Speakers

Hear from BirdNote Executive Director Nick Bayard about the popular daily public radio show about birds and what BirdNote is doing to advance equity and inclusion in the worlds of public media and environmental conservation. 

Nick Bayard is the Executive Director of BirdNote, a public media nonprofit organization with an estimated 6 million radio and podcast listeners that seeks to inspire people to care about--and take steps to protect--the natural world. Prior to this role, Nick served as Assistant Chief Equity Officer for the City of Tacoma and Director of the REACH Center. He also served in the Peace Corps in Paraguay, where he founded a tri-lingual radio show. He holds a master's degree in Public Administration from the Harvard Kennedy School and a bachelor's degree in Environmental Studies from Brown University. You can learn more about BirdNote at www.birdnote.org. 

We will also have a few minutes to hear from our Exchange Students Raul and Tomas!

Erin Guinup is the founding Executive and Artistic Director of the Tacoma Refugee Choir. A passionate advocate of community singing and the power of music to heal and unite communities, she has led community singing events and spoken at national conferences for Chorus America, National Association of Teachers of Singing, American Choral Director’s Association, and the International Congress of Voice Teachers in Stockholm, Sweden, and TEDxSeattle. and the world premiere of Orson Scott Card and Mark Mitchell’s He is There; singing with Israeli-Palestinian choir Common Ground Voices in Jerusalem and Europe; and vocal workshops with Fortune 100 companies including Amazon. She is a composer and author, contributing to the books So You Want to Sing Music by Women and My Body Was Left on the Street: Music Education and Displacement. Most recently, Erin was named one of five Women to Watch by South Sound Magazine, and she became a Senior Fellow of the Tacoma/Pierce County chapter of the American Leadership Forum in 2022.

The Tacoma Refugee Choir was founded in 2016 to create community for refugees, immigrants, and friends. Refugees and many immigrants often face very difficult conditions before leaving their home countries, and while taking on the practical challenges of establishing a new home, their presence here is too often viewed with suspicion. It can be challenging to foster a sense of belonging under these circumstances, and the resulting sense of isolation can be as emotionally difficult as what people experienced in their countries of origin. One of the most joyful ways to develop a sense of belonging – a basic human need and public health concern alongside food and housing is singing with others. Many studies have observed that singing in groups is a uniquely powerful tool for developing interpersonal bonding and camaraderie.

A member shared: “The Choir is family to me, “adding that TRC helped when she was facing homelessness and connected her to resources to help her launch a business. Maurice, from D.R. Congo, credits TRC for his newfound sense of belonging and growing community engagement. TRC has accumulated many lessons during rehearsal conversations about how to create an inclusive environment for all, one of the most significant being that regardless of background, everyone can learn to be more welcoming.  They hope to share what they have learned with other community partners.