Women's Caucus
Past Speakers
Women in Scientific and Environmental Professions Speaker Series
2024
March 5, 2024 | View recording
Panelists Taylor Brown ’17 (Civil Engineer, JM Davidson Engineering, D.P.C.); Roseana Burick ’06 (Natural Resource Manager, US Army Corps of Engineers); Christine Kane ’82 (CEO, Audubon International); Elizabeth Bella ’96 (Environmental Planning & Compliance Team Lead, Alaska Region, National Park Service) answered questions moderated by Debbie Caviness.
This installment of the Women in Scientific and Environmental Professions Speaker Series was a Women's History Month collaboration of the Alumni Association, Career Services, Admissions, and ESF Women's Caucus
March 29, 2024 | Recording link forthcoming
Coffee Leaf Rust (CLR) is the major existential thread to the world’s coffee crops. It is a destructive fungal plant disease and, if left unchecked, can potentially reduce coffee production by up to 50% in just two years. In 2012-13, ten Latin American governments declared national states of emergency in response to a severe CLR outbreak. Despite CLR’s initial appearance in Central America in 1976, the 2012 outbreak was unprecedented and had a profound socio-economic impact. During this presentation, Dr. Córdoba examined the divergent responses to and recovery trajectories from the 2012 CLR crisis in El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua. Córdoba focused on each country’s unique historical and how political context plays a crucial role in shaping the state’s approach to CLR management, the interaction and collaboration between the state, private sector, and farmer organizations, and how neoliberal policies redraw this interaction.
Dr. Córdoba is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Global Development Studies at Queen’s University, Canada and a former Post-doctoral research associate in ESF's Department of Environmental Studies. Her work aims to advance the theoretical and empirical understandings of the interplay between political economic processes, the creation and governance of new technologies, and local social and ecological processes in agriculture and food systems. Her focus has been on conventional and alternative agrifood systems, exploring perspectives from feminist political ecology, agrarian political economy, and science and technology studies.
This joint presentation of the Environmental Studies Seminar Series on Engaging Diverse Publics Around Complex Environmental Issues and the Women in Scientific and Environmental Professions Speaker Series, coordinated by the ESF Women's Caucus was sponsored by the Randoph G. Pack Institute.
April 11, 2024 | no recording
Nisogaabokwe Melonee Montano, TEK Outreach Specialist, Great Lakes Indian Fish & Wildlife Commission.
Connecting knowledges, cultures, climate change, and fire can result in revitalization and healing. Montanao will provide a brief overview of the importance of and approach taken to weaving together Traditional Ecological Knowledge and Western Science for Climate Change focused work at Great Lakes Indian Fish & Wildlife Commission. She will then discuss how this work guided a similar approach with fire research on cultural lands of the Ojibwe people, and the unexpected outcomes.
About the speaker: Nisogaabokwe – Melonee Montano, is a mother, grandmother, and an enrolled member of the Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa and the Traditional Ecological Knowledge Outreach Specialist for Great Lakes Indian Fish & Wildlife Commission (GLIFWC) where she helps assess climate change impacts on treaty resources and potential threats to Ojibwe culture and lifeways. She is also a Grad Student at the University of Minnesota – Twin Cities in the Natural Resources Science & Management Program under the Forestry Department. Prior to GLIFWC she was Red Cliff’s Environmental Programs Manager where she has also served on various committees including EPA’s Regional Tribal Operations Committee, Alliance for Sustainability, Treaty Natural Resources, the Integrated Resources Management Plan, and is currently serving on the Great Lakes Compact Commission. She holds a B.S. degree in Healthcare Administration with a Native American and Environmental Studies emphasis. Lastly and most importantly, she is a lifelong student of her cultural ways.
About this event: A collaboration among the Center for Native Peoples and the Environment, Adaptive Peaks Seminar Series (Department of Environmental Biology), and the Women in Scientific and Environmental Professions Speaker Series (ESF Women's Caucus)
2023
March 2, 2023 | Summary
Panelists
Dr. Daneille Barry '15
Senior Research Specialist, Dow Performance Silicones
Danielle is a Senior Research Specialist at Dow Performance Silicones on the Engineered
Materials Technical Services & Development team.
In this role, Danielle supports new and existing customers in the
Consumer & Electronics market and focuses on application
development for thermal management materials.
Danielle has served as a project leader for a new thermal grease
development, contributes to several current commercialization
projects, and is a core member of the Kent R. Larson Dow Electronics
Protection & Assembly Academy and the Building Engineering and
Science Talent (BEST) symposium planning team. Danielle joined Dow in October of 2020
after completing her Ph.D. in chemistry at the University of Texas at Dallas.
Danielle’s Ph.D. studies focused on using fundamental chemistry to
improve the mechanical properties of 3D printed polymers for applications such as
drug delivery, water remediation, processing of
advanced materials, and reducing toxicity. Prior to this, she earned her B.S. in Chemistry
at SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry in 2015 and worked for one year
in Occupational Health & Safety.
