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Louis and Gabrielle Bacon Environmental Fellowship

The world desperately needs leaders with the courage, drive and political skills to fight climate change and help restore the natural world. The Louis and Gabrielle Bacon Environmental Fellowship is a transformational experience designed to prepare a new generation for environmental leadership. The fellowship brings together emerging leaders from government, business, and NGOs who are committed to a career in environmental protection.

Leadership is difficult in any enterprise, but it is especially difficult for environmental leaders who face opponents with vastly more power and money. To overcome this power disparity, environmental leaders have learned essential leadership skills:

  • Self-awareness, listening and empathy

  • Team-building

  • Persuasion

  • Negotiation

  • Advocacy

The Bacon Fellows develop these skills through experiential learning, workshops, retreats and leadership coaching sessions with highly accomplished national and international environmental leaders.

Martina Muller

“The weekly dinners, retreats and co-curricular activities helped me dive deeper into a range of environmental issues, and the field trips allowed for a unique hands-on learning opportunity. Perhaps most importantly, the fellowship gave me an extraordinary community of mission-driven environmental professionals offering inspiration, advice and support – throughout my time at Harvard and well beyond commencement day.”

-Martina Müller, MPP '19

Application

The application period for academic year 21-22 is closed. Information fo our academic year 22-23 cohort application will be availabe in October, 2021.

Program Information

WHAT WE OFFER

The fellowship provides:

  • Full tuition scholarships for a master’s degree program at Harvard Kennedy School

  • A comprehensive co-curricular leadership development program

  • An international network of exceptional peers and mentors

THE AWARD
Recipients of the Louis and Gabrielle Bacon Environmental Fellowship receive full tuition, health insurance and are eligible for an annual stipend of up to $10,000. Joint or concurrent degree students are eligible for a different financial aid package depending on their school in residence.

ELIGIBILITY
The fellowship is open to all admitted degree program students at HKS; students from joint or concurrent degree programs offered by Harvard are also encouraged to apply.

Among other criteria, applicants will be considered based on demonstrated leadership abilities and a commitment to pursue a career in environmental public policy and practice. Successful candidates will also demonstrate excellent academic credentials.

Louis Bacon is a conservation philanthropist who has spent more than two decades supporting efforts to protect natural resources in the United States and abroad. Mr. Bacon is the Chairman of The Moore Charitable Foundation, Inc. (Moore Charitable), which he founded in 1992.

Moore Charitable supports conservation nonprofits that protect and preserve threatened landscapes, habitats and water bodies. Mr. Bacon has protected more than 210,000 acres of land in perpetuity across the United States.

Mr. Bacon has received several honors including the 2010 Colorado Association of Conservation Districts’ Ranch Conservationist of the Year award, the esteemed Audubon Medal in 2013, and the Chairman’s Leadership Award from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. In addition, Mr. Bacon received the prestigious Land Trust Alliance President’s Award, the Foreign Policy Association Medal and the 2016 Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership Lifetime Conservation Achievement Award.

Mr. Bacon is the Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Moore Capital Management, LP, a private investment management firm.

A native of North Carolina, Mr. Bacon earned an MBA in finance from Columbia Business School and holds a BA in American Literature from Middlebury College. He is a Founding Donor of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture. He serves on the Board of Overseers at Columbia Business School and the Leadership Council of the Center for Public Leadership at Harvard Kennedy School. Mr. Bacon is also a member of the Board of Directors of the Foreign Policy Association, a member of the No Labels Founders Council, and the Board of Trustees of the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Team Foundation.

Gabrielle Bacon is a Trustee of The Moore Charitable Foundation (“MCF”). She oversees the grant portfolio in the areas of education, health and the arts. Currently, she is working towards her PhD in Land Economy (Environmental Sciences) at Cambridge University, UK, where her research is centered on human rights challenges caused by environmental degradation.

A graduate of McGill University in Montreal, Canada, Gabrielle received her Master of Philosophy in International Relations from Cambridge University; her thesis focus was the International Court of Justice.

Gabrielle is an active Board member of the Peconic Baykeeper, tackling local water pollution issues on Long Island, as well as on the US Board of ClientEarth, a global environmental organization. Mrs. Bacon was appointed Goodwill Ambassador for North America to the International Commission of the Voices of Future Generations Project Book Series.

Gabrielle Bacon serves as Vice President of the Green Vale School Board of Trustees, as well as on the Women’s Board of The Boys' Club of New York. Mrs. Bacon is also Board Trustee of New York Presbyterian Hospital and Columbia University-Weill Cornell medical system. She is a member of the Tate International Council (UK) as well as the International Council of The Metropolitan Museum of Fine Arts. Mrs. Bacon worked for many years at Sotheby’s in London, UK, and at several galleries in the US.