
Soul Trak is thrilled to introduce our 2025 Environmental Leaders Fellows! This year’s Fellows bring a diverse range of experiences in outdoor exploration and community engagement, including urban agriculture, hiking, and rock climbing. We are proud to welcome Ayanna Lynch, Dede Lawal, and Jahmal Clemons to the program.
Over the next year, these remarkable leaders will participate in an immersive program designed to cultivate the next generation of outdoor advocates. They will dedicate 10 hours each month to outdoor activities, facilitating Soul Trak programs, and acquiring certifiable skills that prepare them for leadership roles in the outdoor and environmental sectors.
Join us in celebrating and supporting Ayanna, Dede, and Jahmal!
Jahmal Clemons
Jahmal’s love for the outdoors is contagious! Having recently moved to the DMV from Houston, Texas, he is excited to connect with, support, and build a community with other nature lovers. His deep connection to nature was cultivated early on through his involvement in the Boy Scouts, where he spent his childhood camping, hiking, caving, and rock climbing.
As an advanced yoga teacher and practitioner, Jahmal maintains a deep reverence for nature and a perspective rooted in the unity of all beings. A dedicated leader, he has served as a cooking instructor for a food bank, a community garden volunteer at multiple elementary schools, and a camping leader for inner-city high school students.
You’ll often find Jahmal on outdoor adventures with his partner, Darryl, and their dog, Mars
Ayanna Lynch
Ayanna’s soul is in the soil. Throughout her travels—from the East Coast to the West and back—she keeps herself grounded by gardening. This passion began in her mom’s and grandma’s backyards in Georgia and continued during her college days in Los Angeles, where she cared for houseplants in her dorm and spent time with chickens in the campus garden.
Now based in DC, she cultivates her community garden plot season by season, experimenting with new crops like peanuts and chickpeas. She dreams of transforming her plot into an herbal medicine cabinet. Having studied chemistry in college, Ayanna is eager to further her studies in agriculture and soil science.
In her free time, she enjoys painting, hiking with her dog, and trying out new recipes and restaurants. For Ayanna, Soul Trak is a way to extend her passion for land stewardship to people. She hopes to foster a strong community interwoven with the land through outdoor experiences.
Dede Lawal
Dede is passionate about the outdoors, community-driven projects, and actionable science. A Houston, TX native, she has been living in Maryland for the past few years. In her free time, she enjoys hiking, kayaking, baking, and flying on the trapeze.
Dede is thrilled to be a part of the Outdoor Leaders Fellowship and looks forward to the journey ahead!