Juan Perez Saez was an invited expert at a recent COMPASS risk communication workshops where he applied his background in environmental work, policy engagement, and community outreach to advise participants on effective communication with impacted communities. In this conversation with COMPASS’s Noor Jaber, he delves into the journey that led him to this work, shares how he stays motivated during challenging times, and provides valuable advice for scientists seeking to collaborate with communities in a meaningful and ethical way. Full transcript and links below.
Quick Links
- Next 100 Coalition
- Kiki Ball scene in Denver
- Learn more about Juan’s business, Intersecting Solutions, for people-centered solutions for an inclusive work culture
- Follow Juan on Instagram @JuanOutside
- Connect with Juan on Linkedin
Transcript
(Edited slightly for clarity)
Noor Jaber: My name is Noor Jaber. I am COMPASS’s Administrative Associate, and that means that I do a lot of the behind the scenes and administrative operations work when we have trainings. I met Juan when he served as an expert on a panel that we curated for a workshop specifically on risk communication back in May. And I love what you had to say during the workshop. And I thank you for joining us here today.
Juan Perez Saez has dedicated his personal and professional life to conservation, advocacy, environmental education and stewardship. And I just wanna, I can’t wait to hear more about the work that you’ve done.
So thank you for joining us today.
Juan Perez Saez: Thank you for having me.
Noor Jaber: So what path led you to the work that you do today?
Juan Perez Saez: For me, there’s no way that I can talk about the path to my career without going back to where I grew up. I’m originally from Panama. And I was born and raised in a very very semi-rural, semi urban part of the country. I like to compare it to the Midwest. So there’s a lot of farming. There’s a lot of agriculture. So my grandparents had a butcher, and they also had some land. so they would work out of it. And we’d have you know we grow our own food. We did have, like, chicken at my home, and my uncle had some horses. So from a very early age I really had a connection with the environment and our surroundings, and I think I assumed that every child in the world understood that connection.
Later on in life, I got introduced to an environmental group when I was in middle and high school. And this environmental group took us to the Panama Canal Zone. So the Panama Canal Zone, back in the day before the year 2000 was a US territory, so it was a country within a country. So we drove in, and we entered the Panama Canal Zone — which like I said, it was a US territory — and everything was greener. Everything was cleaner. And I just started wondering like, ‘Wow! This is so different than where I live.’ And, out of all the things, the one thing that caught my eye, was that I wouldn’t see power lines. I was like, ‘where is the power lines? How do they have that?’ Obviously they’re all underground, because obviously it was properly planned. There was urban planning. There was all these criterias, and I think, probably putting, like the numbers, you know, like growing in a more rural place, going to the city, entering the US. Territory, and then going camping for the first time when I was 12 years old, really opened my eyes to see a different way to manage nature and steward nature, right? And that kind of led me to go to school for environmental engineering. And I’ve spent probably the last 20 plus years of my life doing some sort of work — either working international development with the Peace Corps, also working for the Government of Panama at the Minister of Environment, and most recently in my time living in Colorado working doing advocacy and policy both at the state and local level and working with Federal agencies, and most recently leading a nonprofit as their executive director.
Noor Jaber: Thank you for that. It’s really wonderful to hear about how your relationship to the environment developed over the course of your life because of where your life took you. I would love to know how you would describe your relationship to the communities you interact with professionally?
Juan Perez Saez: I believe that my personal life, my own identities, and the communities that I have worked with alongside are very much intertwined. Like there’s no way to separate them, right? The issues that I care for and the things that impact me personally are most likely the issues that affect and impact the communities and the people that I work with.
One example is in Colorado I’m part of the Next 100 Coalition. This coalition is seeking to create a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive public lands or national park system for the next 100 years, and one of the things that we have worked on in the last 2 or 3 years is a mentorship program, right? And one of the reasons why we created this mentorship program is because we realized that there were a number of young people of color in the environmental movement in the public lands conservation movement who are great. They’re great professionals, but they hit, you know, like the manager level, the specialist level, the coordinator level. And there’s no pathway to get into a more senior role like, how can you be leading the organizations? How can you be the one making decisions? And having access to the resources and wealth is something that our communities have been struggling with. And so we created this mentorship program that is the first one of its kind. And so again, this is a good intersection of like, you know, me as a professional, who’s a person of color, who’s also a first generation American in this country, also a queer person like I have witnessed firsthand the challenges and the barriers that limit how young professionals can really make it to roles that can have a greater impact.
