Conference on World Affairs
April 12–14, 2023
Big ideas.
Endless discoveries.
Celebrating 75 years.
Please see the full schedule below.
Conference on World Affairs
April 12–14, 2023
Big ideas.
Endless discoveries.
Celebrating 75 years.
Please see the full schedule below.
Wednesday, April 12
A keynote address by James Balog with questions moderated by Dr. Jennifer Balch. Also included: a program honoring CWA's 75-year history at CU Boulder.
Global environmental photographer, mountaineer and CU Boulder alumnus James Balog will be a featured speaker at CWA’s opening event. He will talk about the planetary destruction he has recorded and how humans can play a role in restoring balance to the Earth.
Balog has been celebrated for portraying the realities of climate change through photography. He is founder and president of the Earth Vision Institute and the Extreme Ice Survey located in Boulder. The organizations work with scientists to document changing ecosystems using time-lapse photography. The Extreme Ice Survey has created more than a million single-frame photos of 13 glaciers on four continents so far.
Balog’s efforts were featured in the Oscar-nominated, Emmy award-winning 2012 film Chasing Ice and in the 2009 PBS/Nova special Extreme Ice. His still photography has been featured in National Geographic and other major magazines, and he is the author of eight books. He has also served as a U.S./ NASA representative at the United Nations Conference on Climate Change.
James received a master’s degree in geography from CU in 1977, an education that has been a crucial catalyst in his artistic life. His Extreme Ice Survey has been the most extensive, ground-based, photographic study of glaciers ever conducted, and was the basis of the film Chasing Ice, which won an Emmy and the Sundance award for cinematography. Balog is the author of eight books, including Survivors: A New Vision of Endangered Wildlife and Ice: Portraits of Vanishing Glaciers. His photographs are held in many dozens of public and private art collections, and his work has been extensively covered in electronic and print media worldwide. While he is equally at home on Alaskan peaks or whitewater rivers, the African savannah or polar icecaps, James is pleased to call Boulder his home.
Dr. Jennifer Balch is Director of the Environmental Data Science Innovation & Inclusion Lab (ESIIL), at the University of Colorado-Boulder. ESIIL is a $20 million investment by the National Science Foundation in leveraging big data to find solutions to our pressing environmental challenges. She is an Associate Professor in the Department of Geography and a Fellow at the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences. Dr. Balch’s research aims to understand the patterns and processes that underlie disturbance and ecosystem recovery, particularly how people are shifting fire regimes and the consequences. Her work spans from temperate regions to the tropics and leverages big data from satellites to social media. She has conducted research in the field of fire ecology for over twenty years, and has lit a few experimental burns to understand the consequences of altered fire regimes.
12:00–2:00 pm
A beloved tradition of the conference, Ebert Interruptus is a three-part event showcasing a film along with in-depth analysis with the host. Film critic and author Josh Larsen returns to host the 2023 event showcasing this year's feature: Honeyland
Synopsis: "Hatidze lives with her ailing mother in the mountains of Macedonia, making a living cultivating honey using ancient beekeeping traditions. When an unruly family moves in next door, what at first seems like a balm for her solitude becomes a source of tension as they, too, want to practice beekeeping, while disregarding her advice. The most awarded film at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival, Honeyland is an epic, visually stunning portrait of the delicate balance between nature and humanity that has something sweet for everyone."
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2:30-5:00 pm
Jazz Band Performance
Macky Auditorium
Victor Mestas and the CU Latin American Jazz Ensemble and Latin American Jazz Big Band will be playing before the session, starting at 2:30 pm and during the Opening Session before the Keynote address.
Thursday, April 13
The Conference on World Affairs, in partnership with the Center for Leadership, presents the Leo Hill Speaker Series with Rose Marcario.
Rose Marcario, former Patagonia CEO, will join Chancellor Philip DiStefano to discuss the global impact large corporations have on the planet.
Rose is the former CEO and President of Patagonia Inc., one of the most admired companies in America. In her twelve year tenure, under her leadership, she deepened Patagonia’s commitment to advocacy, environmental activism, and responsible business. She created the company’s first in-house venture fund, and oversaw the development and creation of Patagonia Provisions, an organic regenerative food company, and developed Patagonia Action Works an online platform that connects customers with environmental causes. She has been recognized for her work as a champion of the Benefit Corporation movement. She is now a founding partner with ReGen Ventures and board member and advisor to environmental impact companies. She is Chair of Rivian’s Forever Foundation for nature.
9:30–10:40 a.m.
Description: How to be a savvy consumer of climate-related information.
Leaf Van Boven is a professor in and chair of the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience. He is director of the Environment, Decision, Judgment, and Identity lab, and is co-director of the Center for Creative Climate Communication and Behavior Change. He has a BS in psychology from the University of Washington and a PhD in psychology from Cornell University. He is a fellow of the Society for Experimental Social Psychology, the Association for Psychological Science, and the Society for Personality and Social Psychology. Van Boven’s research integrates social, environmental and political psychology. He uses laboratory experiments, national surveys and field studies to examine the processes that shape people’s everyday lives. He has published more than 100 papers across disciplines. His research has been continuously funded by the National Science Foundation.
Karl Hausker is a senior fellow in the World Resources Institute’s climate program. He leads analysis and modeling of net-zero emission pathways, climate mitigation, electricity market design and the social cost of carbon. He is an expert reviewer for the IPCC Sixth Assessment. He has worked for three decades in the fields of climate change, energy and environment in a career that has spanned legislative and executive branches, research institutions, NGOs, and consulting. He has led climate policy analysis and modeling projects for USAID, USEPA, RGGI, CARB and the Western Climate Initiative. Hausker holds an MPP and PhD in public policy from the University of California, Berkeley, and received his BA in economics from Cornell University.
Kirk Siegler is a national correspondent for NPR News. As a roving reporter, he covers the western U.S. with an emphasis on rural issues and the effects of climate change on smaller communities and former natural resource dependent towns. Recent assignments have taken him to Nevada and Arizona where Indigenous groups are protesting mines proposed on ancestral lands that are also seen as key to the Biden administration’s goals of transforming the U.S. transportation grid to electricity.
After the deadliest and most destructive wildfire in California history, Siegler spent months chronicling the diaspora of residents from Paradise, exploring the continuing questions over how—or whether—the town should rebuild in an era of worsening climate-driven wildfires. Siegler is also frequently deployed to national and international breaking news events, from hurricanes in Louisiana to mass shootings in Florida to a devastating earthquake in Nepal.
Siegler grew up in Missoula, Montana, and apart from a brief stint as a waiter in Sydney, Australia, has spent most of his adult life living and working in the American west, including reporting stints in Aspen, Denver, Los Angeles and Boise. He is an avid traveler and fully intends to one day boast he’s skied on all seven continents. He graduated with a degree in broadcast journalism and a minor in political science from the University of Colorado Boulder.
Mary Wenzel is the managing director of corporate engagement at The Nature Conservancy. Before joining TNC in June, Wenzel was executive vice president and head of sustainability and ESG integration at Wells Fargo. She led the development of the company’s climate commitment that set a goal of net-zero greenhouse gas emissions, including in its financed emissions, by 2050 and deployment of $500 billion in sustainable finance by 2030. Before joining Wells Fargo, Wenzel worked with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency managing relationships with tribal nations in the western U.S., and as a program manager for the Energy STAR and methane reduction programs. She has also worked in the energy sector on environmental issues. Wenzel received her master’s degree from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, and a BA in international relations from Johns Hopkins University.
Jevin West is an associate professor in the Information School at the University of Washington. He is the co-founder of the new Center for an Informed Public at UW aimed at resisting strategic misinformation, promoting an informed society and strengthening democratic discourse. He is also the co-founder of the DataLab at UW, a data science fellow at the eScience Institute, and affiliate faculty for the Center for Statistics & Social Sciences. His research and teaching focus on the impact of data and technology on science and society, with a focus on slowing the spread of misinformation. He is the co-author of the new book Calling Bullshit: The Art of Skepticism in a Data-Driven World, which helps non-experts question numbers, data and statistics without an advanced degree in data science.
Description: Experts share strategies for connecting with your audience.
Max Boykoff is a fellow in the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES). He is also a professor in the environmental studies department (where he now serves as chair) at the University of Colorado Boulder. Boykoff is a co-author and editor of seven books and edited volumes, along with over 200 articles, reports and book chapters. Among Boykoff's other activities, he is a contributing author to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Sixth Assessment "Mitigation and Policy" Report; he is deputy editor for the social sciences/history team for the Journal of Climatic Change; and he has been an advisor on the Netflix Don't Look Up film platform. Boykoff also leads the Media and Climate Change Observatory (MeCCO) while he leads Colorado Local Science Engagement Network and co-directs Inside the Greenhouse. Boykoff’s work focuses on climate science-policy-society interactions broadly, as well as on effective communication about climate change and decarbonization of industry and society.
Mike Nelson has served as chief meteorologist for Denver7 since 2004. He received a degree in meteorology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In 1985, Nelson served as chief meteorologist at KMOV-TV until 1991. In 2001, he was recognized by the Colorado Broadcasters Association as its Citizen of the Year for his volunteer work in Colorado schools. Nelson has spoken to over a million children, many clubs and service organizations since the start of his career. His Tornado Dance is renowned! Before joining Denver7, Nelson was chief meteorologist for KUSA-TV from 1991 to 2004. He has won more than 20 Emmy awards. In 2016, Nelson was inducted into the Silver Circle, recognizing 25 years of service in Colorado. He has written two books on Colorado weather, as well as The World’s Littlest Book on Climate. In 2019, Nelson was named a fellow of the American Meteorological Society. He and his wife, Cindy, have two grown children and three grandchildren; all live in the Denver area.
Mercy Orengo is a feature reporter who has been covering human interest stories in Africa. She has spent close to nine years reporting on science and development for several publications, including scidev.net, a global online magazine that focuses on science and technology. She also worked as a long-form writer for The Standard, the oldest newspaper in Kenya. Her previous work has included features on climate change solutions as a means to reduce intertribal wars among pastoralist communities and research gaps in Africa that are hindering the continent’s participation in climate solutions. She was a 2020 Nieman Visiting Fellow at Harvard University and a master’s candidate at Columbia Journalism School in New York.
Shana Udvardy is a senior climate resilience policy analyst with the Climate & Energy program at the Union of Concerned Scientists. She conducts research and policy analysis to help inform and build support to increase resilience to climate change impacts. She advocates for actions at the federal and state levels to advance just and equitable adaptation measures to help safeguard communities from climate change-related risks and impacts. Udvardy has expertise in developing regulatory and legislative comments, testimony and policy proposals relating to climate impacts such as extreme heat, flooding and wildfires, as well as climate-ready infrastructure, climate science and military resilience.
