that. I'm glad that it's in there. Looking forward to seeing that the plan come out and before we let you go, where can people get in touch with you?

Kylie Johnson  
People can get in touch with me on LinkedIn. It's Kylie Jane Johnson,

Nic  
thank you so much for your time.

Kylie Johnson  
Thank you so much for having me.

[Outro]

Nic 
That's our show. Thank you colleagues for joining us today. Please be sure to check us out each and every Friday. Don't forget to subscribe. rate and review. See you everybody.

Laura
Bye.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai