On February 11, 2008, family and friends gathered in warmth on a below-zero day to remember Cindy Coffin and honor her life. Only a few weeks earlier, she had entered hospice care, after what her husband, Erik Ness, described as "an inspired battle" against breast cancer. This sudden turn of events was a shock to all who knew her after signs of hope last year, and it seems hard to believe that at the young age of 43, Cindy has slipped away.

Cindy played an important role in building the Biodiversity Project from the spark of an idea into an organization that has carried the mission of helping people connect to importance of protecting the web of life. In August of 1995, I started working on this yet un-named project for the Consultative Group on Biological Diversity - the funder's association that launched it. One of my first priorities was to get some help, and I asked Cindy, who had worked with me at the Sierra Club when we were developing Ecoregion plans, if she was interested in an "associate-of-all-trades" type of position. I was fortunate that she said, "Yes."

She and I were complementary opposites in a lot of ways. I was good at dreaming up grand schemes, but she was good at finding ways to distill the essence of that inspiration into two clear pages that made sense. I was comfortable in front of a crowd; she was brilliant at seamlessly executing the countless details of bringing that crowd together, keeping them on time, focused on the topic, and even well-fed. I could imagine the outcome of a project; she could deliver it on time, well-designed, on budget, and if we had needed, probably elegantly gift-wrapped!

When Cindy and Erik took their "around the world" honeymoon trip in 1996, I asked Marian Farrior to join the staff to fill in during the months Cindy was gone. When Cindy came back, I wasn't willing to part with either one, and the three of us became an even stronger team. Steering Committee member, Beth Millemann, whose warm humor always brightened up the tedium of budgets and board business, dubbed the three of us "the Bio-babes," -- something I had forgotten until it appeared in Cindy's obituary, where it put a smile on my face.

When I look back, we worked some miracles together during the project's formative years:

• Organizing a "tour" of workshops across the country spreading the "gospel" of values-based communications for biodiversity, reaching more than five-hundred organizations.
• Publishing the "Road Map" on education and communication strategies for biodiversity and seeing its recommendations take root in major institutions and organizations.
• Organizing a stellar gathering of national leaders to engage their response to the Road Map.
• Transitioning the project into a full-fledged nonprofit organization.
• Launching the Green Media Toolshed, and laying the groundwork for national collaboration among capacity building organizations.
• Helping to coalesce a national dialogue on sprawl and smart growth, and so much more.

The work we did on biodiversity and sprawl was perhaps closest to Cindy's heart, and she was the driving force behind so much of this important work. Perhaps more than any project over the years, the communications kit on sprawl was an expression of Cindy's best work. From the core concepts, to the smallest details, it was high quality, which is what we always knew Cindy would deliver.

Sometimes, Marian and I would be stewing on a problem, and she would just say, "This needs Cindy's brain," and of course, she was right. Cindy had a clarity of thinking, amazing analytical skills, attention to detail, an ability to cut through murkiness to the sharp edge of an idea. She made all our work more precise, clearer, simpler.

All that, and she was a lovely person. Rhonda Kranz, who Cindy recruited for our board, and who served as Chair during some of the really tough years, observed that Cindy "Wasn't concerned about whether people were well-known. She just brought them together. I think of her as a quiet spoken and gentle force that could move walls."

People and organizations change and grow and move on, and eventually, each of us in the original "bio-babes" trio moved on to other pursuits. The organization has evolved with new staff and leaders. But, today's organization was built on the strong shoulders of women with a dream and a cause. As I consider her contributions to our work, and the grit, grace, and courage she demonstrated during her years of facing cancer, I would offer that of those strong shoulders, the most petite, but perhaps the strongest, belonged to Cindy Coffin, whose gentle force helped make amazing things happen, for life, nature and you, and for those she knew and loved.