Dragonfly‘s seventh Diversity Cafe on November 18, 2021, features Credell Walls (goes by “Cre”) who currently serves as Program Coordinator for the Forest Preserve of Cook County, Illinois. He has worked with the Jane Goodall Institute and the Garfield Park Conservatory managing various youth programs locally and nationally. He has delivered professional and personal development training workshops to more than 3,000 youth nationally. 

Walls’ background includes studying improvisational comedy at Chicago’s Second City and he has performed with the sketch comedy group “Soul Fools” and “Minority Rules” in different festivals and venues in Chicago. Throughout his career, Walls has made several TV and radio spots promoting service learning and youth development. Walls earned a BA from DePaul University in Nonprofit Management and an MA in Biology through Project Dragonfly‘s Advanced Inquiry Program in affiliation with the Chicago Zoological Society’s Brookfield Zoo. He is a proud graduate of the 2019 Latino Policy Forum, a Multicultural Leadership Academy which promotes black and brown relationship building. Walls was also chosen as a member of the 2020 University of Chicago Civic Actors Studio and was selected as a 2021 SHIFT Emerging Leader.  

Walls believes that everyone can make a difference, but the first change must come from within. With that personal change, you can create change around you.

Learn about the life of Credell Walls as he shares how connecting youth to nature helped him to overcome personal life challenges.

• “How Connecting Teens to Nature Saved My Life” 
• Thursday, November 18, 2021, 7:30 p.m. ET

This Dragonfly Diversity Cafe is part of a developing series of virtual talks focusing on international conservation, urban and rural ecology, inquiry-based education, nature connections, and other relevant topics. Our Diversity Cafes aim to elevate marginalized perspectives on diversity, equality, and inclusion-related topics in an environmental and conservation setting. The invited speakers will explore topical ideas, research, and experience in the first half of the Cafe hour. In the latter half, the Cafe will open up for discussion and audience participation to engage with the speaker(s) and their ideas.