Robin Wall Kimmerer is a scientist and writer. She is a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, a professor of botany, and the founding director of the Center for Native Peoples and the Environment at the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry. Her latest book, “Braiding Sweetgrass: indigenous wisdom, scientific knowledge and the teachings of plants,” was released in 2013 and was awarded the Sigurd Olson Nature Writing Award.