An Evening With Dr. Jane Goodall, DBE

Without realizing it, she would soon change the world forever. 26-year-old Jane Goodall was tasked with being the first to formally observe and better understand our closest living relatives in the animal kingdom: wild chimpanzees.

Jane’s subsequent ground-breaking discoveries revealed remarkable truths about chimpanzee behavior and humankind. Over the last six decades, Dr. Goodall and the Jane Goodall Institute (JGI) have established and maintained what is now the longest running study of wild chimpanzees in the world. Through critical work in Gombe, Dr. Goodall and JGI have not only highlighted the urgent need to protect chimpanzees from extinction, they have also redefined “species conservation” to put people at the center. JGI’s innovative science and trailblazing community-centered conservation approach in Gombe makes it one of the world’s most precious resources, which will continue to grow in remarkable ways for many years to come. Today, Dr. Goodall travels around the globe to spread hope and turn it into action to improve the well-being of people, other animals and the environment we share.