Jennifer has spent two decades crafting strategic communications and public relations strategies and programs for technical, scientific and climate change-focused agencies, NGOs and nonprofits. Her special expertise lies at the nexus of communication, environmental change and extreme weather, and crisis response—necessary capabilities to help organizations prepare for and respond to the true nature of the issues we face today. She has worked on behalf of multiple large federal contracts, including a $430 million observatory funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and a multimillion-dollar risk and resilience public relations contract with Ogilvy public relations, funded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). In the second half of her in-house career, Walton’s work focused on building corporate communication programs, managing teams and advising executives at large scientific organizations. Consequently, her perspective on effective climate communication practices is through the lens of organizational management and strategic planning. She now runs her own communications consulting firm where she advises executives and managers around strategic planning, change management, crisis communication, and leadership and internal communication. Walton was the first to graduate from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a Bachelor’s Degree in environmental communication. She has an MS in technical communication from Colorado State University.
Marlow Baines is the great-granddaughter of immigrants from Norway, Sweden and Denmark. Born in Washington state, she moved to Colorado with her parents when she was 3. In 2016, she began organizing for environmental justice locally and internationally, and in 2019 was named youth director for the international nonprofit Earth Guardians. In 2022, she directed Earth Guardians’ Choose Action Now campaign, with 95 actions in 25 countries. The campaign reached 40,000 people in person and through social media. In 2020, Baines self-published a book of poetry, Little Black Book: A Young Activist’s Love Story. When she’s not writing, organizing or speaking, you can find her climbing, cuddling with her bobtail cat, reading, or spending time with family and friends. She will attend University College Maastricht in the Netherlands and plans to pursue a bachelor’s degree in psychology and cultural studies.
Gregory Crichlow received his B.EnvD from the University of Colorado Boulder and his M.Arch from the University of Illinois Chicago and is a registered architect with experience in various typologies. Gregory is the founder of Chocolate Spokes Bike Studios, which designs and fabricates human-powered vehicles for everyday use. As an entrepreneur, he has forged a strong connection to his community that allows experiential investigation within the space of equity. Gregory’s research and experience as an entrepreneur have manipulated the lens through which he views the built environment and how we move within it. For the last ten years, I have been working at the level of micro-mobility, specifically human-powered vehicles and community, establishing a neighborhood bike shop/community space. The human-powered vehicle is a small but integral detail in discussing infrastructure, energy consumption, and quality of life. The human-powered vehicle scale creates space for communities to come together through familiar but equitable environments.
Arielle V. King is an environmental educator, facilitator, writer and content creator passionate about making environmentalism and law inclusive and accessible to all people. King’s work is focused on storytelling and amplifying the voices, work and legacies of those traditionally overlooked in mainstream environmentalism. She has a background in environmental racism analysis, developing anti-racism policies for municipalities and school districts, political ecology, civil rights law, and centering community input in environmental governance.
She is the programming director at Black Girl Environmentalist, an intergenerational community dedicated to empowering Black girls, women and nonbinary people across environmental disciplines. In 2022, King researched, scripted and hosted Season 1 of The Joy Report, a podcast dedicated to sharing positive, intersectional climate solutions and amplifying the stories and contributions of underrepresented groups in the mainstream environmental movement. Originally from the South End neighborhood of Albany, New York, King lives in the Washington, D.C., area.
She has earned a BA in environmental and sustainability studies, a master’s in environmental law and policy, and a Juris Doctor focused on environmental justice and civil rights law. She serves on the board of directors for two national nonprofits focused on youth development: Positive Tracks and Our Climate. In January of this year, King was named a Climate Creator to Watch by Pique Action and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
Description: How climate change has affected artistic creation, musical compositions, and exhibitions.
Millie Chen’s artwork has been shown across North and South America, East Asia and Europe at venues and festivals including the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo; The Power Plant, Toronto; Centre Culturel Canadien, Paris; Centro Nacional des las Artes, Mexico City; The Contemporary Austin; Shanghai Expo; Hong Kong Asian Film Festival; and FILE-Rio: Electronic Language International Festival, Rio de Janeiro. Her work is in several public collections including the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, University of Colorado Art Museum, Art Bank of Canada Council for the Arts, Canadian Pacific Railway,and Toronto Transit Commission, and she has produced a number of permanent public art commissions.
Chen's most recent awards are an Ontario Arts Council Media Arts Grant and a University at Buffalo Humanities Institute Faculty Research Fellowship, both for SRS (Silk Road Songbook). Her writing has appeared in publications in the U.K., Canada, the U.S. and China. Chen is a professor in the Department of Art, University at Buffalo, SUNY.
Erin Espelie is a filmmaker whose works have been shown at the New York Film Festival, the British Film Institute, the Whitechapel Gallery, Anthology Film Archive, the British Museum of Natural History, the Denver Museum of Nature & Science and more. Her writing has appeared in SciArt Magazine, Labocine, Leonardo, The Brooklyn Rail, High Country News, and Natural History magazine. She is associate professor in the Department of Cinema Studies & Moving Image Arts and the Department of Critical Media Practices, and she is co-founder and co-director of NEST (Nature, Environment, Science & Technology) Studio for the Arts at the University of Colorado Boulder.
Mia Mulvey’s work explores the recording of time, climate change and our relationship to remote landscapes through such forms as ancient trees, ice and geology. Through field research in locations such as Scandinavia, the western U.S. and the Arctic Circle, she is interested in information bound in the land through layers and forms. In an effort to honor the “ground truth” of specific locations, her process involves using technology to sculpturally record and investigate the environment. Mulvey received her MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art and her BFA from Arizona State University. Her work has been shown in numerous galleries and venues such as the Denver Art Museum, American Museum of Ceramic Art, ASU Ceramic Research Center and the Kohler Art Center. She has received numerous grants and residencies at the Montello Foundation, Kohler Arts in Industry, Guldagergaard International Ceramic Research Center and The Arctic Circle, an artist residency program.
Jeffrey Nytch has built a diverse career as a composer, educator, performer and thought leader in arts entrepreneurship. In addition to spending nearly 30 years as a professional musician, he has run a small business, performed as a singer and voice actor, and served six seasons as executive director of the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, one of the nation’s premiere new music ensembles. His music has been performed at Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, MoMA, National Sawdust, the Corcoran Gallery, the Kennedy Center and other venues throughout the U.S. and Europe. In 2013, Nytch’s Symphony No. 1: Formations, commissioned by the Geological Society of America, received international praise for its fusion of music, science and community engagement. More recent projects include a violin concerto for Grammy-winning violinist Edward Dusinberre, his choral work Our Birthright , and For the Trees, a multimedia piece for string quartet. He has received awards for his work from the United States Association of Small Business & Entrepreneurship and the Society for Arts Entrepreneurship Education. His book, The Entrepreneurial Muse (Oxford University Press), applies traditional entrepreneurial theory to the performing arts. Since 2009, Nytch has served on the faculty of the University of Colorado Boulder, where he is an associate professor of composition and serves as director of the Entrepreneurship Center for Music, one of the leading programs of its kind.
11 a.m.–12:10 p.m.
Betsy Andrews is an award-winning food, drink and travel writer focused on sustainability issues. She is contributing editor at Food & Wine magazine and SevenFifty Daily, and she writes for The Wall Street Journal, Condé Nast Traveler, Travel & Leisure, Plate, Imbibe, Eater, Serious Eats and many more publications. She is the former excecutive editor of Saveur magazine, a former New York Times dining critic and the creator of Food & Wine's first-ever blog, "On the Line in New Orleans," documenting the recovery of New Orleans' restaurant industry after Hurricane Katrina. Andrews is also a poet. Her books include New Jersey (UWisc Press, 2007), winner of the Brittingham Prize in Poetry; The Bottom (42 Miles Press, 2013), winner of the 42 Miles Press Prize in Poetry; and, most recently, Crowded (Nauset Press, 2022).
Ted Martens is the Chief Marketing Officer at Natural Habitat Adventures, a nature and wildlife tour operator based in Boulder, Colorado. Ted began his career in the tourism industry as a researcher and instructor at Arizona State University's Tourism Development and Management program, where his work focused on ecotourism development in Central America. Trading the Arizona desert for the mountains of Colorado, Ted became the Director of Outreach and Development for Sustainable Travel International, a non-profit focused on bringing sustainability solutions to the tourism industry. Today, Ted’s focus is on the intersection of conservation and marketing, pushing Nat Hab to further its leadership in sustainable travel while overseeing a broad spectrum of traditional and digital marketing programs. In his free time, Ted can be found playing music or exploring the slopes and trails of Colorado’s backcountry.
Daniel Scott is a professor and research chair in the Department of Geography and Environmental Management at the University of Waterloo. He is also an International Research Fellow at the School of Hospitality and Tourism at the University of Surrey (UK). Scott has worked extensively on sustainable tourism for 25 years, with a focus on the transition to a low-carbon tourism economy and adaptation to the complex impacts of a changing climate. He has advised and led projects for a wide range of government agencies and tourism organizations around the world, including the United Nations World Tourism Organization, United Nations Environment Programme, World Bank, International Olympic Committee and OECD. He has also been a contributor to the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Third, Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Assessments, and their 1.5°C special report. In 2021, he was ranked among the world's top 300 climate scientists by Reuters. He is a Clarivate scholar, ranked as one of the most cited scientists in his field (top 1% globally in 2021 and 2022). His research publications have been featured in many leading media outlets, including The Economist, New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, BBC, Time, Scientific American, Sports Illustrated and National Geographic.
Description: How national security is affected by climate-driven migration, conflict and battles over resources.
Michael English is the director of the Peace, Conflict, and Security Program at the University of Colorado Boulder and the author of The U.S. Institute of Peace: A Critical History.
Elizabeth Shackelford is a senior fellow in U.S. foreign policy with the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. She was a career diplomat with the U.S. Department of State until December 2017, when she resigned in protest of the Trump administration. Her resignation letter was the first to draw widespread attention to the declining state of diplomacy under Donald Trump.
As a foreign service officer, Shackelford served in Somalia, Kenya, South Sudan, Poland and Washington, D.C. For her work in South Sudan during the outbreak of civil war in 2013, she received the Barbara Watson Award for Consular Excellence, the Department’s highest honor for consular work.
Shackelford is the author of The Dissent Channel: American Diplomacy in a Dishonest Age, winner of the 2020 Douglas Dillon Book Award. Shackelford's op-eds and commentaries have been published in numerous outlets, including The Chicago Tribune, The Los Angeles Times and Slate. Shackelford has a BA from Duke University and a JD from the University of Pittsburgh.
Alexander Verbeek is a Dutch environmentalist, editor of The Planet newsletter, public speaker and podcaster. He is a former diplomat and former strategic policy advisor at the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs. For 30 years he has worked on international security, humanitarian and geopolitical risk issues, and the linkage to the Earth's accelerating environmental crisis.
Verbeek works internationally as an expert speaker and advisor with governments, the U.N., companies, NGOs and academia on planetary change and as a communication advisor.
He is also policy director at the Environment & Development Resource Centre in Brussels. In 2014 he became a World Fellow at Yale University. Verbeek has been an associate or fellow at a number of international think tanks and is still active as associate fellow at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy.
Verbeek is recognized online as an influential leader to follow on climate change, water and nature. His online following on all social media is close to half a million.
Description: What will jobs look like in a climate conscious future?
