Naseem Rakha

Naseem Rakha is an inspirational speaker, award-winning author and journalist and a naturalist who is passionate about the enjoyment and conservation of our public lands system. Her perspective is honed by life in Colorado, traveling extensively throughout the West pack backing, rafting, working on ranches, lecturing and bringing those experiences back to the public through NPR’s All Things Considered, Morning Edition, Marketplace Radio, Christian Science Monitor, and Living on Earth. Her novel, The Crying Tree, has earned numerous recognitions and has been published in 11 languages.

Ms. Rakha has an extensive portfolio as Artist/Writer in Residence including at the Grand Canyon, South Rim (2014); Hedgebrook (2013) and the Fetzer Institute (2010). Her speaking engagements include Ted X, “Remember to Live – finding the wild inside each one of us,” 2013; keynoting the Oregon Conservation Association on “The Colorado Crisis” and keynoting at the University of California, Davis,” Reading the Waters of Life.”

She served as an Environmental Mediator and Educator from 1992 to 1995 on the Hanford Nuclear Reservation, Hanford Advisory Board, Warm Springs Reservation, Crooked River National Grasslands, Sawtooth National Recreation Area and Deseret Ranch. She has been an Adjunct Professor at Humboldt State University, 1994-1998 in the Natural Resource Department and Writing Instructor at Marlyhurst College, 1997-2000, Portland, Oregon.

Her repertoire includes serving in Natural Resource Management Education and Consultation at the Center for Holistic Resource Management in New Mexico; in Farm Crisis Response for the Illinois South Project during the 1980’s farm crisis and as a Park Interpreter for the US Army Corps of Engineers, Rend Lake.

Ms. Rakha has a BS in Geology from Southern Illinois University.