Independent Women’s Forum is pleased to announce that Danielle Butcher, COO and executive vice president of the American Conservation Coalition (ACC), is the latest entry in our popular series of Champion Women profiles.

ACC was founded in 2017 by recent college graduates (including Danielle and ACC president Benji Backer) who felt conservatives were missing the boat on the environment.

“We know this is an issue that young people particularly really care about, and the right needs to have a platform, they need to have a response, or we're going to lose an entire generation of voters. We wanted the environment to be protected to the degree it needs to be protected.”

Danielle grew up in a left-leaning, ecology-minded family in Minnesota. In working to save the beauties of nature, Danielle sees herself as carrying on a family tradition—just maybe not in the way her family might have anticipated. As for the family’s reaction, they are mystified but proud.

At 23, Danielle is emerging as a leader. We know you will be intrigued by her independence of mind and love the story of how she revealed to her family that she was attending her first C-PAC meeting at the last minute. “Unfortunately for my dad,” Danielle says, laughing, “he always raised me to question authority and question what I was told, to have an independent mindset, and that is what I have done.”