Jane Goodall: To Me, She is God

When I first met Dr. Jane Goodall, I was struck not only by her presence but by her energy that’s radiant, infectious, and deeply grounding all at once. Thanks to my dear friends Leonor Diaz and Rosemary Reed (bless their souls), I had the rare privilege of meeting Jane during her 90th birthday celebrations. What began as a dinner soon deepened into a collaboration on a project to capture part of her digital legacy.

At that time, I knew only the headlines of her life’s work: the famous chimpanzee research, her global voice for the environment, the name that carried such weight. Yet nothing I had read prepared me for the experience of being in her presence.

The first thing you notice is her smile! I noticed this lean, graceful woman, light in body but immense in spirit and every word she spoke carried a quiet force. Every sentence resonated with single theme of HOPE.

That evening, as I listened to her and reflected, a thought emerged that surprised even me: “She is not human, she is God.”

Now, I must explain what I mean…because to me, God is not an idol, nor a religious figure. God, to me, is energy! the purest, truest form of energy a human being can embody. When someone transcends materiality, when their presence alone shifts the energy of those around them into something higher, they become godlike. That’s what I felt with Jane.

What makes her divine, in my eyes, is not just her achievements but her unwavering truth to herself. Truth, I believe, always walks hand in hand with courage. And Jane’s courage has been extraordinary. She left the conventional path behind, followed her instincts into the forests of Tanzania, and from there created a global movement. Her Tacare project, launched in 1994, helped restore degraded hillsides through large-scale tree planting and natural regeneration, the creation of community-managed forest reserves, and the introduction of sustainable farming and fuel-efficient stoves. Across the Greater Gombe landscape, local villages designated 9,690 hectares as Village Land Forest Reserves, protecting 68% of the priority conservation area. She proved that regeneration of land and spirit is possible when people are trusted and empowered.

Beyond Tacare, her impact has been boundless:

• Roots & Shoots, her youth-led movement founded in 1991, now active in more than 60 countries, has inspired millions of young people to act for animals, the environment, and human communities.
• Her advocacy has protected chimpanzee habitats across Africa, from Tanzania to Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and the Republic of Congo.
• She has championed the use of technology and satellite mapping, through partnerships with Google Earth and others, to empower communities to monitor and safeguard their lands.
• Beyond Africa, JGI initiatives have planted millions of trees worldwide, including 3 million in Uganda’s Albertine Rift and 2+ million through Shanghai Roots & Shoots, showing how hope and intent can scale globally.
• Above all, she has become a voice of conscience for the planet, reminding us that our choices today shape tomorrow’s Earth.

For me, what stands out most about Jane is not the scale of her projects, but the clarity of her foundation: Hope and Intent. I have always believed these are the true drivers of meaningful change, and over the last twenty years, every team I have had the privilege to lead has embraced this same belief. We’ve seen time and again that money, resources, and policies are only tools, but it is hope and intent that ultimately create lasting impact. Perhaps that is why meeting Jane felt so profound; she embodies these forces in a way that reminded me how powerful and transformative they can be.

She also saw what many failed to: the urgency of instilling hope in young people at a time when mental health challenges are growing, when instant gratification often replaces resilience. Through her work, she has shown that hope builds courage, courage builds purpose, and purpose builds change.

This is why, in my heart, the only way I could describe her was simple: Jane is God.

I feel profoundly blessed not just to have met her, but also to play a small part in supporting her digital legacy. She is more than a scientist, more than a conservationist. She is proof of what one person’s energy, courage, and truth can ignite in the world.