Re:wild Your Campus Joins United by Nature to Expand the Modern Conservation Movement

WASHINGTON, DC — United by Nature today announced that Re:wild Your Campus, the organization behind the movement to advance pesticide-free, ecological land care on college campus grounds, will join its effort to make conservation more actionable and culturally relevant.

Re:wild Your Campus founder, Mackenzie Feldman, will join United by Nature’s executive team as the organization’s inaugural chief movement officer. In this role, Feldman will engage and activate a broader cross-section of Americans to expand the conservation movement’s reach and deepen its impact.

“Mackenzie and her team have built something incredibly special and shown what happens when you give young people the opportunity to make a difference on environmental topics they deeply care about,” said Benji Backer, founder and CEO of United by Nature. “Re:wild Your Campus has proven that conservation can be practical, empowering, and deeply local. Bringing this work and her leadership into United by Nature allows us to take that winning approach and apply it to a bigger movement — one that reflects the many passionate people and places that have yet to take action.”

Feldman founded Re:wild Your Campus, formerly Herbicide-Free Campus, in 2018 as a student-led effort to eliminate pesticides from campus landscapes and rethink conventional approaches to land management. Since then, the initiative has grown into a national movement at more than 200 colleges organizing students and training groundskeepers to transition thousands of acres into more sustainable ecosystems. 

“Joining United by Nature gives us an opportunity to take what we’ve learned on campuses and contribute to a much larger movement,” said Mackenzie Feldman, chief movement officer of United by Nature. “I started this movement-building work because I saw firsthand that young people want to make a difference, but they need a way to turn that passion into action. I couldn’t be more excited to welcome more people into this conservation movement where everyone has a role to play in caring for nature and making a difference in their communities.”  

As chief movement officer, Feldman will shape United by Nature’s strategy for turning interest into meaningful participation by creating new pathways for people who have felt disconnected from the traditional environmental movement.   

Sheina Crystal, Feldman’s collaborator and Re:wild Your Campus's co-director, is also joining United by Nature as the vice president of movement. They will continue growing successful college campus programs, such as the Green Grounds Certification and Organic Pilot Projects, and expand the community-driven model beyond school settings to sporting events, concerts, parks, and other places where people gather. Their team will also apply lessons learned to a broader range of environmental issues that matter in people’s everyday lives, from preserving clean water, advancing regenerative agriculture, and protecting endangered wildlife.

This integration into United by Nature adds grassroots experience to deepen the new and rising generation’s connection with nature. 

Together, United by Nature will grow a conservation movement built upon shared passion, local action, and a common desire to leave the places we love better than we found them.