Editor’s note: The Ground Beneath Us is a new column that will appear quarterly in print and online.

I grew up moving between two landscapes that could not have felt more different, yet together shaped my definition of home and later my life’s purpose: to inspire others to reconnect with our natural world and to one another. 

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Rue Mapp is the founder and CEO of Outdoor Afro, a nonprofit that celebrates and inspires Black leadership in nature. From her hometown of Oakland, Rue started Outdoor Afro as a blog in 2009, growing it to an organization in more than 70 U.S. cities that connects people through hikes, conservation, and the outdoors rooted in joy, culture, and belonging. Rue has been recognized with the Heinz Award and in Oprah’s Book Club for her book Nature Swagger.