Jocelyn Gan '13
Environmental Science, Energy & Sustainability Specialist, NYU Langone Health
Jocelyn Gan currently serves as the Energy & Sustainability Specialist at NYU Langone
Health, managing the organization’s sustainability
program. She leads initiatives that institutionalize environmental best practices
and build a culture of sustainability across a growing building portfolio of more
than 13 million square feet to reach its carbon neutrality goal by 2050. Her work
supports programs in sustainable food services, energy and resiliency management,
chemical and waste reduction, among other efforts. NYU Langone’s robust program has
earned more than 65 energy and environmental excellence awards for its sustainability
achievements and, in 2020, the institution proudly joined the national US Health Care
Climate Council.
Jocelyn received her MS in Sustainability Management from Columbia University, and
her BS in Environmental Science from the SUNY – College of Environmental Science and
Forestry.
Meghan Hazer Álvarez ’06/'13,
City Planner, Baltimore City Department of Public Works
With experience in public and private sector design and a background in public health,
Meghan’s current work at the Baltimore City Department of Public Works leverages her
interdisciplinary experience to embed health equity as a goal within watershed planning
projects.
Meghan earned her Bachelors of Landscape Architecture at ESF (2006) before working
for an engineering firm as a landscape architectural designer. Meghan later returned
to ESF, concurrently earning her Master of Landscape Architecture and a Masters of
Public Health from SUNY Upstate Medical University with research focused on built
environment factors and health outcomes. Before joining
Baltimore City, she served as project coordinator for Washington D.C's first consent
decree mandated green infrastructure project, consulted on health-related metrics
for designers, and later did research on drivers motivating designers to address health
using green building platforms. In her spare time, she enjoys running and hiking,
growing hot peppers, and learning random facts about Patagonian fossils from her geologist
husband.
Dr. Kerry Ryan '06
Attending Veterinarian, ViaGen Pets
Dr. Kerry Ryan earned her Bachelors of Science from ESF in 2006.
Following her time at ESF, she received a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree from
Cornell University. Dr. Ryan then worked as a small animal veterinarian for 6 years,
helping many clients and their beloved pets.
Dr. Ryan is now the attending veterinarian at ViaGen Pets; ViaGen Pets is the worldwide
leader in pet and endangered species cloning. Yes, you
read that right, the team clones dogs, cats, horses and endangered
species using the same technology that allowed scientists to clone
Dolly, the famous sheep in 1996. This unique role has afforded Dr. Ryan
the ability to use developments in science to foster her passions for
enhancing the human animal bond and supporting conservation efforts.
Dr. Ryan lives outside Rochester, NY with her husband, two sweet
Cavalier King Charles Spaniels and a troublemaking kitty. Outside of
work, Dr. Ryan enjoys hiking with her dogs and gardening to produce a
renowned homegrown and homemade salsa.
The panel is a collaboration of the Alumni Association, Career Services, ESF Women's Caucus and Admissions.
April 6, 2023 | 3:45 pm ET | 5 Illick
Dr. Holgerson, EFB MS 2011, is an Assistant Professor, Ecology and Evolution, Cornell University. A partial recording of the event.
Adaptive Peaks Seminar Series, sponsored by the Department of Environmental Biology, in partnership with the Women in Scientific and Environmental Professions Speaker Series.
April 26, 2023 | 5pm | Summary Available
Sponsored by the Center for Native Peoples and the Environment, in partnership with Adaptive Peaks Seminar Series, sponsored by the Department of Environmental Biology, and the Women in Scientific and Environmental Speaker Series, sponsored by SUNY ESF and the ESF Women's Caucus
2022
Dr. Claudia Benitez-Nelson
March 1, 2022 | 3:30 pm ET | Zoom
Dr. Claudia Benitez-Nelson is an Associate Dean and Carolina Distinguished Professor in the College of Arts & Sciences at the University of South Carolina. Her research focuses on understanding the biogeochemical cycling of nutrients and how they are influenced by both natural and anthropogenic processes. She is highly regarded for her cross-disciplinary research, her scientific and policy expertise, and as a passionate teacher and mentor. She has authored or co-authored over 120 articles, and her work has been continuously supported by substantial, multi-year research and educational grants. Her many honors include an Early Career Award in Oceanography from the American Geophysical Union (AGU); Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS); Sustaining Fellow of the Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography.
Dr. Benitez-Nelson is active in many efforts to increase diversity in the sciences,
including through her role as Associate Dean, where she has direct oversight over
five units and a field lab, working with Chairs and Directors on faculty recruitment,
retention and promotion; graduate student support and new student recruitment.
"Science Moms" is a diverse collective of climate scientists, all mothers, working
to demystify climate science, accessibly and honestly breaking down misconceptions
about the causes of climate change and what can be done about it.
Dr. Benitez-Nelson earned a B.S. in chemistry and oceanography from the University
of Washington and a Ph.D. in oceanography from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute/Massachusetts
Institute of Technology Joint Program.
Presented by: ESF Women's Caucus
March 23, 2022 | 7:00 pm ET | Zoom
Panelists
Gina Agolia-Hale '04'
Chemistry, Senior Director of Operations and Safety, Tufts Medical Center
Gina graduated from SUNY ESF in the spring of 2004 with a BS in Chemistry. From there she began her career in chemical waste management and laboratory safety working in NYC, Boston, Seattle, and Portland, OR. She now is the Director of Environmental Health & Safety, BioMedical Engineering and Planning, Design, and Construction at Tufts Medical Center in Boston, MA.