Kim Oster is C-suite executive with 30 years in the power industry. Her experience includes service as chief strategy officer, chief development officer, board member and advisor for a number of leading renewable energy and energy transition companies. In addition to serving executive roles in strategy and development, Oster has developed and financed over $4.5 billion in power projects. During her tenure at First Solar, Oster rose to become regional head and vice president, where she led the company’s expansion into Latin America and led the development of a 550-MW solar facility in California. Subsequently, Oster co-founded Point Reyes Energy Partners, a solar and storage development and advisory company, and served as the chief strategy officer at Cypress Creek Renewables as well as serving as chief development officer at Aypa Power, a Blackstone storage development company. Oster graduated from Williams College and received an MBA and master's in environmental studies from Yale University.
Kirk Siegler is a national correspondent for NPR News. As a roving reporter, he covers the western U.S. with an emphasis on rural issues and the effects of climate change on smaller communities and former natural resource dependent towns. Recent assignments have taken him to Nevada and Arizona where Indigenous groups are protesting mines proposed on ancestral lands that are also seen as key to the Biden administration’s goals of transforming the U.S. transportation grid to electricity.
After the deadliest and most destructive wildfire in California history, Siegler spent months chronicling the diaspora of residents from Paradise, exploring the continuing questions over how—or whether—the town should rebuild in an era of worsening climate-driven wildfires. Siegler is also frequently deployed to national and international breaking news events, from hurricanes in Louisiana to mass shootings in Florida to a devastating earthquake in Nepal.
Siegler grew up in Missoula, Montana, and apart from a brief stint as a waiter in Sydney, Australia, has spent most of his adult life living and working in the American west, including reporting stints in Aspen, Denver, Los Angeles and Boise. He is an avid traveler and fully intends to one day boast he’s skied on all seven continents. He graduated with a degree in broadcast journalism and a minor in political science from the University of Colorado Boulder.
Crystal Upperman is a Senior Manager in Deloitte’s Government and Public Services Consulting practice. Her past experience spans work that intersects environmental management, climate change, and environmental health. She served on the Biden-Harris Campaign’s Climate, Energy, Environment policy committee and contributed to the Resilience and Environmental Justice subcommittees. She currently serves on the US EPA's Board of Scientific Councilors that advises on all of the Agency's research. Crystal is also a Trustee for The Nature Conservancy’s Maryland/DC chapter, a board member for WE ACT for Environmental Justice, a member of the advisory board for APHA’s Center for Climate, Health, and Equity, and a Steering Committee Member for the Environmental Law Institute’s Emerging Leaders Initiative. She earned a PhD in Marine, Estuarine, and Environmental Science from the University of Maryland, a MPA in Nonprofit Management from Kennesaw State University, and a BS in Environmental Science from Spelman College..
Mary Wenzel is the managing director of corporate engagement at The Nature Conservancy. Before joining TNC in June, Wenzel was executive vice president and head of sustainability and ESG integration at Wells Fargo. She led the development of the company’s climate commitment that set a goal of net-zero greenhouse gas emissions, including in its financed emissions, by 2050 and deployment of $500 billion in sustainable finance by 2030. Before joining Wells Fargo, Wenzel worked with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency managing relationships with tribal nations in the western U.S., and as a program manager for the Energy STAR and methane reduction programs. She has also worked in the energy sector on environmental issues. Wenzel received her master’s degree from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, and a BA in international relations from Johns Hopkins University.
12:30–1:40 p.m.
Description: How education needs to adapt in light of a changing world.
Wisdom O. Cole is the national director of the NAACP Youth & College Division. In this role, he serves more than 700 youth councils, high school chapters and college chapters involved in the fight for civil rights. Cole brings extensive experience in civil rights advocacy training institute, electoral action training, grassroots organizing, issues toolkits and webinars at the local, state and national level. He has managed national campaign efforts focused on building Black political power through youth leadership development, advocacy and direct action organizing for the past three years with the NAACP, formerly as the national campaigns and training manager.
David W. Orr is Paul Sears Distinguished Professor of Environmental Studies and Politics Emeritus and senior advisor to the president of Oberlin College. He is a founding editor of the journal Solutions, and founder of the Oberlin Project, a collaborative effort of the city of Oberlin, Oberlin College, and private and institutional partners to improve the resilience, prosperity and sustainability of Oberlin.
Orr is the author of eight books, including Dangerous Years: Climate Change, the Long Emergency, and the Way Forward (Yale University Press, 2017), Down to the Wire: Confronting Climate Collapse (Oxford, 2009), Design with Nature (Oxford, 2002), Earth in Mind (Island, 2004) and co-editor of five others, including Democracy Unchained (The New Press, 2020) and Democracy in a Hotter Time (MIT Press, 2023). He has also written over 250 articles, reviews, book chapters and professional publications.
James Rattling Leaf is a research associate at the Cooperative Institute Research Environmental Sciences (CIRES), University of Colorado Boulder, as well a co-principal investigator at the North Central Climate Adaptation Science Center. He specializes in developing programs that use the interface between Indigenous people’s traditional knowledge and Western science. He has over 25 years’ expercience working with the federal government, higher education institutions and nonprofits to develop and maintain effective working relationships with federally and non-federally recognized American Indian tribes, tribal colleges and universities, and tribal communities. He sees a greater vision of human knowledge that incorporates the many insights of human cultures and provides a context for our better understanding of the planet and the world. He has projects with the Environmental Science Data Innovation and Inclusion Lab, North Central Climate Adaptation Science Center, Rosebud Sioux Tribe, GEO Indigenous Alliance, and the Ecological Society of America Traditional Ecological Knowledge Section. He is a citizen of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe.
Jevin West is an associate professor in the Information School at the University of Washington. He is the co-founder of the new Center for an Informed Public at UW aimed at resisting strategic misinformation, promoting an informed society and strengthening democratic discourse. He is also the co-founder of the DataLab at UW, a data science fellow at the eScience Institute, and affiliate faculty for the Center for Statistics & Social Sciences. His research and teaching focus on the impact of data and technology on science and society, with a focus on slowing the spread of misinformation. He is the co-author of the new book Calling Bullshit: The Art of Skepticism in a Data-Driven World, which helps non-experts question numbers, data and statistics without an advanced degree in data science.
2–3:10 p.m.
Description: Financial, political and social barriers and incentives to widespread adoption of new technologies.
Karl Hausker is a senior fellow in the World Resources Institute’s climate program. He leads analysis and modeling of net-zero emission pathways, climate mitigation, electricity market design and the social cost of carbon. He is an expert reviewer for the IPCC Sixth Assessment. He has worked for three decades in the fields of climate change, energy and environment in a career that has spanned legislative and executive branches, research institutions, NGOs, and consulting. He has led climate policy analysis and modeling projects for USAID, USEPA, RGGI, CARB and the Western Climate Initiative. Hausker holds an MPP and PhD in public policy from the University of California, Berkeley, and received his BA in economics from Cornell University.
Peter Kelly-Detwiler has 30 years of experience in the electric energy industry, with much of his career in competitive power markets. He is a leading consultant in the electric industry, providing strategic advice to clients and investors, helping them to navigate the rapid evolution of the electric power grid. Kelly-Detwiler offers numerous keynotes and workshops on a wide range of topics. He has also written widely on energy issues for Forbes.com and GE, with over 300 articles to his credit. His book on the transformation of electric power markets, The Energy Switch, was published by Prometheus Books in June 2021.
Brenna Hughes Neghaiwi is a reporter interested in the intersection between climate and finance. She is on sabbatical from Reuters, where she has spent the past seven years as a correspondent in Zurich, Switzerland. She has reported on rising inequality amid the COVID-19 pandemic, calls for greener finance, turmoil at one of Switzerland's biggest banks, mining practices confounding sustainable efforts in the gold industry and risks in cryptocurrency. Her work has been recognized by the Society of American Business Writers and Editors, and Reuters' Story of the Year awards. As a Ted Scripps Fellow in Environmental Journalism at CU Boulder, Hughes Neghaiwi is exploring tensions between shareholder capitalism and efforts to close multitrillion-dollar climate and sustainable development financing gaps. Examining the financial industry’s efforts at reform during a decade deemed critical to mitigate climate change and tackle inequality, she is addressing the question: Can the most disastrous effects of climate change be avoided, and social prosperity rebalanced, without sacrificing financial returns?
Emma is a nuclear engineer and project manager specializing in site identification and environmental compliance for advanced nuclear fission power plants and recycling of spent nuclear fuel. Emma has worked for Oklo Inc. for over four years as an engineer and project manager focused on licensing. Her current title with Oklo is Siting Lead, where she supports ongoing projects for commercial fission plant deployment and recycling of spent nuclear fuel. Emma has been involved with Mothers for Nuclear since 2016, supporting the organization in its first efforts to bring attention to the importance of nuclear power as a clean source of reliable power important to empowering people and protecting the planet. Emma is inspired to work on and advocate for nuclear technology through her experiences living in South America where she worked on an organic permaculture farm in Ecuador for six months and then researched volunteer tourism in Peru for six months. Her experiences in South America taught Emma that energy is the soil from which everything from clean water to literacy to women’s rights can grow. Emma has earned a bachelor of arts in environmental studies from Lewis and Clark College in Portland, OR and a masters of science in nuclear engineering from the University of Idaho. She currently lives in a small town in rural Montana with her fiance and dog.
Mary Wenzel is the managing director of corporate engagement at The Nature Conservancy. Before joining TNC in June, Wenzel was executive vice president and head of sustainability and ESG integration at Wells Fargo. She led the development of the company’s climate commitment that set a goal of net-zero greenhouse gas emissions, including in its financed emissions, by 2050 and deployment of $500 billion in sustainable finance by 2030. Before joining Wells Fargo, Wenzel worked with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency managing relationships with tribal nations in the western U.S., and as a program manager for the Energy STAR and methane reduction programs. She has also worked in the energy sector on environmental issues. Wenzel received her master’s degree from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, and a BA in international relations from Johns Hopkins University.
Description: How climate change may impact what we eat and how our food is produced.
Betsy Andrews is an award-winning food, drink and travel writer focused on sustainability issues. She is contributing editor at Food & Wine magazine and SevenFifty Daily, and she writes for The Wall Street Journal, Condé Nast Traveler, Travel & Leisure, Plate, Imbibe, Eater, Serious Eats and many more publications. She is the former excecutive editor of Saveur magazine, a former New York Times dining critic and the creator of Food & Wine's first-ever blog, "On the Line in New Orleans," documenting the recovery of New Orleans' restaurant industry after Hurricane Katrina. Andrews is also a poet. Her books include New Jersey (UWisc Press, 2007), winner of the Brittingham Prize in Poetry; The Bottom (42 Miles Press, 2013), winner of the 42 Miles Press Prize in Poetry; and, most recently, Crowded (Nauset Press, 2022).
