Nina Simons

Nina Simons

Nina Simons is a social entrepreneur and Co-CEO and Co-Founder of Bioneers.  Bioneers, is a social entrepreneur. Bioneers is a national nonprofit that helps highlight, gather and disseminate breakthrough solutions to the our most pressing environmental and social challenges. Nina's life and work are informed by her passion for the natural world, women’s leadership, systems thinking, and the arts’ capacity to shape culture and consciousness.

Throughout her career, Nina has pioneered innovative social marketing strategies for successful ventures that have worked to advance social and environmental change. Previously, she served as president of Seeds of Change and as director of strategic marketing for Odwalla. In each case, she was instrumental in the companies achieving rapid national prominence.

During her 20-year tenure as co-founder of Bioneers, Simons has developed successful programming, outreach and media strategies for disseminating the breakthrough solutions and stories of the Bioneers network of scientific and social innovators working for the common good. Since beginning Bioneers in 1990, she and partner and husband Kenny Ausubel have collaborated to grow the organization and its influence, which now reaches many millions through its annual conferences, satellite conference partners, award-winning radio series, broadcast and print media, interactive website and book series. 

Nina also has an enduring interest in the leadership of women and restoring the "feminine" to a balanced place in our culture. In 2006, she began offering Cultivating Women’s Leadership, a five-day intensive for diverse women with the passion and capacity to effect change in their communities. The intensive offers tools and practices to strengthen women’s effectiveness. Working from the inside out, it focuses on bringing to awareness the stories women tell ourselves, and developing practices for strengthening vision and self-esteem and shedding self-limiting patterns. The intensive emphasizes skillful collaboration across differences, and the creation of relationships and networks to cultivate leadership, build alliances and encourage mutual support. The experiential training recognizes the unique capacities women may bring to leadership at this pivotal time.
 

In 2002, Nina produced a retreat for diverse women leaders called UnReasonable Women for the Earth, to envision a broad progressive women’s movement with environmental restoration at its heart. The gathering served as an incubator, resulting in the formation of CodePink: Women for Peace.

Nina is currently editing an anthology book on women’s leadership and leading from the "feminine," due for release by Inner Traditions in 2010.

Nina speaks and teaches nationally about: the environment and the call to engaged action; leading from the ‘feminine’ and redefining leadership; women’s leadership; and businesses and organizations as living systems. She serves on the board of the David Brower Center in Berkeley, California.

Awards & Distinctions

• 2007 – Rainforest Action Network’s REVEL Award for helping build an integrated, progressive movement at the crossroads of environment and social justice.

• 2006 – Global Green USA’s Green Cross Millennium Award for Community Environmental Leadership for creating community and inspiring others through (an) influential environmental conference and communications  programs.

• 2005 – Business Woman of the Year Award, presented by Capital City Business and Professional Women of Santa Fe, New Mexico for her significant achievements on behalf of women in business and community.

• 2005 – Flyaway Productions’ 10 Women Campaign Award.

• 2003 – The Robert Rodale Award for Bioneers’ work in bringing the emergent field of Ecological Medicine to public awareness and for championing new approaches to wellness and healing.

• 1996 – Named an Utne Reader “Visionary” for her leading-edge work in communication, community building, and ethical commerce.