Christina Chan '10
Environmental Science, Owner & Farmer, Choy Division Forester, US Forest Service
Christina is the owner and farmer of Choy Division, a 1-acre diversified east Asian vegetable and herb farm that uses regenerative agricultural methods. For her, farming is about more than putting seeds in the ground, it is about the cultivation of the community and the earth around you. She believes that fresh, locally grown food is a right, not a privilege, and strives to make her produce accessible to all communities. Christina was previously Urban Farmer/Educator at Randall’s Island Urban Farm.
Kelley Corbine '15/'17
Natural Resources Management, Forester, US Forest Service
Kelley Corbine has been a forester on the Cumberland Ranger District of the Daniel Boone National Forest in Kentucky for five years. In her time with the Forest, Corbine has been a part of district efforts to implement forest management treatments to improve the resistance and resilience of forests. Corbine is also actively involved in wildland firefighting. Corbine recently received the Kentucky-Tennessee Society of American Foresters (KTSAF) “Outstanding Member Service Award” in recognition of her service to both the organization and the public in the field of forestry.
Keelin Gangwish '19
Paper Engineering, Pulp and Power Front Line Leader, Sylvamo
Currently the Pulp and Power Front Line Leader at Sylvamo (foreman/floor manager for the pulp mill, power house, recaust, woodyard, water treatment, and waste water treatment areas). Previously served at International Paper as Pulp & Power Front Line Leader and REACH Engineer (process engineer in power and pulp departments. Focused on cost savings and process improvements).
The panel is a collaboration of the Alumni Association, Career Services, ESF Women's Caucus and Admissions.
2021
Career path discussion
March 11, 2021 | Written Summary
Featuring panelists:
- Aislinn Brackman '13 (Paper Engineering), Change Agent/Continuous Improvement Specialist, von Drehle Corporation;
- Olivia Liu '15 (Landscape Architecture), Assistant Landscape Architect, New York City Parks;
- Hilary Niver-Johnson '11 (Environmental Science), Proprietor, Sustainable Viticulture Systems;
- Emily Thiel '14 (Environmental Communications), Education and Outreach Coordinator, WNY Prism.
Presented by: Alumni Association, Career Services, Admissions, and ESF Women's Caucus
Melissa Cronin
Coordinator, Building a Better Fieldwork Future, UC-Santa Cruz
March 31, 2021 | Written Summary | Recorded Presentation
Fieldwork is an important and often necessary component of many scientific disciplines,
yet research suggests that it presents a high-risk setting for incidents of sexual
harassment and assault. BBFF's Coordinator will share how a team at UC-Santa Cruz
pioneered a training program to ensure field settings are safer, more equitable, and
more welcoming. </p>
<p>Program presented by SUNY-ESF, ESF Women’s Caucus, Choose Action Network, UC
Santa Cruz, Risk & Safety Training University of California Center, and the Center
to Advance Mentored, Inquiry-Based Opportunities (CAMINO)
Dr. Amanda Adams
Conservation Research Program Manager, Bat Conservation International and Lecturer, Biology, Texas A&M University
Thursday, April 15, 2021 | Written Summary | Recorded Presentations
Fieldwork is an important and often necessary component of many scientific disciplines,
yet research suggests that it presents a high-risk setting for incidents of sexual
harassment and assault. The Building a Better Fieldwork Future (BBFF) Program involves
a 90-minute workshop developed by a team of field researchers at UC Santa Cruz. It
identifies the unique risks posed by fieldwork and offers a suite of evidence-based
tools for field researchers, instructors, and students to prevent, intervene in, and
respond to sexual harassment and assault. Through a series of practical intervention
scenarios, this workshop guides participants on how to be an active and engaged bystander,
how to report incidents, and how to plan field settings to minimize risk. Armed with
these tools, participants can play a role in ensuring that field settings are safer,
more equitable, and more welcoming for the next generation of field scientists.
Collaborating Offices: ESF Women's Caucus and Center to Advance Mentored, Inquiry-based Opportunities (CAMINO)
at UC-Santa Cruz.
Monday, April 19, 2021 | Written Summary | Recorded Presentation
Veronica Davis is a civil engineer who is passionate about transportation and community development. She is the current Director of Transportation and Drainage Operations for the City of Houston, responsible for maintaining and improving the infrastructure that spans Houston's 671 square miles.
Ms Davis has nearly 20 years of experience in engineering and transportation planning.
She is an Entrepreneur and Civil Engineer, co-founding Nspiregreen, LLC., which manages
Community, Multimodal Transportation, and Environmental planning and consulting. While
at Nspiregreen, she led the Vision Zero Action Plans for Washington, DC and the City
of Alexandria. She co-founded Black Women Bike, an organization and movement which
builds a community and interest in biking among black women through education, advocacy
and recreation. Veronica was recognized as a Champion of Change by the White House
in 2012 for her professional accomplishments and advocacy.</p>
<p>Davis graduated with Bachelor of Science from University of Maryland College
Park and a Master of Engineering and a Master of Regional and Urban Planning, Land
Use and Environmental Planning from Cornell University. She completed graduate work
towards a PhD in Civil Engineering from University of Maryland College Park. She serves
on the committees for Transportation Research Board, the board for America Walks,
as well as technical advisory boards at the University of Maryland and Cornell University.
