The Potomac Valley Audubon Society’s September program at the National Conservation Training Center will feature a presentation by Connie Mahan, the National Audubon Society’s Grassroots Outreach Director.

The program will be held at 7 p.m. Wed., Sept. 11 in Room 151 of the Instructional West Building. Admission is free and everyone is welcome to attend.

Mahon will review the ways in which local Audubon chapters fit in with the National Society’s overall conservation and action goals. She will also cover Audubon’s big-picture conservation campaigns, feature a few success stories and offer a policy road map for achieving the National Society’s bird goals. She says her presentation “will help everyone rethink what it means to be an advocate for birds and habitat and offer some insights on how everyone can more effectively hone their messages.”

Mahan has actively worked with national grassroots, Audubon chapters and a number of smaller conservation organizations since 1981. In her current position, she works to engage Audubon’s 470 chapters, coalition partners, and activists in national conservation campaigns that focus on climate change, migratory bird conservation, a Mississippi River Initiative, and others topics. Her own focus is on advocacy training, policy education and engagement.