Emily Goldstein is a Louisville native and has had a passion for nature and animals since she was a toddler. At the age of 16, she became an Arctic Ambassador for Polar Bears International through the Louisville Zoo. She has been to the arctic four times to study the impacts of climate change on polar bears and has given talks about climate change and other environmental topics to over 6,000 people in the Kentuckiana area. Her passion for teaching people about the environment led her to become a seasonal naturalist for Jefferson Memorial Forest, where she led summer camps and taught lower-income youth with Louisville ECHO (Engaging Children Outdoors). She has always had a love for growing her family’s own food thanks to the time spent at her grandparents’ farm in southern Indiana.

Though she has spent time in and advocated for the arctic, she understands that sustainability starts at home! She has worked with almost 100 Louisville businesses, including Yum! Brands and UPS, to help them reduce greenhouse gas emissions. She holds a BA in Anthropology and graduated with a MS in Sustainability from the University of Louisville in 2019, where she studied community gardens in Louisville. Her research focused on what limitations Louisville community gardens face and how they use available resources to overcome these limitations. 

She became passionate about food justice and urban agriculture during graduate school, where she learned about the different types of food systems and how inaccessible fresh, healthy food can be to many communities. She believes that every person should have access to locally-sourced, fresh produce and foods. In her spare time she participates in her local Quail Forever chapter, reads books, drinks endless pots of tea, and is teaching herself Korean.