Lindsay Renick Mayer, Team Re:wild

Director of Communications, Re:wild

    ”Nature has always been an important part of my life, and my love for it an important part of my identity. I grew up catching frogs, going camping, hiking, and with a love for animals, including bugs, snakes, bats, rats, and all of the other seeming ‘unlovables’,” said Lindsay Renick Mayer, Re:wild’s Director of Communications. She wanted to share that passion with everyone. When Lindsay was 10, she started to write about science and the environment for a kids’ section of her state newspaper. She never lost that love for nature or for writing. In college, Lindsay studied science writing with a focus on space science (her other passion) and then took a detour to become a political reporter. “Ultimately, though, I found my way back to writing about our planet and all life on it. And I am so glad I did—Global Wildlife Conservation, now Re:wild, feels like home. I have the opportunity to use communications to actually influence conservation action, and it is incredibly empowering,” she said.

    "Rewilding is a different way to frame a staid doom-and-gloom narrative that no longer resonates. It is positive, pro-active, future-oriented. It is not only an action, but a state of being. We are not separate from the wild, we are the wild and we need to tap into that part of ourselves to build a planet in balance."

    In the summer of 2019, a number of things converged to make Lindsay take a step back and think hard about her personal actions and responsibility. “I had spent the summer writing about the fires in the Amazon, interviewing our partners who had gruesome stories about staring into the eyes of anteaters stumbling out of the forests on fire, of despair as they watched the irreplaceable places they swore to protect burn down, of fighting fires in flip-flops because nobody was quite prepared for how bad the fire seasons were getting," she said. One theme continued to come up as the primary driver, though few people were talking much about it, including (or even especially) in the environmental space: animal agriculture. Lindsay and her family made the transition from a vegetarian diet to one that is plant-based, the most effective action an individual can take to make a positive difference for the planet. “Now I feel like I can look my kids in the eyes when they are older and ask me what I did personally, what I was willing to sacrifice for their future on a healthy planet. And it turns out a plant-based diet isn’t a sacrifice at all, but has enriched our lives in ways we didn’t anticipate.”

    Lindsay lives with her wife Jamie and their two children. “Pride first and foremost is what I feel about the family I have built—my incredible wife, who also works on saving our planet, and my two beautiful kiddos—and for the community I have cultivated, including my wonderfully supportive colleagues at Re:wild,” she said. “But pride is also so much bigger. It is the idea that we celebrate people and lift them up for who they are, not in spite of our differences, but because of our differences. For me this extends beyond whom someone loves or what gender he/she/they identify as, and is a pride in being open and willing to do the hard but important work of learning about and lifting up all marginalized communities. The movement for Black lives, immigrant rights, police and prison reform, environmental justice, Indigenous rights, socioeconomic disparities, women's rights, and the list goes on: these are as much my fight as the fight for equality for the LGBTQA+ community, which also intersects with all of these issues in critical ways.”

    Wild Facts

    • Lindsay’s favorite species is the Panamanian Golden Toad. "They are extinct in the wild, but doing great in conservation breeding programs, so they embody the kind of hope I try to capture in all of my writing.”

    • Lindsay is an avid reader, with a preference for science fiction and fantasy, historical fiction, graphic novels and science non-fiction.