Dominique Browning on Leading with Hope and Courage
Conversations with Courageous Leaders
While the news might make it appear otherwise, countless good people are leading with courage, integrity, and compassion in these uncertain times. Responding to complex challenges—from climate change to social division—they exemplify what courageous, mission-driven leadership looks like.
This month, in my new series Conversations with Courageous Leaders, I speak with Dominique Browning, Director and Co-founder of Moms Clean Air Force, about hope, integrity, and the power of “mobilizing love” in the fight for clean air.
From Despair to Action
Browning was an author and editor-in-chief of Conde Nast’s House & Garden before she realized she had something to contribute to climate action.
View the conversation on YouTube
Today, she is the Director and Co-Founder of Moms Clean Air Force, a community of 1.5 million parents united to protect children’s health from climate change and other air pollution. She is also Vice President of the Environmental Defense Fund.
A warm, thoughtful leader, she shared her insights about the inherent value of dedication to mission-driven work in collaboration with others. We also discussed the importance of talking about courageous leadership — and even ordinary heroism in today’s extraordinary times.
When we spoke, Browning had recently hosted her elementary school-aged grandson for a ten-day “camp” at her home. Over that time, she came to two clear points of conviction. One was that she likely would not see the climate crisis solved in her lifetime. The other was that she would do everything she could while here.
In holding both ideas, Browning illustrates a capacity key to success for any mission-driven leader: seeing the big picture and committing to doing what one can, however incomplete that might be.
Mobilizing Love in the Fight for Clean Air
In her words: “I think about our tiny little band at Mom's Clean Air Force—we’re at 40 people, 20 people full-time now— and it's nothing compared to what we're fighting,” she says. “But it’s also not nothing. In fact, it’s everything.”
In my decades of research into how ordinary people rise to extraordinary challenges, I have repeatedly heard neuroscientists and other experts speak about the necessity of approaching the challenges of our day with humility.
As Scott A. Huettel, a Duke University professor in the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, once told me: We are not even wired to comprehend complex global problems such as climate change. We need to bring them down to size and, as Browning says, do what we can.
But, Browning adds, experience has also taught her that we can do more than we ever imagined.
“I used to talk a lot about starting a group of moms to change the conversation from polar bears to people. Everybody thought that was ridiculous at the time—that it didn’t sound serious, just emotional,” says Browning. “Now, here we are, and everybody’s talking about people and the impacts of climate change in very real everyday words.”
For her, it’s been about helping more people understand what is at stake—and “mobilizing love.”
This brought us to how her journey has affected her.
Hope as the Antidote to Despair
Like many parents and grandparents—if not most people—Browning says she had long worried about climate change, even felt despairing about it.
But that changed when she committed to do something.
“Just deciding, ‘OK, fine. I'm going to create a way [to do something] made me feel at least I was channeling my energy in a helpful way,” she says.
In short, the work became the antidote to despair, and the camaraderie of teamwork has kept her afloat and motivated.
“I’m not necessarily a hopeful or an optimistic person,” Browning explains. “But I choose to be hopeful, and I choose to be optimistic and not depressed because that is the only way to keep going.”
This brought us, finally, to the value of having a conversation about acting with courage and even ordinary heroism in extraordinary times.
Why Talking About Courage Matters
“I think it's incredibly useful to have the conversation,” Browning says, “because it shows us we're not alone.
“It also helps fight against the tendency to say, Oh, that was nothing. Actually, no, it was something.”
And when you can acknowledge that, we agreed, you are stronger.