Collaborating Offices: ESF Women's Caucus and the Earth Week Committee
2020
Stephanie Morningstar
Co-Coordinator, Northeast Farmers of Color Land Trust (NEFOC-LT), NY/NE and Herbalist, Sky World Apothecary, Ridgeville, Ontario
Wednesday | March 4, 2020 | Gateway Event Center B
Sponsors: ESF Women's Caucus and the Center for Native Peoples and the Environment
Stephanie Morningstar (Onyota'a:ka Oneida, Turtle clan, Haudenosaunee Confederacy) is an Herbalist, soil and seed steward, scholar, student, and Earth Worker dedicated to decolonizing and liberating minds, hearts, and land- one plant, person, ecosystem, and non-human being at a time. Stephanie grows medicines and food for front line activists and communities of color at Sky World Apothecary & Farm. She serves as a Leadership Council member for the New England Women& Herbal Conference and the International Herb Symposium where she has collectively worked to decolonize learning spaces for her community. She is the Co-Coordinator of the Northeast Farmers of Color Land Trust where she works to liberate land and resituate Indigenous and Diasporic peoples & roles, responsibilities, and covenants to the land as a direct response to land dispossession, health disparities, and the ongoing climate crisis. Stephanie is also an Indigenous Knowledge Mobilization Specialist for Global Water Futures, where she helps Indigenous-led projects to advance the understanding of traditional knowledge and western knowledge indicators by working together to research and aid in water governance, food security, sediment restoration, water security, climate change and human and ecosystem health in Indigenous communities. She is in love with a beautiful human named Noel, who she has shared her life with for over 10 years. They currently live on Dish With One Spoon Wampum Agreement territory, also known as Niagara, Ontario.
Dr. Healy Hamilton
Chief Scientist & Vice President for Conservation Science, NatureServe, Arlington, VA
Precision Conservation at the Scale of a Nation
The Global Conservation Series was POSTPONED.
Sponsors: Alumni Association, Department of Environmental and Forest Biology, Dale Travis, and ESF College Foundation
Dr. Healy Hamilton is the Chief Scientist and Vice President for Conservation Science
at NatureServe. As a biodiversity scientist, she has broad interests in the evolution
and conservation of the diversity of life. She obtained her Master’s degree
at Yale University and her Ph.D. at University of California Berkeley, and for
both degrees, conducted extensive fieldwork in South America. Dr. Hamilton is the
President of the Society for Conservation GIS and has served on the Science Committee
of the National Park Service Advisory Board. In addition, she is a Switzer Foundation
Environmental Leadership grantee and a former U.S. Fulbright Scholar.
Her current research focus is global change biology, with an emphasis on forecasting
the impacts of climate change on species and ecosystems for natural resource management
and conservation. In her spare time, she studies the taxonomy, evolution and conservation
genetics of seahorses and their relatives. Dr. Hamilton is committed to public understanding
of biodiversity and global change, and explores data visualization approaches
to improve ecological literacy.
2019
Adventures at the Science-Policy Interface
Brooke Hemming
Senior Physical Scientist, US Environmental Protection Agency, Research Triangle Park, NC
March 28 | 11 am | Alumni (Nifkin) Lounge
Sponsors: Department of Chemistry, Environmental Scholars Program and the ESF Women's Caucus
Dr. Hemming began her education as a chemist at a community college before transferring to the University of California, Berkeley. While there, she conducted research in the Division of Research Medicine at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory on the synthesis of a macrocyclic polyamine-based ligand for a positron-emitting isotope of Gallium, meant to serve as a tracer in Positron Emission Tomography studies of the human brain. She studied biophysical inorganic chemistry at Stanford University, before changing her field of study to atmospheric chemistry and climate science. She conducted her doctoral research at NASA-Ames Research Center and the Molecular Physics Laboratory at SRI International, on atmospheric chemistry and energy transfer studies of relevance to the measurement of the hydroxyl radical in the lower stratosphere. She went on to complete post-doctoral studies in atmospheric aerosol thermodynamics at the California Institute of Technology. She then won an American Association for the Advancement of Science Environmental Science and Policy Fellowship, which she served in the US EPA Office of International Affairs. In 2002, upon the completion of her fellowship, she began her current position in air quality assessment at the Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, campus of the US EPA. Dr. Hemming has received multiple US EPA Bronze Medals for her work on the NAAQS reviews, and a Gold Medal for her work as a leader and co-author of the science assessment that formed the basis the US EPA Carbon Dioxide Endangerment Finding, designating CO2 as a harmful air pollutant.
Dr. Hemming is the editor of a new book series, Climate and Policy, under the Anthem Press Environment and Sustainability Initiative. She has served for several years as a technical advisor, representing the US EPA, on the Department of Defense Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program Resource Conservation and Resiliency Technical Committee; and as an advisor on the North Carolina State Climate Change and Society Program Advisory Board. In 2013, Dr. Hemming served as the science advisor for Paperhand Puppet Intervention’s production of Invisible Earth educating the creative director about the global carbon cycle and climate, and as a member of the costume production team (monkey furrier).
