Urban Conservation Awards
The people making a difference for wildlife rarely receive the recognition they deserve! That’s why, in 2025 we launched our Urban Conservation Awards. The event aims to honor conservation heroes at the local, state, and national level.
Tickets for our 2026 awards ceremony will become available this Summer. Stay tuned!
about the event
In a metropolitan area as vast as Los Angeles, protecting wildlife and keeping natural habitats connected is a complex battle. This event celebrates the leaders, scientists, community advocates, and artists tackling that challenge every day.
The Urban Conservation Awards honor five individuals whose work embodies AFC’s mission to protect and connect open spaces, restore native habitat, and educate people of all ages about the nature that surrounds them. We have five categories for awards:
Monarch Award: in recognition of an honoree who has worked to connect communities, land, nature, or ideas in support of urban conservation.
Wild Voice Award: in recognition of someone who has worked to support wildlife.
Sunrise Award: in recognition of a young person working in urban conservation.
Oak Leaf Award: in recognition of a lifetime of achievement in conservation, awarded to honorees with a long legacy or history of meaningful work in conservation.
President’s Award: Selected by the AFC Board of Directors, for special recognition in the field of urban conservation.
Sponsorship Opportunities
become a sponsor
We invite you to join us as a sponsor of this inspiring evening. Your partnership will not only honor the individuals and organizations making a difference, but also directly support AFC’s ongoing mission to protect and connect natural habitat for wildlife.
People paying attention to who’s supporting conservation! This year, AFC’s content reached more than 1 million people on social media, with an average reach of 84,000 per month. Over 1,000 community members volunteered with us and we engaged more than 3,000 people at education and community events. AFC was
featured 19 times in earned media in local publications, including the LA Times, Colorado Boulevard, and Pasadena Star News.
As a sponsor you can broadcast your support for wildlife, natural habitats, and the unsung heroes of conservation.
sponsorship levels
Connector: $750
Includes up to four guest tickets to the Awards, placement in the program, and recognition on website and social media promotions.
Partner: $1,000
Includes up to six guest tickets to the Awards, placement in the program, and recognition on website, email newsletter, and social media promotions.
Advocate: $2,500
Includes up to eight guest tickets to the Awards, placement in the program, and recognition on website, email newsletter, and social media promotions.
Host: $5,000
Includes up to ten guest tickets to the Awards, placement in the program, and recognition on website, email newsletter, and social media promotions.
Presenter: $10,000+
Includes up to twelve guest tickets to the Awards & name or logo on awards as a presenting sponsor plus all benefits as detailed in Host level sponsorship:
The 2025 Urban Conservation Awards
RECAP
On October 16th, 2025, over 150 community members joined AFC at our inaugural Urban Conservation Awards at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. Together we celebrated the winners of our Nature Photography Contest and honored five individuals making waves in urban conservation — from a local level to the national stage.
Monarch Award Recipient
Dr. Amanda Zellmer, for excellence in scientific research and achievement in the field of urban conservation
Amanda Zellmer is an Associate Professor of Biology at Occidental College, studying spatial computation ecology with an emphasis on applications for conservation biology. Her research utilizes species distribution modeling and landscape analyses to investigate how species populations shift in response to environmental change, including global climate change and habitat fragmentation. She is especially interested in how organisms utilize and move through urban environments.
Wild Voices Awardee
Miguel Ordeñana, in honor of his work that led to the discovery of P-22, his advocacy and research on bat species in Los Angeles, and his community education work.
Miguel Ordeñana is an environmental educator and wildlife biologist. He works at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County as a Senior Manager in the Community Science office. As a community science senior manager, Miguel promotes and creates community science projects, and recruits and trains participants. Miguel utilizes his mammal research background by conducting urban mammal research in L.A. and leads NHMLAC’s Southern California Squirrel Survey and Backyard Bat Survey. Miguel serves as an advisor on a jaguar project in southwestern Nicaragua that he initiated in 2012 as well as a Board Member for the Friends of Griffith Park and National Wildlife Federation. Notably, Miguel discovered the first photo of P-22, the famous Griffith Park mountain lion, through a grassroots camera trap study called the Griffith Park Connectivity Study in 2012. Miguel is dedicated towards making science and access to nature more equitable with a goal of increasing the representation and retention of underrepresented communities within the environmental field. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Environmental Studies from the University of Southern California, and a M.S. in Ecology from the University of California Davis.
Sunrise Awardee
Edgar McGregor, in recognition of his work on behalf of the Altadena community in habitat restoration at Eaton Canyon as well as in his local meteorology that predicted and warned many residents ahead of the Eaton Fire
Edgar McGregor (b. 2000) is a Southern California meteorologist and community advocate dedicated to understanding and mitigating natural hazards in the San Gabriel Valley. After completing 1,992 consecutive days cleaning trash from his local hiking trails, he spent more than a week warning residents of the extraordinary wildfire danger during the January 7–8, 2025 Santa Ana windstorm. After the Eaton Fire destroyed his community and workplace, McGregor began pushing for a national Windstorm Classification Scale to transform how the U.S. forecasts, catalogues, and communicates these powerful events.
Oak Leaf Awardee
Nancy Steele, recognizing her efforts in founding and establishing AFC and a lifetime of working in conservation.
Nancy L.C. Steele has called Altadena home since 1984, when she and her husband Bruce discovered the ideal community to raise their family. Throughout her career, she has dedicated herself to environmental protection and land and water conservation. She was a founding member of the Arroyos & Foothills Conservancy and served as its President and CEO for eleven years, leading efforts to preserve local ecosystems. Alongside Bruce, she operated a beekeeping business since 1980. Sadly, their home and entire beekeeping operation were destroyed in the 2025 Eaton Fire, but they are committed to rebuilding and continuing their passion for conservation and sustainability.
President's Awardee
Congressmember Judy Chu (CA-28)
A member of the Safe Climate Caucus and the Environment Task Force Chair of the Sustainable Energy and Environment Coalition, Rep. Chu has been a strong advocate for combating climate change and investing in a clean energy future. She supports a net-zero economy by 2050 and has consistently voted to protect California’s air, land, water, and wildlife, opposing offshore drilling and new and expanded oil and gas drilling on public lands. She has consistently been a powerful voice for the inclusion of funding to combat wildfires in annual budgets. Since the January fires, she has been pushing for federal support for soil and environmental testing in burn areas, to support long-term remediation and habitat safety.
