Yale Program on Climate Change Communication

After three successful years of the Public Voices Fellowship on the Climate Crisis, we are pleased to announce that we are now accepting applications for the 2023 Fellowship. This year-long experience will convene a cohort of twenty climate change thought leaders, with a focus on people with backgrounds that have been historically underrepresented in the mainstream media, and will provide extraordinary support, leadership skills and knowledge to ensure their ideas shape not only their fields, but the greatest and most urgent conversation of our age. The Public Voices Fellowship on the Climate Crisis is part of a national initiative in partnership with the OpEd Project to change who writes history.

The curriculum explores leadership, power, and action in an unfair world. Fellows will explore how credibility works, how ideas spread, when and why minds change, and how ideas play out over time and space. The goal of this project is to bring new, diverse voices into the national climate conversation, because we know that we cannot find just and sustainable solutions without them.

The program includes workshops and one-on-one coaching by leading journalists and editors. All participants must commit to publishing at least two written pieces of thought leadership (and hopefully many more) during their fellowship. Attendance at all workshops, continuously and in full, is required – applicants must save the dates and confirm their understanding of this commitment in order to apply.

SELECTION

We are looking for new voices from civil society, academia, and the private sector, including advocates, entrepreneurs, community and business leaders, scientists, educators, and writers, among others.

We seek leaders working at the intersection of climate change, communication, and social justice, with a demonstrated desire and ability to contribute to public dialogue on climate change. Areas of focus could include activism and movement building, financial risks and opportunities of climate impacts and solutions, racial justice, local, national or global policy, climate science, sector approaches (e.g., faith, business, health), or many others.

Fellows will be chosen through a competitive selection process. We are committed to building a diverse cohort. We will consider a variety of factors, including but not limited to gender, race/ethnicity, age, geography, area of expertise, work history, and experience as an agent of change. The fellowship is open to people at least 18 years old residing in the United States.

DETAILS

● Up to 20 fellows
● Year-long program
● One 3-day virtual kickoff convening (May 10-12, 2023, 1-4:30pm ET each day), one in-person one-day-long session at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut with a dinner the evening before (July 27-28, 2023, dinner time on 7/27 TBD, 10am to 5pm ET on 7/28), and two subsequent virtual workshops (October 26-27, 2023 and January 24-25, 2024, 1-4:30pm ET each day). Applicants MUST commit to and save those dates.
● Dedicated editors (top journalists) to provide regular, one-on-one support/editing/coaching
● Access to ongoing mentoring for the fellowship year
● A limited number of travel and lodging stipends will be available for those who need them to attend the in-person convening. The workshops and coaching are provided free of charge.

APPLY NOW – Application Deadline – 5pm EST, February 14, 2023

MORE ABOUT THE FELLOWSHIP

The Public Voices Fellowship on the Climate Crisis is a collaboration between the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication (YPCCC) and The OpEd Project.

● The YPCCC conducts scientific studies on public climate change knowledge, attitudes, policy support, and behavior, and the psychological, cultural and political factors that drive them. We apply this research by developing communication strategies to more effectively engage key publics in climate change science and solutions. We work with governments, the media, educators, companies, and advocacy organizations around the world to implement these insights in their own communication campaigns. Finally, we directly engage a national audience via Yale Climate Connections – an online news service including a daily, 90-second radio program on climate science and solutions, broadcast on more than 680 stations and frequencies nationwide.

● The OpEd Project is a think tank and leadership organization that expands history by amplifying the ideas and public impact of new and necessary voices, including women of all backgrounds. We are a community of thought leaders, journalists, commentary writers and activists who proactively share our skills, knowledge and connections across color, creed, class, age, ability, gender, orientation, and beyond. Through our programs we elevate the ideas and knowledge of underrepresented expert voices, including women, and to accelerate solutions to the world’s biggest problems–problems that cannot be solved justly or sustainably without a diversity of voices, expertise, experience and identity. We believe the best ideas, regardless of where they come from, should have a chance to be heard and to change the world.

WHAT IS SUCCESS?

We are not interested in providing a service as much as creating an outcome. Our goal is 100% success: we envision that every participant will produce tangible pieces of thought leadership in influential places (which may include op-eds, speeches, radio/TV appearances, proposals for new initiatives or businesses, and more – here are some examples from the first three cohorts), and that these will greatly accelerate their impact as thought leaders helping to shape history. Longer-term, we aim to build a thriving and connected community of Public Voices Fellows on the Climate Crisis across cohorts.

APPLY NOW

Application Deadline – 5pm EST, February 14, 2023

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

These FAQs relate to all Public Voices Fellowships managed by The OpEd Project.