In the spirit of Rachel Carson, this biennial award is given to recognize women who exemplify leadership and excellence in their work toward the preservation of the environment.

Past Award Recipients

2001 Sandra Steingraber
1999 Maya Lin
1997 Theo Colborn
1995 Teresa Heinz

2001 Sandra Steingraber
Ecologist, poet, and cancer survivor, Steingraber is an internationally recognized expert on the environmental links to cancer. She is the author of Post-Diagnosis, a volume of poetry, and co-author of a work on ecology and human rights in Africa, The Spoils of Famine. Steingraber's highly acclaimed book, Living Downstream : An Ecologist Looks at Cancer and the Environment, presents cancer as a human rights issue. It is the first to bring together data on toxin releases now finally made available under right-to-know laws with newly released data from U.S. cancer registries. In her new book, Having Faith, released in October 2001, Steingraber reveals, through the story of her own pregnancy, the threat of environmental pollution to conception, pregnancy and the safety of breast milk.

1999 Maya Lin
Sculptor, artist, and designer, Lin brings a contemporary perspective by her fusion of technology with transcendental forms of nature. She has repeatedly incorporated the notion of landscape and topology in her work through her interest in the environment and concern over the treatment of the natural world. Featured in a wide variety of publications, and the subject of an Academy-Award-winning documentary, Maya Lin has been praised for her sensitivity to aesthetic concerns and her ability to address complex historical and social issues.

1997 Theo Colborn
Zoologist, senior scientist, and director of the Wildlife and Contaminants project at the World Wildlife Fund. Dr. Colborn's research on endocrine disrupters led to her co-authorship with Dianne Dumanoski and John Peterson Myers of Our Stolen Future. This book provides research evidence that suggests that even low doses of PCBs and dioxins, man-made chemicals found in common plastics, cleaning compounds and cosmetics, can disrupt the endocrine systems of animals and humans, which causes severe reproductive problems ranging from low IQ's and genital malformations to low sperm counts and infertility.

1995 Teresa Heinz
Chair of the Heinz Family Philanthropies and of the Howard Heinz Endowment. Ms. Heinz also created the Heinz Awards, which recognizes exceptional achievement in the fields of art, technology, environment, economy and human condition. In 1995, she announced one of the largest grants ever made to the environment to create the John Heinz III Center for Science, Economics and the Environment, to bring together representatives in the environmental, business, governmental and scientific communities to collaborate on the development of mutually acceptable, yet scientifically sound environmental policies. In addition to serving on the Center's board, she is also Vice Chair of the Environmental Defense Fund and co-founder and board member of the Alliance to End Childhood Lead Poisoning, Teresa Heinz was selected as the first recipient of the Rachel Carson Leadership Award in recognition as one of the nation's premier environmental leaders.

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