The Discipline of Not Fitting In

How do you stay true to your convictions when they set you apart?

Renay sits down with Leonard E. Robinson — over forty-five years in environmental management, appointee under four California governors, former Acting Director and Chief Deputy Director of California's Department of Toxic Substances Control, Partner and Chief Sustainability Strategist at SEMCO, Sustainability Coordinator for the Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta, and host of the Faith and Sustainability podcast — for a conversation about what it takes to lead from faith inside institutions that were not built to hear it.

This is the second conversation Renay and Leonard recorded for the show. The first was, in Renay's own words, the conversation any host could have had. So she asked him for another one. What you hear in this episode is a man who stopped trying to fit in a long time ago, walking us through the inner architecture that let him do that — and what it cost, and what it gave him.

This episode is not a sermon. It is not a debate about whether faith belongs in business. It is a working leader — an engineer by training — describing the discipline of following something he cannot prove. And the difference, as he draws it, between faith and resilience: "Resilience is how we react to things. Faith is how we respond to things."

Leonard and Renay cover: why language like climate change and faith triggers the same defensive posture, and what to do with that noise instead of around it; the silos we build between profession and belief, and what happens when we stop maintaining them; the difference between confidence and faith for leaders who don't subscribe to a higher authority; Laudato Si' and what it has unlocked inside the Archdiocese of Atlanta; and the leaders Leonard watched cut through — from Greta Thunberg to Charles Lee, the EPA veteran who helped launch the environmental justice movement alongside Dr. Ben Chavis Jr. and whose name most people in this work still don't know.

This episode is also a tribute. Leonard passed away after recording. He gave us this conversation. We are honored to share it.

MEET THE SPEAKERS

Leonard Robinson
Leonard Robinson was a weaver of strategy and spirit—where policy meets poetry and climate justice becomes sacred work. A partner at SEMCO and sustainability consultant for the Archdiocese of Atlanta, Leonard’s leadership spanned public, private, nonprofit, and faith sectors. He helped shape California’s trailblazing Climate Change and Green Chemistry policies under four governors, serving through Cal/EPA and the Colorado River Board. As an award-winning host of the Faith & Sustainability Podcast, he animates stories that stir hearts and spark movements, calling communities to adapt with courage and accelerate toward regeneration.

J. Renay Loper
Renay is a Clinical Faculty in Organizational Leadership for the Bard MBA in Sustainability, where she focuses on justice-centered transformation in the workplace. Previously, she was the Vice President of Program Innovation at PYXERA Global where she served on the Executive Leadership Team, led five country offices, drove the development of new business and programs, co-led the organization's work on inclusive circular cities, and advised corporate clients on their social impact strategies. Renay also led the organization’s ARC (Antiracist Collective) initiatives, which included internal and external efforts toward dismantling unjust systems. To this end, Renay created Rhetoric to Action, a series of conversations to bridge sectors toward collective action around social and racial justice.

Prior to PYXERA Global, Renay led the grassroots exchange and education grant portfolio at the Japan Foundation Center for Global Partnership, and has served in a variety of leadership roles in higher education, nonprofit, and business prior to that. Renay is an avid speaker and facilitator, has authored and edited numerous publications, including a resource journal, Student Affairs Professionals Cultivating Campus Climates Inclusive of International Students (Jossey Bass). Renay serves on the board of directors of nonprofits including Community Change, Harpswell Foundation, and Girl Rising.