The Ocean is losing its breath - an overview of the problem, its effects, and solutions
Denise Breitburg
Senior Scientist, Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, Edgewater, MD
April 25 | 4 pm | Illick 5
Sponsors: Department of Environmental and Forest Biology and ESF Women's Caucus
Dr. Breitburg directs SERC's Marine & Estaurine Ecology Lab and thinks up new ways to investigate the impacts of dead zones and acidification on Chesapeake Bay’s fish and invertebrates. She is a leader of the international Global Ocean Oxygen Network, and spearheaded the major 2018 review of ocean deoxygenation published in Science. Dr. Breitburg is the penultimate speaker in the semester long Adaptive Peaks Lecture Series theme of "Effecting Change at Local to Global Scales".
In addition to her duties at SERC, Breitburg has served as Participating Faculty, Graduate Program in Marine-Estuarine-Environmental Sciences, University of Maryland System. She was previously Curator, Marine/Estuarine Ecology, Ichthyology, at The Academy of Natural Sciences, Estuarine Research Center and Adjunct Professor, and Graduate Faculty member within other departments at the University of Maryland. She earned a BS and MA in Biology from Arizona State University, and a Ph.D. from the University of California, Santa Barbara, where she looked at Marine and estuarine ecology; relationship between behavior and community ecology; and the behavior and ecology of fishes.
2018
Robyn Reed
Head of Access Services, Schaffer Library, Union College
Afrofuturism and the Environment
April 12 | 11 am | 110 Moon Library
Sponsors: Friends of Moon Library and ESF Women's Caucus
Join us for a viewing of the award-winning short film Pumzi, a Kenyan science-fiction story written and directed by Wanuri Kahiu. After
the screening, engage in a discussion of the themes of afrofuturism, the environment,
ecocriticism, and scarcity and reclamation facilitated by scholar and librarian
Robyn Reed.
Robyn Reed is the Head of Access Services at Schaffer Library, Union College. Her
research interests include studying the intersection of race and science fiction in
film and television, Afrofuturism, and information literacy. She spends much of
her spare time binge watching Netflix series and combating fake news.
Dr. Blandine Marie Ivette Nacoula
Assistant Prof, Univ. Ouga 1, Burkina Faso and current Fulbright Scholar at UC Davis
Why do Elephants Attack Baobab (Adansonia digitata L.) in Protected Areas of Burkina Faso? Towards a Strategy for Species Conservation.
Thursday | Feb 22, 2018 | 4-5 pm | 5 Illick Hall
Dr. Nacoulma holds a Master's degree and a Ph.D. in Plant Biology and Ecology from the University of Ouagadougou. She teaches both undergraduate and graduate courses in Botany, Plant Biology and Ecology. Dr Nacoulma research activities are focused on the diversity, production, uses, ethno-ecology, ethnobotany and conservation of indigenous trees important for the livelihoods of rural communities in Burkina Faso. During her Fulbright Scholarship, she is studying the functional traits of the baobab (Adansonia digitata L.) as a baseline for its conservation in situ.
Dr. Christine O'Connell
Associate Director and Assistant Professor, Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science,
Stony Brook University
Speaking About Science and Making it Count
Read summary and view presentation
March 27 | 3:30 pm | 5 Illick Hall
Sponsors: Department of Environmental Studies; ESF Women's Caucus; Great Lakes Research Consortium
Dr. Christine O'Connell is Associate Director and Assistant Professor, at the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science, School of Journalism, Stony Brook University, and Affiliate Faculty, in both the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences and the Institute for Advanced Computational Science. She is an ocean and environmental scientist with an extensive interdisciplinary background in policy, advocacy, outreach, and communication. She teaches graduate courses in Distilling Your Message and Communicating to Decision Makers and speaks around the world on science communication. She has a BS in Natural Resources from Cornell University and a PhD from Stony Brook in Marine and Atmospheric Sciences. Her science communication research focuses on women in STEM, science advocacy, and environmental communication, while her scientific research involves the connections between science and society, with a focus on marine spatial planning, ecosystem-based management, waste management, conservation planning, and ecosystem services.
Prior to her time at Stony Brook, Dr. O'Connell worked in the fields of environmental advocacy, community organizing, and public policy. She has been involved with organizing national environmental and political campaigns, and teaching community groups in New York City how to refine their message to talk to politicians, raise money, and organize their communities.
2017
Dr. Amy Pruden
W. Thomas Rice Professor, Via Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering & Associate Dean for Interdisciplinary Graduate Education, Virginia Tech
Antibiotic Resistance as an Environmental Contaminant: Balancing Water Sustainability and Public Health Goals
Wednesday | April 26 | 4-5 pm | Alumni (Nifkin) Lounge |Marshall Hall
Sponsored: ESF Women's Caucus.
