Nia Keith ’09

Nia Keith, Mass Audubon VP for DiversityNia Keith ’09 (New England, MS in Environmental Studies, Environmental Education) has been promoted to the role of Vice President for Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Justice (DEIJ) at Mass Audubon. This is a new executive-level position that will help advance organization-wide DEIJ priorities for the organization.

In her new role, Keith will be responsible for building on and advancing the organization’s DEIJ strategy to ensure it is creating a positive, inclusive, and equitable work environment, and support the organization’s work to create greater access to nature for everyone. As part of this work, she will lead corporate culture change initiatives, including staff and management training and leadership development programs, support the DEIJ Board of Directors’ Committee, and implement programs such as the Mass Audubon Environmental Fellows Program.

“I am thrilled that Nia is taking on this critically important new role at Mass Audubon, and serving on our Executive staff leadership team,” said President David O’Neill. “I have had the opportunity to work with Nia over the past nine months on the Action Agenda and I have been thoroughly impressed with her overall leadership skills and her devotion to helping Mass Audubon realize its commitment to becoming a more inclusive and more equitable institution.”

Since 2020, Keith served as Mass Audubon’s statewide Climate Change Education Manager. In this role, she focused on creating standards for program development, delivery, and evaluation of climate change curricula, with an emphasis on climate justice. She also led a team that helped develop the DEIJ goals for the Action Agenda, an ambitious set of initiatives that will guide the organization over the next five years.

Outside of her work at Mass Audubon, Keith co-founded and has served as an officer with Professionals of Color in the Environment (POCIE; pronounced “posse”). This professional organization for BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) works to collaborate and network throughout the Commonwealth, promoting DEIJ integration into the environmental sector.

Mass Audubon protects more than 40,000 acres of land throughout Massachusetts, saving birds and other wildlife, and making nature accessible to all. As Massachusetts’ largest nature conservation nonprofit, we welcome more than a half-million visitors a year to our wildlife sanctuaries and 20 nature centers. From inspiring hilltop views to breathtaking coastal landscapes, serene woods, and working farms, we believe in protecting our state’s natural treasures for wildlife and for all people—a vision shared in 1896 by our founders, two extraordinary Boston women.