Dr. Renée M. Byrd's work is situated at the nexus of abolition feminisms, Black ecologies, and healing justice. She asks questions about how violence and the State are reproduced, how we heal and how we meet the challenges of our times. She is the Founder and Director of The Ecotone Center and its project Earthseed Laboratories @earthseedlabs, an emerging forest farm and healing justice-centered demonstration site where folks with histories of incarceration and movement co-conspirators gather to slow down, break bread and practice new ways of being in the world. Dr. Byrd is the Founding Program Leader of Cal Poly Humboldt’s new B.A. program in Critical Agriculture Studies & Agroecology (CASA), which will launch in Fall 2026. She is a poet, activist, farmer, altar artist and mom who lives in Humboldt County in far Northern CA.