Fighting Misogyny and Aiding the Environment Is All in a Day’s Work

It’s certainly a challenge to be a feminist running an environmental organization now that ultimate power is being handed to Donald Trump, who has made a habit of publicly shaming women and disregarding the environment.

But it’s one that Marissa Christiansen is embracing. The new Executive Director of Friends of the Los Angeles River (FOLAR) is fighting for her beliefs and speaking to ENTITY about the task ahead of her as a female leader and the good being done at grass roots level.

Do not go to work on Inauguration Day! We need to protest. #NotMyPresident #KeepObamacare #BernieWouldHaveWon pic.twitter.com/yt3RoWzMdE

— Ani Gottwald (@AniGottwald) January 7, 2017

ENTITY: How important is female leadership for FOLAR following the election of Donald Trump as president?

MC: I think having strong female leadership at the helm of an organization working for social and environmental good is crucial because we’re not going to get it at the federal level right now. We need to give people a different place to look for examples of strong female leaders that are getting it done, even in the face of this election. That leadership is more important now than ever because we have a president-elect who, quite frankly, hates women except when convenient for him. And he doesn’t privately hate women. Misogyny can be subversive and insidious, and his is not. It is in your face, on your Twitter, on your television screen, on your radio, and eventually in your head. This person, whether we are conscious of it, is who we look to for acceptable behavior. To be part of an organization whose board so clearly values female leadership means I could not have created a more dream like environment for myself. I fell in love with the river story as a feminist story because she is a female -throughout history people refer to any body of water as female. And what has her history been? To be trapped, controlled, channelized and encased by men who thought that they knew best for her. And even men now are largely driving or have driven what they think her best future should be. Now I’m looking around at my colleagues and cohorts across all these organizations and in the government agencies like the city of LA., and the people who are doing really impactful work are often led by high ranking women. So it really has become this story arc where the river was controlled by males and its destiny was a male driven thing to now a female supported endeavor.

FOLAR’s Executive Director, Marissa Christiansen.

We need to give people a different place to look for examples of strong female leaders that are getting it done even in the face of this election.

ENTITY: How will you be getting people to stay interested and focused on the river?

MC: The way we accomplish that is by community engagement. That’s the big thing. We have a list of 40,000 supporters. Between our school programs, field trips, river tours, the Frog Spot, our riverside community hub and our River Rover, our mobile river outreach center, we engage upwards of an additional 30,000 people a year. Through these programs and inspiring a sense of connection to the river, these community members are who we engage in our policy or legislative advocacy, Even the simplicity of a field trip or  tour can inspire civic engagement. That’s a big part of how we get people engaged.

Warner Brothers adaptation of The Wind in the Willows.

ENTITY: Is there anything new you feel you can add to FOLAR’s overall mission?

MC: I think the vision (my predecessor) Lewis (MacAdams) has for the river is great and needs no perfecting. What does need perfecting is us talking about that vision and making it very clear to the world. The political environment around the river has changed. There are a lot of other organizations involved now. And I think they all want the same sort of change, but there’s gotten to be a lot of noise around the issue. So I think it’s great that (FOLAR) brought in somebody new to give a fresh perspective. We really do need to clarify exactly what it is that we want and exactly how it is that we’re going to get there. I offer a fresh perspective for sure.

I’m also a type A kind of person that really likes boundaries. I come from a family with addiction in it. And when you have someone close to you who has suffered from addiction, you learn really quickly how to have hard and fast boundaries and how to say “this is my shit and that’s your shit.” Since FOLAR was the only river advocacy organization in the game for a long time, we had to be everywhere at once and we had to be everything river to everybody. Now I believe it’s time to focus. We don’t need to be everything to everybody, it’s ok to have boundaries. That might mean that we have to say no to some things. But I hope that this also gives us a strengthened sense of purpose and drive and will reinforce the inspiration and motivation we like to inspire in the River community through a clear and resolute vision. We can now be the best at what we do which is education, community engagement, advocacy and thought leadership.

there is this wonderful resurgence where saying the word feminist and talking about gender equality is ok and even celebrated.

ENTITY: Did age or gender ever create any tension throughout your career?

MC: A lot of my career has been reporting to older white men. I will say that I would be surprised to learn of any woman who has never experienced gender discrimination, and some of us even sexual harassment. I think for a long time, it was just kind of something that happened. But there is this wonderful resurgence where saying the word feminist and talking about gender equality is ok and even celebrated. I think we’re empowered to say just because the status quo has been this male driven thing, we all deserve equality and a level of respect. So certainly I’ve experienced tension between both gender and age. For a long time when I was in my mid 20’s I was just the young cute girl who couldn’t possibly have anything important to say and it’s been a long climb out of that. But I feel in this job that I am equitably judged for my character and my intelligence and what I have to offer in a situation rather than my gender or anything else. It’s completely refreshing. I think that’s because of the culture that Lewis created and because of the female leadership that we have had, both in this organization and throughout our partner organizations and agencies .

FOLAR staff kayaking down the LA River. Credit: William Preston Bowling

READ MORE: Why The LA River Matters