Nanna Meyer is associate professor in human physiology and nutrition at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs. Meyer founded the UCCS Sport Nutrition Graduate Program and developed the trademarked Athlete’s Plate. She has worked in Olympic sport nutrition for 20 years, supporting U.S. athletes at five Olympic games, while helping to found professional sport nutrition organizations nationally and internationally. As the world’s urgency to address climate change and health rises, Meyer is focused on sustainable food systems in the Rocky Mountain region. In 2014, she was instrumental in helping UCCS transition its food system away from a corporate system to self-operation. With a team of graduate students, she links farmers to engaged eaters using local food and farm literacy concepts of UCCS’s Sustainability, Wellness and Learning (SWELL) initiative, and through programs and projects, including UCCS Grain School, that focus on food systems renewal through solutions that benefit people, the planet and farmers. Meyer is reducing her university time in the next academic year to devote time to a newly launched farm and food business (Pueblo Seed & Food Co.) with her husband, Dan Hobbs.
Chef Eric Skokan is the most ambitious farm-to-table restaurateur in America, growing most of the food for his two restaurants on his 425-acre organic farm in Boulder County, Colorado. Eric opened his first restaurant, Black Cat Bistro, in 2006, followed by Bramble & Hare in 2012. Shortly after opening Black Cat, an exquisite fine-dining destination in downtown Boulder, Eric's small-scale, backyard gardening became a passion, expanding from a plot in the yard to the current operation, which grows 250 varieties of vegetables, grains and legumes and raises sheep, and heritage pigs. As a chef/farmer with a keen palate, Eric grows specifically for flavor, and has experimented with hundreds of varieties of vegetables and breeds to find ones that deliver the most flavor to diners. He also farms for soil health and the environment, engaging with myriad regenerative agriculture pursuits and protocols.
Description: Action we must take now to adapt to the climate change impacts that are already happening.
Dr. Brian Miller is a U.S. Geological Survey research ecologist with the North Central Climate Adaptation Science Center, one of nine regional centers in the U.S. working with natural and cultural resource managers and local communities to help fish, wildlife, water, land, and people adapt to a changing climate. His current focus is on using scenario planning and ecological simulation modeling to help partners navigate climate change impacts and adaptation options. You can find out more about Brian’s work and his interdisciplinary background here: https://www.usgs.gov/staff-profiles/brian-w-miller
Korkut Onaran is an urban planner, architect, teacher and scholar with a broad knowledge of environmental systems and regulation cultures, a subject he explored extensively through his practice, teaching and research. He has been exploring practical ways of creating resilient communities in the face of climate crisis, with some of his ideas on this subject summarized in his most recent book, Urbanism for a Difficult Future: Practical Responses to Climate Crisis (Routledge 2022). He also recently published the book Crafting Form-Based Codes: Resilient Design, Policy and Regulation (Routledge 2018). Onaran owns Pel-Ona Architects & Urbanists with his business partner, Ronnie Pelusio. Pel-Ona Architects & Urbanists, formed in 2010, is an eight-person firm specializing in good urbanism and offering code writing, master planning, urban design and architectural services. Onaran has been teaching as an adjunct at the University of Colorado Denver's College of Architecture and Planning since 1997. His teaching focuses on form-based codes, urbanism, and small town and tourism planning. He advocates achieving resilience via localization and community building.
James Rattling Leaf is a research associate at the Cooperative Institute Research Environmental Sciences (CIRES), University of Colorado Boulder, as well a co-principal investigator at the North Central Climate Adaptation Science Center. He specializes in developing programs that use the interface between Indigenous people’s traditional knowledge and Western science. He has over 25 years’ expercience working with the federal government, higher education institutions and nonprofits to develop and maintain effective working relationships with federally and non-federally recognized American Indian tribes, tribal colleges and universities, and tribal communities. He sees a greater vision of human knowledge that incorporates the many insights of human cultures and provides a context for our better understanding of the planet and the world. He has projects with the Environmental Science Data Innovation and Inclusion Lab, North Central Climate Adaptation Science Center, Rosebud Sioux Tribe, GEO Indigenous Alliance, and the Ecological Society of America Traditional Ecological Knowledge Section. He is a citizen of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe.
Shana Udvardy is a senior climate resilience policy analyst with the Climate & Energy program at the Union of Concerned Scientists. She conducts research and policy analysis to help inform and build support to increase resilience to climate change impacts. She advocates for actions at the federal and state levels to advance just and equitable adaptation measures to help safeguard communities from climate change-related risks and impacts. Udvardy has expertise in developing regulatory and legislative comments, testimony and policy proposals relating to climate impacts such as extreme heat, flooding and wildfires, as well as climate-ready infrastructure, climate science and military resilience.
Juan Aguilera is a physician-scientist passionate about advancing public health and reducing health disparities. His research focuses on the interplay of environmental exposures, nutrition and physical activity on body composition and cardiorespiratory health, with a particular emphasis on obesity, metabolic syndrome, asthma and the immune response. He is also interested in the impact of air pollution exposure during pregnancy on maternal and neonatal health, including the spatial analysis of health disparities for metabolic risk. In addition, Aguilera has conducted studies regarding wildfire smoke exposure in firefighter cohorts.
Karen Bailey is an assistant professor in the Department of Environmental Studies at the University of Colorado Boulder. She is interested in human-environment interactions, climate change and sustainable rural livelihoods. She is an environmental social scientist and combines social science research with environmental and ecological data to understand how we can build resilience to climate change and how to support landscapes that meet human needs and sustainability goals. Bailey also emphasizes justice, equity, diversity and inclusion in environmental fields and STEM more broadly, and is committed to research that supports, amplifies and engages the most vulnerable among us. Her current projects focus on climate adaptation in Southern Africa, human health and well-being in East Africa, barriers to entry in natural resource fields, just and equitable climate change research, and human-wildlife conflict and coexistence.
Caitlin Rublee, MD, MPH, is an assistant professor of emergency medicine at the University of Colorado School of Medicine and Colorado School of Public Health. She serves as director of graduate medical education with the Climate and Health Program through the School of Medicine and as assistant fellowship director of the Climate and Health Science Policy Fellowship. She is the 2022–24 American Board of Emergency Medicine National Academy of Medicine fellow and vice chair for the Medical Society Consortium of Climate and Health. Rublee completed a Climate and Health Science Policy Fellowship and continues to advance population health through research, education and policy. Her main interests are in disaster preparedness and communicating climate solutions as health and equity solutions.
Evan Thomas is the Director of the Mortenson Center in Global Engineering and Resilience, the Global Engineering Residential Academic Program, and the CU Boulder Climate Innovation Collaboratory, and holds the Mortenson Endowed Chair in Global Engineering at the University of Colorado at Boulder. He is a tenured full Professor jointly appointed in the Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering and the Aerospace Engineering Sciences Departments, and an affiliate faculty in Environmental and Occupational Health at the Colorado School of Public Health. Evan is currently a member of the NASA and USAID SERVIR Applied Sciences Team, a member of the board of the Millennium Water Alliance, and Co-Chair of the ASME Engineering for Global Development Research Committee. Evan has a PhD in Aerospace Engineering Sciences from the University of Colorado Boulder, a Masters in Public Health from the Oregon Health and Science University, a MBA in Global Business from the Fletcher School at Tufts University, and is a registered Professional Environmental Engineer.
3:30–4:40 p.m.
Description: Exploring implications for health, family planning and staying positive for the future.
Juan Aguilera is a physician-scientist passionate about advancing public health and reducing health disparities. His research focuses on the interplay of environmental exposures, nutrition and physical activity on body composition and cardiorespiratory health, with a particular emphasis on obesity, metabolic syndrome, asthma and the immune response. He is also interested in the impact of air pollution exposure during pregnancy on maternal and neonatal health, including the spatial analysis of health disparities for metabolic risk. In addition, Aguilera has conducted studies regarding wildfire smoke exposure in firefighter cohorts.
Sarah M. Bexell is the faculty director of the Center for Sustainability, clinical associate professor with the Graduate School of Social Work, and director of humane education with the Institute for Human-Animal Connection, all at the University of Denver. Bexell is also senior advisor to the education department of the Chengdu Research Base for Giant Pandas in China. She teaches and does research in the areas of ecological justice, regenerative education and animal protection.
Wisdom O. Cole is the national eirector of the NAACP Youth & College Division. In this role, he serves more than 700 youth councils, high school chapters and college chapters involved in the fight for civil rights. Cole brings extensive experience in civil rights advocacy training, electoral action training, grassroots organizing, issues toolkits and webinars at the local, state and national level. He has managed national campaign efforts focused on building Black political power through youth leadership development, advocacy and direct action organizing for the past three years with the NAACP, formerly as the national campaigns and training manager.
Arielle V. King is an environmental educator, facilitator, writer and content creator passionate about making environmentalism and law inclusive and accessible to all people. King’s work is focused on storytelling and amplifying the voices, work and legacies of those traditionally overlooked in mainstream environmentalism. She has a background in environmental racism analysis, developing anti-racism policies for municipalities and school districts, political ecology, civil rights law, and centering community input in environmental governance. She is the programming director at Black Girl Environmentalist, an intergenerational community dedicated to empowering Black girls, women and nonbinary people across environmental disciplines. In 2022, King researched, scripted and hosted Season 1 of The Joy Report, a podcast dedicated to sharing positive, intersectional climate solutions and amplifying the stories and contributions of underrepresented groups in the mainstream environmental movement.
Description: Architecture, planning and infrastructure—the impact of design for our future cities.
David Barrett’s 46-year architecture career has created a legacy of sustainable design. When Barrett founded his practice in 1977, his love of design was coupled with an ethic of environmental stewardship. From large-scale master planning projects to the architecture of singular buildings, his designs offer a timeless connection to the uniqueness of place and those who inhabit them. Barrett has written articles and given lectures on green design throughout the United States, Canada and Europe. Most recently, he contributed to the Thinkers Lodge in Nova Scotia in the publication of “Conversations on an Uncertain Future” and a vision of creating community resiliency. Locally, his visiting lectures at CU Denver’s College of Architecture and Planning continue to inspire architectural students. Barrett Studio has been honored many times throughout Barrett’s career, notably AIA Colorado Firm of the Year in 1998 and AIA Colorado Architect of the Year in 2002. In 2013, Barrett was inducted into the AIA College of Fellows for his contributions to architecture, the environment and society.
Marianne B. Holbert, AIA, is an Assistant Clinical Professor in Environmental Design at CU Boulder. She is a licensed architect with experience on a range of projects, from straw bale construction to high-end residential and affordable housing. Her design work furthers community-centered, sustainable and innovative design solutions. She was a designer on the Nation’s first net-zero, LEED accredited, fossil-fuel-free affordable senior housing project, Paisano Green Community with Workshop8. She has received community outreach grants for participatory design processes, academic scholarships, internships, and workshops with design professionals, first-generation college students. She teaches design studios and seminars in History and Theory of Modern and Contemporary Architecture, freehand sketching, and leads a study abroad program in Italy. Professor Holbert has been the recipient of many awards including Diverse Scholars Faculty Honor Award (2014), AIA Colorado Mentor of the Year Award (2014), Seed Grant Program for Innovative Teaching in the Environment and Sustainability (2015), CU Boulder Teaching Scholar (2016), Marinus Smith Award (2017) and the Architecture Education Foundation Florence G. and Arthur A. Fisher FAIA Traveling Scholarship (2022). Prof. Holbert’s studio courses have received international recognition, awards, publication and exhibition, including the Laka Architecture that reacts competition, 2nd prize and honorable mention (2016), Laka Competition Editor’s choice and Honorable Mention (2018) and the IAAC Design for Living Advanced Architecture Competition Finalist (2020).