When it comes to environmental stewardship, I live in Colorado. When people think of Colorado, people think of mountains, people think of rivers and skiing and forest and greenery. Well, the truth is, a big part of the State is the plains. Also a big part of the state is the Denver Metro area. We actually had one of the most polluted zip codes in the nation, and that is the issue, right? When I say Denver, you don’t think of one of the most polluted zipcodes in the nation. When I say Denver, you don’t think of, like, ozone alert where the air quality is so bad that people with asthma cannot be outside. Kids cannot be playing. When I said Denver, you don’t think abou,t like, how it’s so hot that, you know, we’re having a serious drought happening in the state and and it’s historic and has been happening for years. The bottom line of that is, like, communities of color, working class, people that have been pushed to a certain part of the city are dealing with the brunt of these environmental issues. And so a lot of those people do look like me and sound like. And so for me, it’s like my professional journey and the communities that I work with is part of my own journey.
Noor Jaber: That’s a beautiful way to, like, have professional integrity. Wow.
So why did you decide to participate in COMPASS’s risk communication training when we invited you in May. And is there anything you’d like to share from the experience?
Juan Perez Saez: The quickest answer will be that I did have the time [laughs]. I mean anything that involves working with professionals and experts who are communicating, you know, issues regarding environmental justice or access to clean air, clean water, and healthy places is something that if I can do a little bit of it, I’d love to.
I would say, one big piece is, I went to school to study — my masters is in environment and natural resources, and I specialize in environmental social science. When I decided to go into studying natural resources, I truly thought that I was just gonna work with plants and animals and take samples of water and look at soil formation and geology and air quality, and I wouldn’t have to talk to people. And it was great.
Well, the truth is, after you do work in this space, you do know that in order to create change, you would need people, you need community, we need to work alongside those. And obviously communities… those communities who are in the front lines, are the communities that probably have the best ideas of how to deal with their own issues that they’re facing.
And so when I got the chance to come and talk to experts whose world is literally something that I have seen and witnessed. And I have had the experience of communicating policy and communicating advocacy strategies for bills, and how those bills impact regular people. I do know there’s a significant gap. For me, it was a way to bridge that gap, to bring those two worlds together. And seeing the willingness and the eagerness from those experts to learn, to do better
because they understand the impact that the way they communicate to people will have in those individuals’ lives. I think it’s just so critical for any agency that works on risk communication. It’s like how we talk about these issues really change perceptions and build trust over time.
Noor Jaber: Hmm. Yeah, I think a lot of that passion also came through when you were on the expert panel, like sharing your experience there, too.
What advice do you have for scientists who are working with impacted communities and want to improve the world? And want to communicate their findings in ways that are accessible to the people that it matters to.
Juan Perez Saez: One piece of advice is you’re gonna mess up. You’re gonna make mistakes. You might use the wrong word. And the key piece is like, no one is perfect. But also it is like, learn from those moments, and also try to avoid making the mistake, right? And the way you avoid it is to practice it.
Understand and learn as much as you can from the communities that you’re working with. Maybe put yourself a little bit in the shoes of the communities, and how would you feel if you were the one receiving the information?
And also understanding that, you know, maybe you are not always the best messenger for the message, and so identifying who are those individuals and people that can be the best messenger for the message. And it is, it is a complex way to do it, but they are very good techniques of how to be better and more effective communicators when it comes to risk and how to do it with dignity towards those individuals who are the ones being affected.
Noor Jaber: Yeah, cause that really matters, Do you face communication barriers in your own work? And how do you navigate them when you do?
Juan Perez Saez: Navigating spaces that have not been welcoming, nor maybe have been spaces for people who look like you, or people who have my background comes also with the challenge of all the boxes that people try to put me in. And I think one of my personal challenges is breaking out of that box and challenging the idea that people think I should look like and be like, while also keeping true to who I am.
