Team Member Spotlight: Qing Ren

Qing’s personal and professional life journey exemplifies PEER’s commitment to action in response to critical thinking and reflection. One of the first key moments on her path was a summer camp where she and other college students from all over her home country of China designed environmental service projects and raised funds to implement them. Even though she continued with her major in Animation Art for her Bachelor’s degree from Communication University in Beijing, that summer camp ignited a passion for environmental work that she has acted on ever since.

Working at the Beijing Brooks Education Center solidified her interest in the education side of the environmental field. During a collaboration with the International Crane Foundation on a conservation education project of the Eastern Flyway of Siberian Cranes in northeastern China, Qing became interested in birds. Her paintings and life list have never been the same! She has been known to add a little sparkle to Zoom meetings by naming the birds singing outside her teammates’ office windows.

In response to limited options for graduate work in the field of Environmental Education in China, Qing came to the US. She then earned two Master's degrees (Environmental Interpretation and Education from SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse, NY, and Natural Resources from the Rubenstein School at the University of Vermont). During her studies, she developed some serious skills in research methods, statistics, and educational theory (though her modest and easy-going nature compels her to describe her expertise more as “interests” than “skills”). She also uses her advantage of being bilingual to help professionals to communicate between English and Mandarin. 

Qing’s watercolor work: Migrating Black-faced Spoonbills

Since joining PEER in December of 2017, Qing has embarked on the next portion of her learning journey. She is now a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Vermont. She has been able to use her dissertation research on environmental justice and food justice to take action on her personal values. She describes it this way: “I'm interested in learning more about what the barriers are and how to create a safe environment for children of different backgrounds to learn about racial justice and social justice in relation to environmental issues.” Last fall, her commitment to environmental justice took on an even deeper meaning to her with the birth of her first child, Anya.

If you’re a PEER client with a report that looks pretty and/or contains some interesting numbers, there is a good chance that it has Qing’s fingerprints on it. Maybe you saw the Nature-Based Play and Learning literature review or the GeoPriSM case study report that Qing worked on? Or check out her PEER Review blog post on environmental racism.

PEER is so lucky to have Qing as part of our team!