David W. Orr is Paul Sears Distinguished Professor of Environmental Studies and Politics Emeritus and senior advisor to the president of Oberlin College. He is a founding editor of the journal Solutions, and founder of the Oberlin Project, a collaborative effort of the city of Oberlin, Oberlin College, and private and institutional partners to improve the resilience, prosperity and sustainability of Oberlin. Orr is the author of eight books, including Dangerous Years: Climate Change, the Long Emergency, and the Way Forward (Yale University Press, 2017), Down to the Wire: Confronting Climate Collapse (Oxford, 2009), Design with Nature (Oxford, 2002), Earth in Mind (Island, 2004) and co-editor of five others, including Democracy Unchained (The New Press, 2020) and Democracy in a Hotter Time (MIT Press, 2023). He has also written over 250 articles, reviews, book chapters and professional publications.
Alexander Verbeek is a Dutch environmentalist, editor of The Planet newsletter, public speaker and podcaster. He is a former diplomat and former strategic policy advisor at the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs. For 30 years he has worked on international security, humanitarian and geopolitical risk issues, and the linkage to the Earth's accelerating environmental crisis. Verbeek works internationally as an expert speaker and advisor with governments, the U.N., companies, NGOs and academia on planetary change and as a communication advisor. He is also policy director at the Environment & Development Resource Centre in Brussels. In 2014 he became a World Fellow at Yale University. Verbeek has been an associate or fellow at a number of international think tanks and is still active as associate fellow at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy. Verbeek is recognized online as an influential leader to follow on climate change, water and nature. His online following on all social media is close to half a million.
Description: A discussion brought to you by the Center for Environmental Journalism as part of the Ackland Lecture in Environmental Journalism Series.
Stacy Feldman is the founder and publisher of Boulder Reporting Lab, a digital nonprofit news organization that launched in late 2021 to inform and empower Boulder County residents with essential news and information and in-depth reporting. BRL launched one of the only hyperlocal climate reporting beats in the country last year. Feldman previously co-founded and was executive editor of Inside Climate News, a Pulitzer Prize-winning national nonprofit newsroom. She was a Ted Scripps Fellow in Environmental Journalism at the University of Colorado Boulder, where she developed the concept for BRL.
Gulnaz Khan is the climate editor at TED and a former editor at National Geographic. She has reported from five continents, and her work appears in Popular Science, The Economist, Politico Europe, National Geographic, Afar and more. Before her journalism career, Khan worked on neuroscience research funded by the National Institutes of Health and behavioral psychiatry research at the University of Pennsylvania. She holds a Master of Science from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and a certificate in climate change and health from Yale University. As a 2022–23 Ted Scripps fellow in Environmental Journalism at CU Boulder, Khan is exploring the relationship between religion and climate change, including the role of religious institutions in social movements, environmental stewardship, faith-based responses to ecological crises, and the tension between science, religion and politics.
Stephen Robert Miller is a journalist who writes about climate change, adaptation, agriculture and conservation for National Geographic, The Guardian, Discover, Audubon and many others. He was a 2018–19 Ted Scripps Fellow at the University of Colorado’s Center for Environmental Journalism and a senior editor of environmental justice for YES! magazine. His forthcoming book, Over the Seawall: Tsunamis, Cyclones, Drought, and the Delusion of Controlling Nature (Island Press, 2023), chronicles misguided attempts to adapt to environmental disaster across three continents. His work has been recognized by the Society of Professional Journalists, NASA Space Grant Consortium, Washington Newspaper Publishers Association, Mark Finley Gold Pen News Writing Competition, and Native American Journalism Association. He lives in Colorado.
Kirk Siegler is a national correspondent for NPR News. As a roving reporter, he covers the western U.S. with an emphasis on rural issues and the effects of climate change on smaller communities and former natural resource dependent towns. Recent assignments have taken him to Nevada and Arizona where Indigenous groups are protesting mines proposed on ancestral lands that are also seen as key to the Biden administration’s goals of transforming the U.S. transportation grid to electricity. After the deadliest and most destructive wildfire in California history, Siegler spent months chronicling the diaspora of residents from Paradise, exploring the continuing questions over how—or whether—the town should rebuild in an era of worsening climate-driven wildfires. Siegler is also frequently deployed to national and international breaking news events, from hurricanes in Louisiana to mass shootings in Florida to a devastating earthquake in Nepal. Siegler grew up in Missoula, Montana, and apart from a brief stint as a waiter in Sydney, Australia, has spent most of his adult life living and working in the American west, including reporting stints in Aspen, Denver, Los Angeles and Boise. He is an avid traveler and fully intends to one day boast he’s skied on all seven continents. He graduated with a degree in broadcast journalism and a minor in political science from the University of Colorado Boulder.
4:00–6:00 p.m.
A beloved tradition of the conference, Ebert Interruptus is a three-part event showcasing a film along with in-depth analysis with the host. Film critic and author Josh Larsen returns to host the 2023 event showcasing this year's feature: Honeyland
Synopsis: "Hatidze lives with her ailing mother in the mountains of Macedonia, making a living cultivating honey using ancient beekeeping traditions. When an unruly family moves in next door, what at first seems like a balm for her solitude becomes a source of tension as they, too, want to practice beekeeping, while disregarding her advice. The most awarded film at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival, Honeyland is an epic, visually stunning portrait of the delicate balance between nature and humanity that has something sweet for everyone."
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4:15– 5:15 p.m.
The CU Jazz Big Band (18 musicians), led by Paul Romaine, will provide jazz hits old and new in a nod to the jazz tradition of CWA.
The CU Jazz Ensemble will include John Gunther, faculty members Paul McKee and Hugh Ragin, Alumni Annie Booth, students Seajun Kwon and Andres Orco and special guest Harold Summey on drums.
Friday, April 14
9–10:10 a.m.
Description: Climate issues as a platform to move from competition to collaboration in international affairs
Mercy Orengo is a feature reporter who has been covering human interest stories in Africa. She has spent close to nine years reporting on science and development for several publications, including scidev.net, a global online magazine that focuses on science and technology. She also worked as a long-form writer for The Standard, the oldest newspaper in Kenya. Her previous work has included features on climate change solutions as a means to reduce intertribal wars among pastoralist communities and research gaps in Africa that are hindering the continent’s participation in climate solutions. She was a 2020 Nieman Visiting Fellow at Harvard University and a master’s candidate at Columbia Journalism School in New York.
Elizabeth Shackelford is a senior fellow in U.S. foreign policy with the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. She was a career diplomat with the U.S. Department of State until December 2017, when she resigned in protest of the Trump administration. Her resignation letter was the first to draw widespread attention to the declining state of diplomacy under Donald Trump. As a foreign service officer, Shackelford served in Somalia, Kenya, South Sudan, Poland and Washington, D.C. For her work in South Sudan during the outbreak of civil war in 2013, she received the Barbara Watson Award for Consular Excellence, the Department’s highest honor for consular work. Shackelford is the author of The Dissent Channel: American Diplomacy in a Dishonest Age, winner of the 2020 Douglas Dillon Book Award. Shackelford's op-eds and commentaries have been published in numerous outlets, including The Chicago Tribune, The Los Angeles Times and Slate. Shackelford has a BA from Duke University and a JD from the University of Pittsburgh.
Alexander Verbeek is a Dutch environmentalist, editor of The Planet newsletter, public speaker and podcaster. He is a former diplomat and former strategic policy advisor at the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs. For 30 years he has worked on international security, humanitarian and geopolitical risk issues, and the linkage to the Earth's accelerating environmental crisis. Verbeek works internationally as an expert speaker and advisor with governments, the U.N., companies, NGOs and academia on planetary change and as a communication advisor. He is also policy director at the Environment & Development Resource Centre in Brussels. In 2014 he became a World Fellow at Yale University. Verbeek has been an associate or fellow at a number of international think tanks and is still active as associate fellow at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy. Verbeek is recognized online as an influential leader to follow on climate change, water and nature. His online following on all social media is close to half a million.
Description: The history of the Colorado River and how we reached our current conditions.
If you would like to read about this issue in advance, we recommend this article: https://www.latimes.com/environment/story/2023-03-25/un-puts-focus-on-de...
Rebecca Mitchell’s Commissioner’s Corner: https://cwcb.colorado.gov/focus-areas/interstate/colorado-river-commissioners-corner
USBR’s SEIS document: https://www.usbr.gov/ColoradoRiverBasin/documents/NearTermColoradoRiverOperations/20230400-Near-termColoradoRiverOperations-DraftEIS-508.pdf
Give Feedback: https://engagecwcb.org/colorado-river
Eric Kuhn is the former General Manager of the Colorado River District, a position he held for more than 20 years. He earned his BS in Engineering from the University of New Mexico and an MS in Business Administration from Pepperdine University. Early in his career, he worked as a Naval engineer officer aboard nuclear submarines and as a nuclear start-up engineer for Bechtel Power Corp. After joining the Colorado River District in 1981 as Assistant Secretary-Engineer, he served on the Engineering Advisory Committee of the Upper Colorado River Compact Commission and the Colorado Water Conservation Board representing the Colorado River mainstem. Eric was appointed by Governor Bill Owens as an at-large representative on the Colorado Interbasin Compact Committee. Since retiring in 2018, Eric has written a book titled “Science Be Dammed: How Ignoring Inconvenient Science Drained the Colorado River,” which is an alarming reminder of the high stakes in the management-and perils in the mismanagement-of water in the western United States.
Anne Castle is a senior fellow at the Getches-Wilkinson Center for Natural Resources, Energy, and the Environment at the University of Colorado Law School, focusing on western water policy issues including Colorado River management and the integration of water and land use planning. From 2009 to 2014, she was Assistant Secretary for Water and Science at the U.S. Department of the Interior where she oversaw water and science policy for the Department and had responsibility for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and the U.S. Geological Survey. While at Interior, Castle spearheaded the Department’s WaterSMART program, which provides federal support for sustainable water supplies and provided hands-on leadership on Colorado River issues including a ground-breaking agreement between the US and Mexico. Castle practiced water law for many years with the Rocky Mountain law firm of Holland & Hart where she chaired the Management Committee and Natural Resources Department. She is the President of the Board of Directors of the Colorado Water Trust, and serves on boards or advisory committees for Western Resource Advocates, Colorado Legal Services, the Salazar Center for North American Conservation, the Airborne Snow Observatory, Stanford University’s Water in the West program, and the Colorado River Water and Tribes Initiative, where she is co-leading an initiative on universal access to clean and safe water on Indian reservations.
Rebecca Mitchell (Becky) serves as the Director of the Colorado Water Conservation Board (CWCB) as well as the Colorado Commissioner to the Upper Colorado River Commission. She is an accomplished water leader with over 20 years of experience in the water sector and highly knowledgeable in Colorado water law. Mitchell played a significant role in developing the Colorado Water Plan, working with the state’s nine basin roundtables, the Interbasin Compact Committee, and the public. She has worked in both the public and private sector as a consulting engineer; she received both her B.S. and M.S. from the Colorado School of Mines.