And I don’t think that’s a struggle that is just mine, but I do think there’s something that I have witnessed and experienced. Like the way, how people put you in boxes and limit you, it also limits themselves. Because maybe they don’t see that they can be something else outside of that box.
And that comes to solutions when it comes to, you know, communicating risk. Assuming that a community member doesn’t know and is not an expert in their own issues. That’s not true. Or assuming that, ‘oh, I work in air quality, and I cannot communicate to these people what is happening with the air quality in the neighborhood, because they didn’t go to college.’ That’s not true. There’s probably a chance that they know exactly the days that they shouldn’t go out. They have experienced their environment every second of their life, and you haven’t. So maybe they are a great resource for science, and they’re a great resource for solutions, and to co-create approaches for dealing with those challenges.
Noor Jaber: Absolutely. Thank you for sharing that perspective. I’m wondering what else keeps you, like, motivated and in perspective as you’re doing this work, especially when it gets hard.
Juan Perez Saez: I think when things get hard having a support network of people who have your back is probably number one. And that might be the easiest answer, because I think as an adult, it has been… as someone who also has trouble and lived in different cities, it is hard — you know I lived in Seattle. I live in Columbus, Ohio, in Panama City, now in Denver, Colorado — like you, you get to build a support system and a network, and then you move, and then you have to build again. So that part is hard. I would say that that part is really hard, like to try to, like, rebuild the support system. And I would say that nowadays there’s an incredible community that I have been able to be part of and so lucky to have and support each other. And that is the biggest thing.
Noor Jaber: On a lighter note, I would love to know also what you do to celebrate your wins when you are successful.
Juan Perez Saez: That has been the biggest thing that I work on, I would say, probably. I, personally, lately I have done a lot of, like, trying to spend more time with friends. I mean, two weeks ago I was camping on BLM (Bureau of Land Management) land in the middle of nowhere in Southwest Colorado, it was the best. Just hiking, camping, you know.
I do enjoy going to, like, the ball scene — the Kiki Ball scene in Denver, which is something that even when I tell people, some people in my professions they don’t even know what I mean by it. The think it is actually a proper ball dance, like ballroom.
Noor Jaber: Oh, no [laughs]
Juan Perez Saez: And I was like, no, that’s not what it is. And if anybody reads or sees this and don’t know what we’re talking, maybe go and Google it. But I do think being surrounded by queer POC folks and joy is so recharging.
And resting. Sometimes, maybe having a drink — alcohol or non-alcoholic, whatever your drink of choice — around a fire. Maybe that’s it. I think times alone are important as much as time in community and in your support systems. So I think, trying to make time for both.
Noor Jaber: Hmm! I really appreciate, like, how you’re able to make celebrating part of your everyday so that you can, like, really like… as somebody who struggles with like celebrating the small wins also, I love how your examples were like small things you can do for yourself, just to make yourself feel good. That’s awesome.
Where can people learn more about your work if they’re interested?
Juan Perez Saez: So I co-own my own business with my partner. It’s called Intersecting Solutions. It’s a people-centric solution for inclusive work culture. So I’ll see a lot of people put out statements about DEI and how inclusive places are. So if you already did all that out-facing work and now, you’re like, ‘you know what, I want to create a really inclusive culture. And I want to create systems’ and do the work that maybe don’t give you an award, but keep the talented people in your team — that’s something that we can help with. We also help with coaching management.
I’m also on social media @JuanOutside on Instagram. Mostly gonna see pictures of me hiking, camping, fishing, doing things outside — just like the name, Juan Outside. And you can connect with me on Linkedin, I’m Juan Perez Saez.
And yeah, it’s a little bit of the work that I’m doing right now, and I really appreciate you taking the time to connect and have a conversation.
Noor Jaber: Yeah, thank you so much for taking the time out of your day to join us and tell us a little more about what you do and your perspective on the work. It is very appreciated.
Juan Perez Saez: Thank you, Noor.
