Sustainability Heroes portraits were commissioned by EAC from photographer Alan Rabold to honor 18 extraordinary people of Boulder County whose work has made important contributions toward sustainability, resilience, and regeneration locally, nationally, and/or internationally. The portraits were originally shown in 2016 as part of DRx — Doctors without Disciplinary Borders — a project created conceptually by New York-based artist and inventor Natalie Jeremijenko — with the Boulder version exhibited first at the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art.

DRx was designed to increase awareness of “mutualistic systems design,” which, according to Jeremijenko, includes “systems that align and couple benefits across organisms and organizations” providing “robust templates for re-imagining and re-designing healthy urban ecosystems.”

DRx was part of DESIGNxBOULDER, a project initiated by EAC and co-developed and co-presented in collaboration with the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, Environmental Health Clinic, and the Program in Environmental Design at the University of Colorado, Boulder, among others.

The people in the Boulder portraits were nominated by Shelly Sommers and Marda Kirn, and vetted by Natalie Jeremijenko. Rabold asked each person to bring something for the photo shoot that was emblematic of their work. The exhibition was renamed Sustainability Heroes when it was displayed at the National Center for Atmospheric Research Mesa Lab in collaboration with the UCAR Center for Science Education and later toured to other facilities. Below is a listing of the names of the Sustainability Heroes, their professions, and their affiliations at the time.

            Holly Barnard – Ecohydrologist – Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research (with pinecone)

            Elizabeth Black – Artist and Tree Gardiner (with tiny trees in pots)

            Patrick Bohin – Assistant City Forester and Guardian of the Urban Forest (with chainsaw)

            Deane Bowers – Entomologist, University of Colorado-Boulder (with butterfly)

            Ghita Carroll – Sustainability Coordinator, Boulder Valley School District (with son and daughter)

            Hana Dansky – Co-Founder and Executive Director, Boulder Food Rescue (with bicycle)

            Greg Guibert – City of Boulder Chief Resilience Officer (with map of Boulder County fire hazard zones)

            Eve-Lyn Hinkley – Biogeochemist, Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research (with soil)

            Ava Hamilton (Arapaho) – Documentary Filmmaker (no object)

            Steve Jones – Teacher, Naturalist, Historian, Co-Founder of Boulder Rights of Nature (with Native American flute)

            Brett KenCairn –  City Senior Environmental Planner (with caterpillar)

            Eric Lombardi – Zero Waste Planner (with painting of minotaur)

            Joe Lustig – Founder/CEO, Lusciously Local Edible Landscapes (with partner and vegetables)

            Carmen Reina Nelson – Dancer, Performer, Teacher, Community Builder (in traditional costume of the Orisha Oxun)

            Paty Romero-Lankao – Social Scientist, National Center for Atmospheric Research (with orchid)

            Jane Shellenberger – Founder/Publisher/Editor, Colorado Gardener (with metal dragonfly garden ornament)

            David Wheeler – Co-Founder, Bee Safe Boulder/Bee Safe Earth (in bee costume)

            Jim White – Paleoclimatologist, Director, Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research (in parka and boots)