Description: In 2050+, what energy sources and tech will run a decarbonized global economy?
Kyri Baker received her BS, MS and PhD in electrical and computer engineering from Carnegie Mellon University in 2009, 2010 and 2014, respectively. From 2015 to 2017, she worked at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Since fall 2017, she has been an assistant professor at the University of Colorado Boulder and is a fellow of the Renewable and Sustainable Energy Institute (RASEI). She received the NSF CAREER award in 2021 and led a top performing team in the ARPA-E Grid Optimization competition. She develops computationally efficient optimization and learning algorithms for energy systems ranging from building-level assets to transmission grids.
Peter Green is the deputy laboratory director for science and technology and the chief research officer for the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). He began his professional career at Sandia National Laboratories, where he spent just over a decade, before spending 20 years in academia. He was professor of chemical engineering and the BF Goodrich Professor of Materials Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin. He later became professor and chair of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering (MSE) at the University of Michigan. Green was the Vincent T. and Gloria M. Gorguze Endowed Professor of Engineering, as well as professor of chemical engineering, macromolecular science and engineering, and of applied physics. He is a former president of the Materials Research Society. He is a fellow of the American Physical Society, the Royal Society of Chemistry, the American Association of Arts and Science, the American Ceramics Society. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, Class of 2023. He earned BA and MA degrees in physics from Hunter College in 1981, and MS and PhD degrees in materials science and engineering from Cornell University.
Emma is a nuclear engineer and project manager specializing in site identification and environmental compliance for advanced nuclear fission power plants and recycling of spent nuclear fuel. Emma has worked for Oklo Inc. for over four years as an engineer and project manager focused on licensing. Her current title with Oklo is Siting Lead, where she supports ongoing projects for commercial fission plant deployment and recycling of spent nuclear fuel. Emma has been involved with Mothers for Nuclear since 2016, supporting the organization in its first efforts to bring attention to the importance of nuclear power as a clean source of reliable power important to empowering people and protecting the planet. Emma is inspired to work on and advocate for nuclear technology through her experiences living in South America where she worked on an organic permaculture farm in Ecuador for six months and then researched volunteer tourism in Peru for six months. Her experiences in South America taught Emma that energy is the soil from which everything from clean water to literacy to women’s rights can grow. Emma has earned a bachelor of arts in environmental studies from Lewis and Clark College in Portland, OR and a masters of science in nuclear engineering from the University of Idaho. She currently lives in a small town in rural Montana with her fiance and dog.
Peter Kelly-Detwiler has 30 years of experience in the electric energy industry, with much of his career in competitive power markets. He is a leading consultant in the electric industry, providing strategic advice to clients and investors, helping them to navigate the rapid evolution of the electric power grid. Kelly-Detwiler offers numerous keynotes and workshops on a wide range of topics. He has also written widely on energy issues for Forbes.com and GE, with over 300 articles to his credit. His book on the transformation of electric power markets, The Energy Switch, was published by Prometheus Books in June 2021.
Description: An artist, filmmaker and producer on how their work draws attention to climate issues.
Millie Chen’s artwork has been shown across North and South America, East Asia and Europe at venues and festivals including the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo; The Power Plant, Toronto; Centre Culturel Canadien, Paris; Centro Nacional des las Artes, Mexico City; The Contemporary Austin; Shanghai Expo; Hong Kong Asian Film Festival; and FILE-Rio: Electronic Language International Festival, Rio de Janeiro. Her work is in several public collections including the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, University of Colorado Art Museum, Art Bank of Canada Council for the Arts, Canadian Pacific Railway,and Toronto Transit Commission, and she has produced a number of permanent public art commissions. Chen's most recent awards are an Ontario Arts Council Media Arts Grant and a University at Buffalo Humanities Institute Faculty Research Fellowship, both for SRS (Silk Road Songbook). Her writing has appeared in publications in the U.K., Canada, the U.S. and China. Chen is a professor in the Department of Art, University at Buffalo, SUNY.
David Clark is a global leader in creating cause-related brands and initiatives that promote social justice issues. Clark began his career working with Muhammad Ali to create the World Healing Project that promoted tolerance and understanding vs. bigotry and Prejudice. To help promote the initiative, Clark secured the support of Prince. Clark’s relationship with the United Nations was established two decades ago when he partnered with South African President Nelson Mandela to create the global 46664 HIV/AIDS initiative. The inaugural 46664 concert included Beyoncé, Bono, Peter Gabriel, Yusuf Islam (aka Cat Stevens) and Annie Lennox. As CEO of Art for Amnesty, Clark worked with Yoko Ono to create the Instant Karma album of John Lennon’s greatest hits, which were covered by artists that included U2, Green Day, Aerosmith, Willie Nelson, Snow Patrol, Lenny Kravitz, REM, The Cure and Maroon 5. Clark is also the founder of the Right Here, Right Now Global Climate Alliance, which has emerged as the largest public-private partnership promoting climate justice since it was first announced by global partner United Nations Human Rights and supporters that included Leonardo DiCaprio, Quincy Jones, Ellen DeGeneres, Cher, Camilla Cabello, and many more at COP26 in Glasgow, Scotland.
Emilie Upczak is an independent filmmaker, a Rotterdam Producers Lab alumni and an Andy Warhol Foundation Grant recipient. Upczak spent 10 years in Trinidad and Tobago, where she made films and worked as the creative director for the trinidad+tobago film festival spearheading the Caribbean Film Database and the Caribbean Film Mart. Upczak’s debut narrative feature, set in Port of Spain, Moving Parts, premiered at the Denver Film Festival and is available through the film's distributor, Indiepix. Emilie is on a fellowship with the Center for Humanities & the Arts, working with the Rare and Distinctive Collections at the University of Colorado Libraries to create a digital exhibition on the collection of Ann Roy, an American poet, mystic and feminist activist. She is also in development on her second feature film, a climate drama to be set in the near future on the Colorado River in Grand Canyon. Upczak is an assistant teaching professor in the Department of Cinema Studies and Moving Image Arts, and the associate faculty director of the Brakhage Center for Media Arts at the University of Colorado Boulder.
Josh Larsen is the co-host of the radio show and podcast Filmspotting, author of Movies Are Prayers and editor/producer/podcast host at Think Christian, a website exploring faith and pop culture. His next book, tentatively titled Fear Not! A Christian Appreciation of Horror, is expected in 2023. Larsen’s career began in the newspaper business, where he started as a beat reporter for a weekly community newspaper and eventually became the film critic for the Chicago-based Sun-Times Media. In 2011, he joined the Christian media landscape as editor of Think Christian, and in 2012 he joined the long-running weekly podcast Filmspotting on WBEZ in Chicago. A veteran of the Sundance, Toronto and Chicago international film festivals, he has spoken on film at various colleges and conferences. He has led “Ebert Interruptus" at the Conference on World Affairs since 2017. Larsen lives in Chicago with his wife and two daughters. You can connect with him on Facebook, Twitter and Letterboxd as @larsenonfilm.
10:30–11:40 a.m.
Description: Threats to democracy in climate change.
David W. Orr is Paul Sears Distinguished Professor of Environmental Studies and Politics Emeritus and senior advisor to the president of Oberlin College. He is a founding editor of the journal Solutions, and founder of the Oberlin Project, a collaborative effort of the city of Oberlin, Oberlin College, and private and institutional partners to improve the resilience, prosperity and sustainability of Oberlin. Orr is the author of eight books, including Dangerous Years: Climate Change, the Long Emergency, and the Way Forward (Yale University Press, 2017), Down to the Wire: Confronting Climate Collapse (Oxford, 2009), Design with Nature (Oxford, 2002), Earth in Mind (Island, 2004) and co-editor of five others, including Democracy Unchained (The New Press, 2020) and Democracy in a Hotter Time (MIT Press, 2023). He has also written over 250 articles, reviews, book chapters and professional publications.
Congresswoman Schneider authored the first and only revenue neutral Global Warming Prevention Act in 1989 with 140 bipartisan co-sponsors. It was a roadmap for Agriculture, Transportation, Re-forestation, etc. Her appliance efficiency ENERGY STAR program passed along with other elements. Won an Emmy for conceiving and co-producing "Capitol to Capitol" for ABC Network Taught leadership at Harvard. Co-Founded an energy efficiency/renewable energy company that catapulted Costa Rica to be one of a few, nearly Net-Zero, countries in the world. Today - speaking, consulting with a focus on climate mitigation through ESG, and start-up investments.
Kirk Siegler is a national correspondent for NPR News. As a roving reporter, he covers the western U.S. with an emphasis on rural issues and the effects of climate change on smaller communities and former natural resource dependent towns. Recent assignments have taken him to Nevada and Arizona where Indigenous groups are protesting mines proposed on ancestral lands that are also seen as key to the Biden administration’s goals of transforming the U.S. transportation grid to electricity. After the deadliest and most destructive wildfire in California history, Siegler spent months chronicling the diaspora of residents from Paradise, exploring the continuing questions over how—or whether—the town should rebuild in an era of worsening climate-driven wildfires. Siegler is also frequently deployed to national and international breaking news events, from hurricanes in Louisiana to mass shootings in Florida to a devastating earthquake in Nepal. Siegler grew up in Missoula, Montana, and apart from a brief stint as a waiter in Sydney, Australia, has spent most of his adult life living and working in the American west, including reporting stints in Aspen, Denver, Los Angeles and Boise. He is an avid traveler and fully intends to one day boast he’s skied on all seven continents. He graduated with a degree in broadcast journalism and a minor in political science from the University of Colorado Boulder.
Lev Szentkirályi is an Assistant Teaching Professor with the Social Responsibility and Sustainability Division in the Leeds School of Business, where he teaches diverse courses on business ethics, global political economy, and environmental sustainability. Dr. Szentkirályi’s interdisciplinary research centers on problems of environmental and social justice. He is the author of The Ethics of Precaution (Routledge, 2019), and his work has also appeared in Handbook of Philosophy and Public Policy (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018), Clay’s Handbook of Environmental Health (Routledge, 2022), International Political Science Review, and Ethics, Policy, and Environment. His current book project, Future Uncertain, with Kris Karnauskas, ATOC CU-Boulder, is an interdisciplinary edited volume that engages the genuine and manufactured challenges of uncertainty across a host of climate-change-related problems. In an effort to bring his specialization in environmental justice to bear on public policy reform, Dr. Szentkirályi also serves on the City of Louisville Sustainability Advisory Board, which works with the Louisville City Council on diverse local sustainability issues.
* Pronounced: sěnt-kē-rŏ-yē :: “sent-key-rah-yee”
Description: Explore the current crisis, how the Colorado River can be a global model for resiliency and sustainability, and what you can do to help.
If you would like to read about this issue in advance, we recommend this article: https://www.latimes.com/environment/story/2023-03-25/un-puts-focus-on-de...
