Diane Depuydt
Gainesville, Florida
Diane is a Founders’ Circle member and longtime YES! reader. 

What kind of work and/or volunteering do you do?
I followed an eclectic path that included positions in private, nonprofit, and academic sectors. Sustainability education and technologies were the threads that tied them together. I identify as a social and environmental change activist, now retired. I managed education programs for five eco-organizations across the country and practiced natural building and organic agriculture.

What are your passions?
In my late 30s, I traveled around the world with a backpack. That experience shifted my perspective about our relationship to this planet and its deep ecology—the profound understanding of how everything and everyone is interconnected and interrelated. Once you start seeing the world that way, you can’t go back to thinking humans are at the center. Deep ecology is about living in an interdependent system; it’s not just physical, but mental, emotional, and spiritual.

My passion has been about exploring what that relationship means—to the planet and all of its inhabitants. Except for Indigenous peoples, humans have put themselves in the center of this exploration. The larger exploration of the human experience is deeply meshed ecologically with this planet. We have to solve our social problems because they are also the planet’s problems. It’s win-win or lose-lose.

Why do you support YES! at this level?
I live simply and have managed to save more than I need. YES! provides crucially needed hope and inspiration with real-world stories of people working to shape this world into a place that values and nourishes all of its inhabitants. YES! is a big piece of that.

Why do you feel the work of YES! is important?
It’s hard to stay hopeful in the world we live in right now. And yet, we have to. Because that gives us power to keep on. YES! is about hope and sharing the stories and retellings of what people are doing with their lives in the world. Even when there’s a huge amount of despair that wants you to shut down, YES! fights against that despair. As human beings, we learn from stories. Native peoples told stories. Our ancestors told stories. It’s information passed down. When we talk about our experiences and listen to the experiences of others, those are the things that really change us.