Dr. Amy Pruden is a Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and the Associate Dean and Director of Interdisciplinary Graduate Education in the Graduate School at Virginia Tech. Her research passion lies at the cross-section of applied environmental microbiology and some of our greatest environmental engineering challenges, including: water sustainability and its balance with concerns such as antimicrobial resistance, emerging contaminants, and opportunistic pathogens; environmental implications of nanotechnology; and bioremediation of hazardous pollutants. Her research group incorporates strategic application of various biomolecular tools to advance our understanding and improve functionality of environmental engineering systems.
Dr. Pruden serves as the Director of Strategic Planning for the Institute for Critical Technology and Applied Sciences Water Sustainability Thrust. She is an Associate Editor for the journal Biodegradation and serves on an advisory panel on Contaminants of Emerging Concern (CECs) in recycled water. Pruden teaches an undergraduate course in Introduction to Environmental Engineering. At the Graduate level, she teaches Environmental Engineering Microbiology and an IGEP Course on Interdisciplinary Research. She is a core faculty member in two interdisciplinary graduate education programs, Water for Health and Interfaces of Global Change. She has published more than 50 peer-reviewed manuscripts and book chapters on subjects pertaining to bioremediation, pathogens, and antibiotic resistance. She holds a BS in Biological Sciences, and PhD in Environmental Science from the University of Cincinnati.
Dr. Bridie McGreavy
Assistant Professor, Environmental Communication, University of Maine
How do we communicate for social-ecological resilience? Communication research to connect science with coastal and freshwater management and policy.
Thursday | January 26, 2016 | 4 pm | 5 Illick Hall
Sponsored by the Department of Environmental and Forest Biology and the ESF Women's Caucus.
Dr. McGreavy is an Assistant Professor of Environmental Communication in the Department of Communication and Journalism at the University of Maine. She studies communication within sustainability science teams and coastal and freshwater management contexts. She is a lead investigator on the New England Sustainability Consortium’s Future of Dams Project, a large interdisciplinary network that seeks to link science with decision making about systems of dams.
McCreavy previously served as the conservation and education director at Lakes Environmental Association (LEA) from 2001-2010. She holds a PhD in in communication with a concentration in sustainability science from UMaine, and an M.S. in Environmental Studies-Conservation Biology from Antioch University New England in Keene, NH.
2016
Jan McDonald
Executive Director, Rochester Roots: Excellence in Community Sustainability Education
Bringing Science to Life: A collaborative Approach to Sustainability Education in Grades PreK-6th grade where Students, Teachers, Citizens, College Students, PhDs, and Businesses Learn Together.
Wednesday | March 9, 2016 | 4:00 pm | Gateway A/B
Sponsored by the ESF Women's Caucus and the Graduate Student Association
Ms. McDonald's lecture immediately followed workshops:
- Growing edible eco-systems and community on campus focusing on ESF/SU campus, student clubs (and advisers/partners).
- Under a canopy of edible trees: econnecting system diversity and food justice, focusing on Syracuse, Onondaga county, along Onondaga creek strengthening knowledge networks; and existing hot-spots of food systems activity and garden-based science education across the city.
Rochester Root, Inc. (ROOTS) is a 501(c)3 not-profit organization whose mission is: To empower citizens and communities, starting with youth, to create agency for their own sustainable wellbeing.
Our vision is for Vibrant communities of diverse people with high performance brains who collaborate to create sustainable wellbeing.
As Executive Director Jan has provided 22 years of service with Rochester Roots (ROOTS). As a volunteer Jan designed promotional materials (1991-1998), she served on the Board of Directors (1998-2004), and was hired as the Director in 2004. Jan developed the innovative Rochester Roots Urban Agriculture Program. Inspired by experiential teaching and learning methods, she integrated her interests in sustainable agriculture, art, healthy eating, and entrepreneurship into a project that serves the needs of urban dwellers living in poverty.
Since 1991, ROOTS has been committed to improving community health and well-being through prevention and reduction of hunger. We address this strategically at three levels: (1) community food system research, (2) garden-based and food preparation-based education and youth enrichment, and (3) empowering youth as change agents for their families and the community.
ROOTS develops the next generation of citizens who are participants in their community through their involvement in decision-making involving Sociological, Ecological and Technological Systems. ROOTS Urban Sustainability Laboratory (USL) implemented in July 2014 is focused on developing youth as leaders who work alongside businesses and university faculty and students to solve the “wicked problems" of sustainability facing them in the 21st century.
Gwen Kay
Professor and Graduate Program Director, History, and Director, Honors Program, SUNY Oswego
Not just stitchin' and stirrin' - an alternative view of women's science education
Wednesday | April 13, 2016 | 4:00 pm | 408 Baker Lab
Sponsored by the ESF Women's Caucus and the Environmental Scholars Program
Dr. Gwen Kay's research specializations are the history of medicine and science, Progressive Era America, and women's history. She authored the 2005 American Nurses Association's book of the year (2005) Dying to be Beautiful: The Fight for Safe Cosmetics (Ohio State University Press) and edited Remaking Home Economics: Resourcefulness and Innovation in Changing Times with Sharon Y. Nichols. Dr. Kay directs Oswego's Honors Program and serves as Graduate Director for the History department. She teaches courses in American history and women’s history and in women’s studies. In addition, she currently serves as Vice President and Secretary of the SUNY Faculty Senate. Prior to joining Oswego's faculty, she held faculty positions at the University of Tennessee in Chattanooga, DePaul University, and a fellowship at Ohio State. She was awarded a Dean's Fellowship in the History of Home Economics, Cornell University (2008, 2006), studying Taking the Home out of Economics: From Home Economics to Human Ecology. She holds a BA from Bowdoin College, where she dual majored in biology and history, and a PhD from Yale University in the history of medicine and science.