Regina Lopez-Whiteskunk, was born and raised in southwestern Colorado, resides in the community of Towaoc, on the Ute Mountain Ute reservation. A member of the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, she has spent 10 years working in the information technology field, for Chief Dull Knife College, the Southern Ute Indian, and Ute Mountain Ute Indian Tribes. October of 2013 was elected to serve as a member of the Ute Mountain Ute Tribal council. At an early age, Lopez-Whiteskunk began to advocate for land, air, water, and animals, and strongly believes that the inner core of healing comes from the knowledge of our land and elders. Formerly served as one of the co-chairs for the Bears Ears Intertribal Coalition and education director of the Ute Indian Museum in Montrose. Is currently a candidate for the Master of Environmental Management program with Western Colorado University. Serving on the Telluride Institute Board, Torrey House Press Board, and Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, Great Old Broads’ Council of Advisors, and advisor to the Women of Bears Ears. Currently working with Montezuma Land Conservancy as the Cross-Cultural Program Manager. Early 2022 accepted appointment to serve on the Bears Ears National Monument Management Advisory Committee. Lopez- Whiteskunk has traveled extensively throughout the country sharing the Ute culture through song, dance, presentations, and is honored to continue to protect, preserve and serve through education. Creating a better understanding of resources, culture,
and beliefs she strongly feels is a great foundation for a better tomorrow.
Jim Lochhead has been Denver Water’s CEO/manager since 2010. Denver Water’s 1,100 employees provide the water necessary to sustain 1.5 million customers in Denver and the surrounding suburbs. Denver Water’s system is supplied by surface water from over 4,000 square miles of watershed in the Colorado and South Platte river basins. Before joining Denver Water, Lochhead was in private law practice, dealing with natural resource issues throughout the United States and internationally. He was also executive director of the Colorado Department of Natural Resources and for over 20 years represented the state of Colorado on interstate Colorado River operations. Lochhead is a recipient of the Wayne N. Aspinall Water Leader of the Year award by the Colorado Water Congress and the President’s Award from the Colorado Foundation for Water Education.
Taylor Hawes directs the Colorado River Program for The Nature Conservancy. The program’s goal is to conserve the freshwater biodiversity of the Colorado River Basin while also meeting community needs for water. She has worked on Colorado River issues for more than 25 years. She practiced water, local government, water quality and land use law on Colorado’s Western Slope before joining The Nature Conservancy. Hawes has served on numerous boards and commissions, including the Murray-Darling Basin Balanced Water Fund Advisory Board in Australia, as a governor’s appointee to Colorado’s Interbasin Compact Committee and, most recently, she was appointed to the Colorado River District board. She has testified to U.S.Senate and House committees about Colorado River issues and solutions. Originally from Atlanta, Georgia, Hawes received a BA in political science from the University of North Carolina and her Juris Doctor degree from Vermont Law School.
Greg Peterson grew up in Littleton, CO, where he still lives after living around the world. He studied history and political economy. He has served at the Executive Director of the Colorado Ag Water Alliance for seven years. The past few years, Greg has been knee-deep in farmers and ranchers, learning more about water, agriculture, Colorado, and the digestive habits of cattle than he thought possible. He spends his free time growing vegetables on his small truck farm, learning to hate hail and bindweed
Description: The technology and the natural processes of carbon capture, use and storage.
Richard Conant is a professor of soil biogeochemistry and department head of ecosystem science and sustainability at Colorado State University. His research focuses on soil-based climate solutions. He is a proud CU alum, graduating in 1990 with a degree in environmental, population, and organismic biology.
Gene Kelly is a professor of pedology, deputy director of the Colorado Agricultural Experiment Station, and associate dean of Extension at Colorado State University (CSU). He received his BS and MS degrees from Colorado State University, and his PhD from the University of California, Berkeley. Kelly conducts research and lectures nationally and internationally on various aspects of soils as related to global change issues. His scientific specialization is in pedology and geochemistry with primary interests in regional soil water dynamics, soil degradation and global biogeochemical cycles. His current research is centered on soil degradation, soil water dynamics and regenerative agriculture. He is a member of the U.S. National Committee for Soil Science with the National Academy of Sciences. He serves as an advisor to the United States Department of Agriculture with the National Cooperative Soil Survey, USDA's National Institute of Food and Agriculture, the National Science Foundation, the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa, and several major research programs. He is a fellow of the Soil Science Society of America and is a recent recipient of the Soil Science Society of America Research Award.
Bio coming soon!
Dr. Eric Ping has been active in the renewable energy and green technology space since 2005, when he began his research career working on hydrogen reformation with Intelligent Energy. An alum of Christopher Jones’s catalysis and separations group at Georgia Tech, Dr. Ping spent time on the research faculty at CU Boulder scaling up inorganic membranes for high pressure CO2 separations. He joined Global Thermostat (GT) in early 2013 to lead its technology development team, and now is the Vice President of Process & Operations at GT's headquarters in Commerce City, CO. He holds a Ph.D. in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology, and a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering from University of California, Los Angeles.
Description: Betsy Andrews reads from her eco-poetic quartet of poems and discusses her creative process.
Betsy Andrews is an award-winning food, drink and travel writer focused on sustainability issues. She is contributing editor at Food & Wine magazine and SevenFifty Daily, and she writes for The Wall Street Journal, Condé Nast Traveler, Travel & Leisure, Plate, Imbibe, Eater, Serious Eats and many more publications. She is the former excecutive editor of Saveur magazine, a former New York Times dining critic and the creator of Food & Wine's first-ever blog, "On the Line in New Orleans," documenting the recovery of New Orleans' restaurant industry after Hurricane Katrina. Andrews is also a poet. Her books include New Jersey (UWisc Press, 2007), winner of the Brittingham Prize in Poetry; The Bottom (42 Miles Press, 2013), winner of the 42 Miles Press Prize in Poetry; and, most recently, Crowded (Nauset Press, 2022).
1:30–2:40 p.m.
Description: The future of transportation.
Our deepest apologies. Due to technical issues, there is no recording available for this panel.
Michael Anthony is a senior data analyst at Tesla Motors, where he focuses on driving sustainability and business performance through work in collision prevention and optimizing vehicle repair processes. He is an active voice on sustainable transit, social justice and emerging technology. Based in San Francisco, he is a walkability and bike-ability advocate and is a content creator on the topics of resilient design and urban planning. He is leader of LGBTQ at Tesla and is passionate about diversity, inclusion and fostering authenticity. Anthony's creative work explores surrealist environments and ideas for the future of cities that improve the well-being of humans and the planet. Recently, he has been exploring the use of AI tools to foster creativity and combat inequality, drawing on experience with nonprofit work on pedestrian bridge infrastructure projects in South America and sub-Saharan Africa. He is a CU graduate and holds an MS in business analytics from the Leeds School of Business, a BS in architectural engineering from CU's College of Engineering, and minors in leadership and environmental design. Anthony is a former CWA student member.
Oster is C-suite executive with 30 years in the power industry. Her experience includes service as chief strategy officer, chief development officer, board member and advisor for a number of leading renewable energy and energy transition companies. In addition to serving executive roles in strategy and development, Oster has developed and financed over $4.5 billion in power projects. During her tenure at First Solar, Oster rose to become regional head and vice president, where she led the company’s expansion into Latin America and led the development of a 550-MW solar facility in California. Subsequently, Oster co-founded Point Reyes Energy Partners, a solar and storage development and advisory company, and served as the chief strategy officer at Cypress Creek Renewables as well as serving as chief development officer at Aypa Power, a Blackstone storage development company. Oster graduated from Williams College and received an MBA and master's in environmental studies from Yale University.
Kevin J. Krizek is professor of environmental design at the University of Colorado Boulder and senior advisor in the Office of the Under Secretary of State for Economic Growth, Energy and the Environment at the U.S. State Department. He analyzes the dynamic characteristics of urban settings—how access to services is provided and the role of government, local or federal. Through his international and domestic work, he has developed informed insights to share remedies across borders that are both aspirational and evidence-based. Krizek’s recent book carefully articulates a reformist urban transport planning agenda for cities grounded in accessibility, sustainability and social justice. Other perspectives and forward leaning remedies for cities have been shared in his TED talk and works such as The End of Traffic and the Future of Transport. At the State Department, as part of the Jefferson Science Fellowship, Krizek advanced global infrastructure initiatives to spur clean energy form, digital security and smart cities. He was a 2013 fellow of the Leopold Leadership Program, served as a visiting professor at Radboud University from 2014 to 2017 and was awarded a 2014 U.S.-Italy Fulbright Scholarship. He earned a PhD in urban design and planning, and a Master of Science in civial engineering from the University of Washington in Seattle. He earned a master’s degree in regional planning at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and an undergraduate degree in engineering and communication studies from Northwestern University.
Daniel Scott is a professor and research chair in the Department of Geography and Environmental Management at the University of Waterloo. He is also an International Research Fellow at the School of Hospitality and Tourism at the University of Surrey (UK). Scott has worked extensively on sustainable tourism for 25 years, with a focus on the transition to a low-carbon tourism economy and adaptation to the complex impacts of a changing climate. He has advised and led projects for a wide range of government agencies and tourism organizations around the world, including the United Nations World Tourism Organization, United Nations Environment Programme, World Bank, International Olympic Committee and OECD. He has also been a contributor to the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Third, Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Assessments, and their 1.5°C special report. In 2021, he was ranked among the world's top 300 climate scientists by Reuters. He is a Clarivate scholar, ranked as one of the most cited scientists in his field (top 1% globally in 2021 and 2022). His research publications have been featured in many leading media outlets, including The Economist, New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, BBC, Time, Scientific American, Sports Illustrated and National Geographic.
Description: Local and global responses to climate-related crises.
Brian Fuentes is a registered architect in Colorado, a member of the AIA and has been a certified passive house consultant with the Passive House Institute (PHI) in Germany as well as the Passive House Institute U.S. (PHIUS). Fuentes graduated from the University of Oregon with a degree in architecture in 2000. He received the UO’s Rosenberg Traveling Fellowship in 1999 from the University of Oregon’s architecture program and traveled to Curitiba, Brazil, to study sustainable urban planning. He has taught architecture at the University of Colorado as honorary faculty and has lectured for the Department of Energy as well as at the International Straw Bale Conference, the Colorado/Boulder Green Building Guild, Colorado Renewable Energy Society and DasHaus Tour. As a Colorado native, Fuentes feels most at home in the mountains exploring (ideally by mountain bike) with his wife, Megan, and their two children. They recently lost the family home they had designed and built themselves in the Marshall wildfire.
John Heffernan has over three decades of experience in nonprofit leadership roles on five continents. He is the president of the Foundation for Systemic Change. Previously, he served as executive director for Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights’ Speak Truth To Power (STTP); director of the Genocide Prevention Initiative at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, where he established the Genocide Prevention Task Force; senior investigator with Physicians for Human Rights (PHR), where he led three investigations to Darfur, Sudan and Afghanistan, where he discovered a mass grave; and was the chief of party for the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs in Guyana. He was the founding executive director of the D.C.-based Coalition for International Justice. Heffernan served as country representative for the former Yugoslavia for the International Rescue Committee (IRC), and managed IRC’s refugee resettlement program in Khartoum, Sudan. He also served as the vice president of the Business Council for the United Nations in New York City. He was a Coro fellow in San Francisco and has a master’s from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, and BA from UC Santa Barbara. He is also the board chair for Disability Rights International and board president of Educator's Institute for Human Rights.
