Renee Grebe (she/her) is the Northern Virginia Conservation Advocate at Nature Forward, leading efforts in Northern Virginia to protect watersheds and respond to the climate emergency. With a primary focus in Fairfax County, Renee co-chairs the Fairfax Healthy Communities network, a coalition of over 20 organizations seeking policies which put peoples’ needs at the center of decision making to ensure equitable, livable, mixed-use, mixed-income, transit-oriented, and green communities. She also engages on key land-use and policy decisions in Loudoun and Prince William counties, as well as state-level policy decisions in Richmond. Her daily work ranges from advocating for stronger protections from the impact of rapid data center development to working together with diverse communities to connect residents with their watershed and empower them to drive positive environmental change. Renee approaches environmental education and advocacy with the same collaboration and listening skills required in her previous work as a user experience professional in the tech industry. She served on Fairfax County’s Environmental Quality Advisory Council for nearly 10 years and has been a Virginia Master Naturalist since 2014.