Neha Savant
Neha Savant (she/her) is a dancer, wildlife ecologist, writer, and settler living in Queens, NYC. She has worked in the fields of wildlife ecology, evolution, and natural resource management for the past decade across nonprofit, academic, and government sectors. Her work now focuses on co-production methods, uplifting multiple ways of knowing, and building empowering narratives for facilitating coexistence across cultures, belief systems, and species. She is also interested in how new arrivals to a place can develop and maintain sustaining relationships with the people, land, water, and non-human species in their new home.
She is a national fellow with the Environmental Leadership Program, a co-organizer of the Asian American Women in Conservation (AAWiC) Network, and an executive board member of Sadhana: Coalition of Progressive Hindus. In 2021, Neha was awarded a Visionary Leader Award by Partners in Amphibian & Reptile Conservation for her work to advance equity & inclusion. Neha holds a bachelor's in biology from Pomona College and a master's in ecology, evolution & conservation biology from Columbia University. In her free time, Neha enjoys live music (especially jazz), reading, and long walks with loved ones.
“My scientific work aims to further anti-colonial and anti-racist co-production methods committed to maintaining the enabling conditions for biodiversity, relational difference, and pluralism to thrive. I’ve also been curious to understand how to uplift emotional awareness in natural resource management, where the dominant culture ignores, fears, or avoids emotions as opposed respecting them as one way of knowing.”
Art
Neha (far right) in a Kathak performance with her classmates from Navatman in 2023.