With more than 25 years of experience in international disaster management in over 30 countries, Rebecca Scheurer is now a consultant for humanitarian assistance and climate change endeavors. She also serves as a senior fellow for the Adrienne Arsht Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Center, where she headed humanitarian programming for populations facing disproportionate and compounding risks associated with poverty, climate change and displacement, as well as political, social and economic exclusion. Nature-based solutions, economic empowerment for women and the use of technology remain underpinnings for much of the work Sheurer has supported over the past two decades. She has served in a variety of leadership roles (2010 Haiti and 2005 Pakistan earthquakes; 2004 Southeast Asia tsunami; and Hurricanes Sandy and Katrina disaster responses) and has managed budgets totaling more than $200 million. At The Nature Conservancy, Scheurer advanced ecosystem-based strategies for risk reduction among vulnerable coastal communities, culminating in a “Nature Protects People” approach and unconventional partnership with the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent national societies. As founding director of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Global Disaster Preparedness Center, Sheurer oversaw disaster preparedness investments worldwide. Before that, Sheurer held overseas positions for the Red Cross in Thailand and Vietnam, and worked for the Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance under the U.S. Agency for International Development, last serving as regional advisor for South Asia based in Nepal.
Braylen Aldrige was born and raised in Denver. He attended Florida Memorial University. He has worked with various nonprofit organizations in his community and neighboring communities since he was a teen. Through his work with Groundwork Denver, Mo Betta Green, Fresh Food Connect and cityWILD, Aldridge has developed a strong understanding of the community’s needs. He knows the importance of providing youth with a positive and enriching work environment while emphasizing teamwork, responsibility and accountability as he leads youth through rewarding summer work projects.
Bio coming soon!
J.R. Lapierre earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Connecticut and a master’s from Northeastern University. He has an extensive history of working with youth in the nonprofit field via schools, sports and recreation, and outdoor education programs. Lapierre has a passion to help develop the overall well-being of youth and has been able to collaborate and bridge gaps in the community. Through a variety of partnerships with local organizations, he has been instrumental in expanding the reach of Lincoln Hills Cares and growing programs throughout the state of Colorado. Lapierre is adamant about climate action and finding ways to help advance the actions needed to combat climate change. Under his direction, Lincoln Hills Cares received multiple awards from groups including the Mountain Region Black Economic Summit, the Center for Legal Inclusiveness at Work, and Colorado Alliance for Environmental Education. His continued goal is to break down barriers and continue to increase opportunities for all.
Wisdom O. Cole is the national eirector of the NAACP Youth & College Division. In this role, he serves more than 700 youth councils, high school chapters and college chapters involved in the fight for civil rights. Cole brings extensive experience in civil rights advocacy training, electoral action training, grassroots organizing, issues toolkits and webinars at the local, state and national level. He has managed national campaign efforts focused on building Black political power through youth leadership development, advocacy and direct action organizing for the past three years with the NAACP, formerly as the national campaigns and training manager.
3–4:30 p.m.
James Anaya has taught and written extensively on international human rights and issues concerning indigenous peoples. Among his numerous publications are his acclaimed book, Indigenous Peoples in International Law (Oxford Univ. Press (1996); 2d ed. (2004)), and his widely used textbook, International Human Rights: Problems of Law, Policy and Process (Wolters/Kluwer, 6th ed. 2011) (with Hurst Hannum and Dinah Shelton). He served as the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples from May 2008 to June 2014.
Dean Anaya has lectured in many countries throughout the world. He has advised numerous indigenous and other organizations from several countries on matters of human rights and indigenous peoples, and he has represented indigenous groups from many parts of North and Central America in landmark cases before domestic and international tribunals, including the United States Supreme Court and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. Among his noteworthy activities, he participated in the drafting of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and was the lead counsel for the indigenous parties in the case of Awas Tingni v. Nicaragua, in which the Inter-American Court of Human Rights for the first time upheld indigenous land rights as a matter of international law. As UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Dean Anaya monitored the human rights conditions of indigenous peoples worldwide, addressed situations in which their rights were being violated, and promoted practical measures to secure indigenous peoples' rights, travelling frequently to meet with government officials and visit indigenous communities.
Prior to becoming a full time law professor, he practiced law in Albuquerque, New Mexico, representing Native American peoples and other minority groups. For his work during that period, Barrister magazine, a national publication of the American Bar Association, named him as one of "20 young lawyers who make a difference." Dean Anaya served on the law faculty at the University of Arizona from 1999 to 2016 and on the faculty of the University of Iowa from 1988 to 1999. Additionally, he has been a visiting professor at Harvard Law School, the University of Toronto, and the University of Tulsa.
Koehn has been a leader on Boulder’s Climate Initiatives Team since 2006 when he joined the organization as the Manager for the Office of Environmental Affairs. He came from Flagstaff, AZ, where he oversaw the city's conservation and sustainability programs.
In his tenure with Boulder, Koehn was instrumental in the decade-long effort to create a locally owned and operated electric utility followed by building the city’s innovative partnership with Xcel Energy to help move the city toward its energy, equity and resilience goals. Additionally, he has spearheaded the city’s efforts to slow climate change and build a more resilient community through his work in renewable energy, natural climate solutions and the circular economy.
Koehn also shares his knowledge and experience with the leaders of tomorrow by teaching for the Masters of the Environment School at the University of Colorado Boulder.
Representative Joe Neguse has served as the Congressman for Colorado’s 2nd District in the U.S. House since being first elected in November 2018. He currently serves as Chair of the Democratic Policy and Communications Committee (DPCC), the No. 5 elected position in House Leadership, and is the first Coloradan to serve in senior leadership in over 85 years. During his three-terms in the House, the Congressman has earned national praise for his ability to craft and enact legislation, and as the former Chairman of the Public Lands Subcommittee, has been identified as one of the most effective legislators in the Congress. He has had 22 pieces of legislation signed into law, by presidents of both political parties, and has been recognized nationally as one of the most bipartisan lawmakers in the country, including through his role as Co-Chair of the Bipartisan Wildfire Caucus. He currently serves as a member of the Natural Resources, Judiciary, and Rules Committees. Before being elected to Congress, Rep. Neguse led Colorado’s consumer protection and business regulatory agency as a member of then-Governor John Hickenlooper’s Cabinet and Executive Director of the Department of Regulatory Agencies. An attorney and civic leader, Rep. Neguse also served six years on the University of Colorado Board of Regents, where he earned his undergraduate degree, summa cum laude, and Juris Doctorate.
The 2nd Congressional District, which is geographically larger than eight U.S. states, is home to both of Colorado’s major research universities and includes suburban cities, rural communities, and the most iconic mountain towns in America. The district spans 11 counties in Northern and Western Colorado, stretching up to the Wyoming border and west across the Continental Divide, and includes Fort Collins, Longmont, Boulder, Vail and Steamboat Springs, among many other communities.
Benjamin Schachter is a Human Rights Officer and the focal point for climate change and the environment at the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). Prior to joining OHCHR, he worked as an attorney in the United States and as a Research Assistant to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples at the University of Arizona.
His current work focuses on the human rights impacts of climate change and other forms of environmental degradation and the corresponding obligations of States. Benjamin has also coordinated and led OHCHR’s delegation to the UNFCCC since 2015, organized Human Rights Council panel discussions on climate change in each of the last three years and prepared the related Human Rights Council reports including an analytical study on climate change and its impacts on the enjoyment of the human right to health (A/HRC/32/23), one on climate change and its impacts on the full and effective enjoyment of the rights of the child (A/HRC/35/13), and one on climate change and the rights of migrants (A/HRC/38/21).
Benjamin studied environmental, international, and human rights law at the University of Arizona, New York University and the National University of Singapore.
In January 2019, Will Toor joined the Colorado Energy Office (CEO) as its Executive Director appointed by Governor Jared Polis. Will’s background spans transportation electrification, sustainable transportation, smart growth, electric vehicle policy, clean energy finance, green building policy, local government policy and regional planning.
Prior to CEO, Will was Transportation Program Director at the Southwest Energy Efficiency Project (SWEEP). Before SWEEP, Will served as Boulder County Commissioner for eight years where he led the effort to create and adopt a countywide Sustainable Energy Plan, the BuildSmart green building code, the EnergySmart program, and the ClimateSmart Loan Program. Prior to being elected Boulder County Commissioner, Will served as Mayor of Boulder for six years where he developed Boulder’s community transit network, EcoPass unlimited access transit pass programs, and policies for denser, mixed-use urban infill development as an alternative to sprawl. Will previously served on and chaired the Denver Regional Council of Governments (DRCOG).
He was appointed by Governor Ritter to the state Transportation Funding and Implementation blue ribbon panel, the Governor’s Climate Action Panel, and the Regional Air Quality Council. He was appointed by Governor Hickenlooper to the Air Quality Control Commission and the state oil and gas taskforce. Will spent 12 years as Director of the University of Colorado Environmental Center, where he developed campus sustainability programs in the areas of solid waste, building energy use, and transportation planning.
Will holds a BS in Physics from Carnegie Mellon University and a Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Chicago.
Executive Director of the Center for Ethics and Social Responsibility (CESR) at CU Boulder’s Leeds School of Business
Kathryn has over two decades of experience leading global social impact and sustainability programs within the public, private, and higher education sectors.
As the Executive Director of the Center for Ethics and Social Responsibility (CESR) at CU Boulder’s Leeds School of Business, Kathryn helps to empower business leaders to drive solutions to environmental, social, and ethical challenges. Previously, Kathryn was the Director of Program Delivery at Stanford University's Institute for Innovation in Developing Economies (known as Stanford Seed). Earlier in her career, Kathryn worked as a Corporate Responsibility Manager at Chevron Corporation, a Sustainable Development Specialist at the World Bank, and a Peace Corps Volunteer in Ecuador. Kathryn currently serves as an Advisor to The Climate Initiative (TCI), a national nonprofit organization.
Kathryn has an MBA from UC Berkeley, an MA in Forestry & Cultural Anthropology from Yale, and a BA with honors from Dartmouth College. She enjoys adventure traveling and has visited over 80 countries around the world.
Moderator:
4:00–6:00 p.m.
A beloved tradition of the conference, Ebert Interruptus is a three-part event showcasing a film along with in-depth analysis with the host. Film critic and author Josh Larsen returns to host the 2023 event showcasing this year's feature: Honeyland
Synopsis: "Hatidze lives with her ailing mother in the mountains of Macedonia, making a living cultivating honey using ancient beekeeping traditions. When an unruly family moves in next door, what at first seems like a balm for her solitude becomes a source of tension as they, too, want to practice beekeeping, while disregarding her advice. The most awarded film at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival, Honeyland is an epic, visually stunning portrait of the delicate balance between nature and humanity that has something sweet for everyone."
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