April 2026: Member Spotlight - Christina Hylton, PhD

Committed to the service of Black community development, Dr. Christina Hylton’s purpose is to further scholarship and activism in Black ownership and institutional building for inter-generational health and wellness. Dr. Hylton sees access to land and land ownership as an environmental justice concern. She is passionate about the sacredness of our earth, connection to place, and ideas of belonging, and how that should be included in a land reformation agenda.

“Heal the land, heal the people: Heal the people, heal the land.” — Christina Hylton, PhD

Dr. Hylton’s study “Toward Transformative Education Using an Ecowomanist Approach for Regenerative Development” gives a glimpse into her work as a researcher. Her purpose was to “understand Black women's relationship and connection to land and how they conceptualize the value of access to land and landownership as an environmental justice concern” and stems from her lived experience as a teacher in various contexts: in high school and college classrooms, as well as in community and afterschool programs. The research study asks three main questions: 

1. What do the stories of Black women living in the Southeastern United States tell us about their relationship to land?

2. What do the stories tell us about how Black women living in the Southeastern US conceptualize land in an environmental justice paradigm?

3. How do Black women construct spirituality in their relationship to land?

Dr. Hylton is the founder and executive director of R.I.C.E., Regenerative Institute of Community Education, whose mission is to empower communities through education, sustainable land stewardship, and promote local food systems, cultivating future leaders who thrive in harmony with people and the planet. R.I.C.E. aims to address environmental justice through long-term stewardship of land for building intergenerational sustainability and developing a regenerative educational center. R.I.C.E. is known for advocating for good policies, access to funding (including credit), and more equitable resources.

R.I.C.E. upholds regenerative as a process of renewal, restoration and resiliency. We use the word regenerative in our references and approaches to nature, culture, institution building and development. R.I.C.E. sees the essence of life as a process of renewal, restoration and resiliency. Life is regenerative, as are the planet, equitable education, culture, and development. R.I.C.E. believes cultural values are just as important as land stewardship, and emphasizes renewing our ancestral ways of communing with the natural environment.

R.I.C.E. recently organized the 2026 Arbor Day Community Forestry & Cultural Festival, in collaboration with Black Sustainability, Inc., where over 70 people came together at Virginia Walker Park for a day of live music, a ceremonial tree planting, a kids' corner, and more.

To learn more about Dr. Hylton and R.I.C.E., visit their website.