2014 - 2015
Robin Wall Kimmerer
Distinguished Teaching Professor, Environmental and Forest Biology, and Director, Center for Native Peoples and the Environment, SUNY ESF
Earth: Making a Home on Turtle Island
September 3 | 12:45 pm | Gateway Center A & B
Sponsored by ESF's First-Year Experience
Dr. Kimmer's is the author of numerous scientific papers on plant ecology, bryophyte ecology,traditional knowledge and restoration ecology. Her interests include the role of traditional ecological knowledge in ecological restoration and building resilience for climate change. In collaboration with tribal partners, she and her students have an active research program in the ecology and restoration of plants of cultural significance to Native people. She is active in efforts to broaden access to environmental science training for Native students, and to introduce the benefits of traditional ecological knowledge to the scientific community, in a way that respects and protects indigenous knowledge. Dr. Kimmerer is an enrolled member of the Citizen Band Potawatomi. Her writings include "Gathering Moss" which incorporates both traditional indigenous knowledge and scientific perspectives and was awarded the prestigious John Burroughs Medal for Nature Writing in 2005, the newly released "Braiding Sweetgrass." She has served as writer in residence at Andrews Experimental Forest, Blue Mountain Center, the Sitka Center and others. Her literary essays appear in Whole Terrain, Adirondack Life, Orion and several anthologies. Kimmerer holds a MS and PhD in Botany from the University of Wisconsin; she is also an ESF alumna (Botany, 1975). Kimmerer is the co-founder and past president of the Traditional Ecological Knowledge section of the Ecological Society of America.
Katrina Cornish
Endowed Chair and Ohio Research Scholar, Bioemergent Materials Department of Horticulture and Crop Science & Department of Food, Agricultural and Biological Engineering
College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences (CFAES), Ohio State Univ. Horticulture, The Long Road to Developing Domestic Sources of Natural Rubber
Friday | September 5, 2014 | 3 pm | 148 Baker
Sponsored by the Department of Chemistry
Dr. Katrina Cornish is the leading U.S. scientific expert, and is internationally recognized as a principal authority on alternative natural rubber production, properties and products, and on natural rubber biosynthesis. She joined Ohio State's Horticulture and Crop Science department at OARDC-Wooster in 2010 as an Ohio Research Scholar. She holds the Endowed Chair in Bio-based Emergent Materials in the College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences and is director of research for the Program of Excellence in Natural Rubber Alternatives. Her research focuses on bioemergent materials, including exploitation of opportunity feedstocks from agriculture and food processing wastes for value-added products and biofuels. Prior to coming to Ohio State, Dr. Cornish led the USDA's development of domestic natural rubber and rubber latex sources; then, as senior vice president for research and development at Yulex Corporation, she oversaw the research, development, production, validation, and regulatory programs for the commercialization of guayule latex for safe medical devices and specialty consumer products. Her inventions at USDA were licensed by Yulex and form the foundation of the U.S. domestic rubber industry. A fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, she has 175 publications and patents. She holds a PhD from the University of Birmingham, England.
Robin Wall Kimmerer
Distinguished Teaching Professor, Environmental and Forest Biology, and Director, Center for Native Peoples and the Environment, SUNY ESF
The Honorable Harvest: Indigenous Knowledge and Conservation
Wednesday | September 24, 2014 | 7:30 pm | Gateway Center
Sponsored by the Department of Environmental and Forest Biology
Reception and Book Signing to follow. Haven't yet picked up Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants Campus Bookstore will be open 6-7:15
Dr. Kimmer's is the author of numerous scientific papers on plant ecology, bryophyte ecology, traditional knowledge and restoration ecology. Her interests include the role of traditional ecological knowledge in ecological restoration and building resilience for climate change. In collaboration with tribal partners, she and her students have an active research program in the ecology and restoration of plants of cultural significance to Native people. She is active in efforts to broaden access to environmental science training for Native students, and to introduce the benefits of traditional ecological knowledge to the scientific community, in a way that respects and protects indigenous knowledge. Dr. Kimmerer is an enrolled member of the Citizen Band Potawatomi. Her writings include "Gathering Moss" which incorporates both traditional indigenous knowledge and scientific perspectives and was awarded the prestigious John Burroughs Medal for Nature Writing in 2005, the newly released "Braiding Sweetgrass." She has served as writer in residence at Andrews Experimental Forest, Blue Mountain Center, the Sitka Center and others. Her literary essays appear in Whole Terrain, Adirondack Life, Orion and several anthologies. Kimmerer holds a MS and PhD in Botany from the University of Wisconsin; she is also an ESF alumna (Botany, 1975). Kimmerer is the co-founder and past president of the Traditional Ecological Knowledge section of the Ecological Society of America.
