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Na'taki Osborne-Jelks: Gentle Vanguard

Dr. Na’Taki Osborne Jelks, affectionately known as Dr. Na’Taki, is a renowned environmental justice advocate, public health scholar, and co-founder of the West Atlanta Watershed Alliance (WAWA). Known for her calm authority and visionary leadership, she is often described as a “gentle boss lady”—a poised yet powerful force in the movement for environmental stewardship and racial equity. With nearly three decades of service to Southwest Atlanta, she has become a defining figure in the preservation and restoration of the Bush Mountain community and the Outdoor Activity Center (OAC).
Guided by a deep commitment to future generations, Dr. Na’Taki has helped shape a model of Afrofuturistic science—one rooted in ancestral knowledge, ecological protection, and community empowerment. Through her academic role and grassroots leadership, she continues to influence the next wave of environmental scientists, advocates, and storytellers.

Na'Taki Osborne Jelks. From Wikipedia

Na'Taki Osborne-Jelks: And then we had to start from scratch in terms of developing the programs for the community. So, you know, developing new environmental education programs and field trips, you know, none of that was happening. So we developed those programs from scratch. We began to develop service learning projects and programs where we invite college students as well as high school students, and really just the community at large corporate entities, anybody who wants to roll up their sleeves and help us to, you know, be stewards of the land, you know, whether we're talking about working on trails or in the garden spaces or pulling invasive plants. You know, we've developed all those programs and ways to get the community engaged and some of that, you know, has helped to compensate for the financial resources that we haven't always gotten. So we use a lot of sweat equity, you know, volunteer and community engagement to, you know, take care of, you know, this old growth, you know, urban forest.

Restoring Earth, Memory, and Power in Bush Mountain

In a compelling interview conducted by Serena Echols—former WAWA intern and student of Dr. Jelks at Spelman College—Dr. Na’Taki Osborne Jelks shares a detailed and insightful account of her long-standing relationship with the Outdoor Activity Center (OAC) and Bush Mountain community. She recounts discovering the OAC in the 1990s and co-founding the West Atlanta Watershed Alliance (WAWA) in 1998. By 2008, WAWA had formally partnered with the City of Atlanta to steward the site, which at that time had fallen into disrepair.
Dr. Na’Taki describes the transformation of the OAC from an underutilized and deteriorating space into a thriving center for environmental education, cultural programming, and community stewardship. Under her leadership, WAWA restored trails, revitalized infrastructure, and created opportunities for intergenerational learning and engagement through service learning, school field trips, and volunteer programs.
Her interview also highlights the importance of documentation and archival work to preserve the historical memory of the OAC. Dr. Na’Taki encourages the integration of newspaper clippings, oral histories, and community artifacts into digital and on-site exhibitions—tools she believes are essential in reclaiming the narrative of Black environmental leadership. Her story serves as both testimony and blueprint for sustainable, community-led futures rooted in environmental justice and Afrofuturism.

Date: Unknown

Interviewer: Serena Echols

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