April Volunteer Highlight: Grecia Azoulay

Growing up on South Padre Island, Grecia Azoulay learned the importance of caring for the environment and all forms of life from a very young age. What began as the simple act of picking up litter from the beach has blossomed into a lifelong love of nature, and we are delighted to have her as a member of our volunteer team!

Grecia first volunteered with the Coastal Prairie Conservancy in 2019 after learning the important role that prairies and native plants play in reducing the damaging effects of flooding. Seeing Hurricane Harvey’s impact throughout our community in 2017 and witnessing Houston’s annual flooding motivates her volunteer work to teach others about the benefits of native plants. While on the prairie, you can find Grecia in the Native Seed Nursery watering and transplanting native plants and removing invasive species. Caring for native plants is a personal passion of Grecia’s, and her volunteering in the nursery has been tremendously helpful while building a pocket prairie of her own with resources from the 9 Natives program on the Coastal Prairie Conservancy website.

Outside of her full-time work caring for people as an occupational therapist, Grecia is an active volunteer in the Houston area with Sea Aggie Turtle Patrol through Texas A&M Galveston and the Memorial Park Conservancy in her work removing invasive species and planting native plants in the park’s Eastern Glades. As a Latina woman actively involved in multiple conservation efforts, she has become keenly aware of the lack of representation of minorities in environmental conservation efforts. By volunteering at CPC, Grecia hopes “to be able to inspire other minority community members to join the cause. Conservation needs all hands on deck, we can’t do it successfully unless we have help from everyone in our Houston community.”

A fan of the Indiangrass Preserve’s walking paths and trails, Grecia loves seeing the wildflowers bloom in the Spring and finds herself happiest when in nature. If you’re looking to get more involved on the coastal prairie, she recommends visiting and seeing its beauty for yourself!

Thank you, Grecia, for joining the Coastal Prairie Conservancy’s volunteer team and supporting the coastal prairie in your own backyard. We appreciate your efforts, and the pollinators sure do, too!