Russell Howell Reed

Russell Howell Reed is an environmentalist and writer based in London. He is the founder of Geographer, a cultural platform for the environment. Its debut in the Brazilian Amazon was featured in DJ Mag and Resident Advisor. His essays can be found in outlets like Atmos, Document Journal, Grist, and Guernica, where he hosts the interview series "Posthumanitarian." Russell is an Emergence Institute fellow and was formerly a researcher-in-residence at the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation.

Russell spearheaded the campaign for the NDC Youth Clause, which was ultimately included in over 70 national climate plans. An advisor to the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration and Nile Rodgers' We Are Family Foundation, he has led youth delegations to five United Nations negotiations and collaborated with organizations including The Nature Conservancy and Virgin Unite. He formerly served as conservation manager of Virunga National Park in Eastern Congo and was a founding member of Sway, winner of the Tom Ford Plastic Innovation Prize.

In 2020, Russell received Harvard’s first geography degree since the department's disbandment over 70 years prior. He was a John Harvard Scholar, president of the Harvard Political Review, and winner of the top African Studies thesis prize. He received Cambridge's inaugural M.Phil. in Anthropocene Studies, where he was the 2020 Paul Williams Scholar. Russell frequently lectures at universities including Harvard, UC Santa Cruz, UL Barranquilla, and the University of Rwanda.

Work Experience

Founder & Principal, Geographer 2025–Present

Climate Advisor, We Are Family Foundation 2025–Present

Task Force Member, UN Environment Programme 2025–Present

Board of Advisors, Glass Half Full 2023–Present
Conservation Manager, Virunga National Park 2023–2025
Founding Team & Head of Sustainability, Sway 2020–2023

Selected Writing

Guernica: "After Activism: Mohammed Usrof & Tori Tsui"

Guernica: "After Conservation: Dominique Bikaba"

Document: "There is a Party that Never Ends"
Document: "Snow in the Ashes of Coachella"

Atmos: "Crying at the Conference of Parties"

Office: "Finding Afterlife in the Ruins at Whole Festival"

Atmos: "A Queer Renaissance of Geography"

Full list available upon request.

Speaking & Press

“From Promises to Progress on Climate Justice”
TIME | Mary Robinson

“The Truth About Climate Commitments”
Climate Crisis Advisory Group | David King
"Can the Ruins of Industry Become a Stage for Utopia?"
Document Journal | Whole Festival

“The Power of Intergenerational Collaboration”
CNN | Nile Rodgers

Full list of events (including COP16, COP28, COP29, COP30, UNGA80, IUCN World Congress) and partner engagements (including Aspen Institute, British Council, Climate Crisis Advisory Group, National Wildlife Federation, Natural History Museum, The New York Times, TIME, Virgin Unite) available upon request.

Teaching

Harvard University Center for Geographic Analysis
UC Santa Cruz Coastal Science & Policy
Griffith University Climate Action Beacon
U.S. Bureau of Humanitarian Affairs Crisis Response
Universidad Libre de Barranquilla Exact Sciences
University of Rwanda Biodiversity Management

Fellowships & Residencies

Rauschenberg Foundation New York, New York

Griffith University Melbourne, Australia

Sustainable Ocean Alliance Barranquilla, Colombia

University of Rwanda Huye, Rwanda

Royal Museum for Central Africa Tervuren, Belgium
Harvard Radcliffe Institute Cambridge, Massachusetts
International Food Policy Research Institute Kampala, Uganda
Asian Development Bank Institute Tokyo, Japan

Education

M.Phil. Anthropocene Studies – University of Cambridge
Paul Williams Scholarship – Full Tuition
Dissertation: "On Higher Ground: Interrogating the Climatization of Indigenous Displacement in Louisiana"

A.B. Human Geography – Harvard College
Magna Cum Laude with Highest Honors
Thesis: "Savage Guerrilla, Sacred Ape: The Necropolitics of Mountain Gorilla Conservation"

Contact

russellhreed [at] gmail [dot] com / @russellhreed