Russell REED

Russell Howell Reed is a conservationist, climate activist, and writer. He is the founder of Geographer, a forthcoming creative organization fostering cultural engagement in the environmental movement. A prominent youth climate justice advocate, Russell has led delegations to several United Nations negotiations and spearheaded the ongoing Youth Clause campaign launched at COP29 in Azerbaijan. He is the former conservation manager of Virunga National Park in Eastern Congo and a founding member of biomaterials company Sway, winner of the Tom Ford Plastic Innovation Prize. Russell is a task force member of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration and a board advisor to Glass Half Full Louisiana.

Russell's writing on culture and the environment can be found in Atmos, Document, Grist, Office, and elsewhere. He is on spring residency at the Robert Rauschenberg archives in New York City. Russell is an industry fellow at Griffith University and lectures frequently at universities including Harvard, Universidad Libre de Barranquilla, UC Santa Cruz, and the University of Rwanda. He holds an A.B. in Geography from Harvard—the first awarded since the department's disbandment in 1948. He was a John Harvard Scholar, president of the Harvard Political Review, and co-chair of queer activist effort Secret Court 100. He received the inaugural M.Phil. in Anthropocene Studies from the University of Cambridge, where he was the Paul Williams Scholar. ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​