Jacqui Frair
Associate Professor, Environmental and Forest Biology, and Associate Director, Roosevelt Wildlife Station, SUNY ESF
Top Dog? Exploring the Ecological Role of Coyotes in New York
November 19 | 12:45 pm | Gateway Center A & B
Sponsored by ESF's First-Year Experience
Dr. Frair's current research programs focus on the ecology of moose in the Adirondack Park, Jaquar in Brazil, bats in the Northern Forest and Great Lakes Region, competitive displacement of red fox by coyote, river otter, and the institutional, financial eand cultural barriers facing wildlife agencies. Prior to her concurrent appointments at ESF, Frair held a post-doctoral position here, and at the Unviersite Laval and University of Alberta-Edmonton. She also served as the Wildlife GIS Coordinator for Ducks Unlimited. Frair serves a Science Advisor to the NY Fish and Wildlife Management Advisory Board, and as the Curriculum Coordinator for ESF's Wildlife Sciences Major. She holds a AAS, Arts in Sciences from Tompkins Cortland Community College; a BS, Natural Resources, Wildlife Specialization, Cornell; MS, Natural Resources (also a Wildlife Specialization), University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point; and a PhD, Environmental Biology and Ecology, University of Alberta.
2014
Dr. Paige Warren
Associate Professor, Department of Environmental Conservation, U Mass, Amherst.
Human Influences on the Species Interactions in Urban Communities: Insights from nationwide
urban ecology research networks.
Thursday | February 6 | 4-5 pm | 5 Illick Hall
Sponsored by the Department of Environmental Biology, Graduate Student Association, and the ESF Women's Caucus
Dr. Paige Warren's research seeks to understand processes generating and maintaining biological diversity in a world that is becoming increasingly dominated by humans. Dr. Warren has recently returned from sabbatical as a Visiting Scholar in the School of Sustainability and School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University. Prior to joining U Mass's faculty, she served as a Research Scientist at Virginia Tech, and a Post Doc, Biology Department and Center for Environmental Studies, Arizona State University. She hold a BA (highest honors) in biology from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, and a PhD in Zoology, from the University of Texas-Austin.
Professor Helen Domske
Education Coordinator, NY Sea Grant, Cornell University and Associate Director, Great Lakes Program, University at Buffalo
The Great Lakes -- Today's Issues and Tomorrow's Concerns
Tuesday | March 25 | 3:30 pm | Nifkin Lounge
Sponsored by the Great Lakes Research Consortium and the ESF Women's Caucus
As a professor of Great Lakes Ecology, the Education Coordinator of New York Sea Grant and the Associate Director of the Great Lakes Program at the University at Buffalo, Professor Helen Domske has focused her career on educating students and stakeholders about the Great Lakes. As a scuba diver of more than 30 years, she has witnessed many changes within the Great Lakes, including the spread of invasive mussels across the lake bottoms. She works to educate people about how they can help prevent water pollution and the slow the spread of invasive specieshe holds an AAS from Erie Community College, a BS from SUC Brockport, and a MS from SUNY Buffalo. She has completed additional post-graduate coursework at Ohio State University and the University of Buffalo.
2012 - 2013
Dr. Kimberly Schulz
Associate Professor, Department of Environmental and Forest Biology and Director,
Center for Integrated Research and Teaching in Aquatic Science (CIRTAS), SUNY ESF,
Syracuse, NY
Understanding Stressors in Aquatic Food Webs: The importance of quality and quantity
at Multiple levels
Thursday | January 24 | 4 -5 pm | 5 Illick Hall
Sponsored by the Department of Environmental and Forest Biology and Office of Research Programs
Dr. Kimberly Schulz, is the 2012 recipient of ESF's campus-wide Exemplary Researcher Award. She is an Assoc iate Professor in the department of Environmental and Forest Biology, SUNY ESF, and currently Directs the emerging Center for Integrated Research and Teaching in Aquatic Science (CIRTAS). She teaches Limnology and Marine Ecology, and contributes to courses offered at Cranberry Lake and to "Diversity of Life" on the main campus. She earned her Ph.D at the University of Michigan, with post-docs at the University of Minnesota and the University of Oslo, Norway. She was selected as a fellow at the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS), and serves as ESF Curriculum and Course Assessment Committee Chair. In addition, she has a vigorous research program and a successful student mentoring program, and publishes extensively.
Farhana Sultana
Associate Professor of Geography, Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University social aspects of arsenic contamination
Tuesday | February 5 | 110 Moon Library
Dr. Sultana received her BA (Honors) in Geosciences and Environmental Studies from Princeton University; MA and PhD in Geography from the University of Minnesota. She was a Programme Officer at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) responsible for managing a large environmental management program in Bangladesh. Moving across the pond to the UK, Farhana was a Visiting Fellow at the School of Environment and Development at the University of Manchester during 2005-2006. From 2006-2008, Farhana was a faculty member in the Geography Department at King's College London. Farhana relocated to the US in 2008, joining the Department of Geography at Syracuse University.
Dr. Christina Tauge
University of California-Santa Barbara
Forest Eco-hydrology in a Changing Climate: Integrating modeling and measurements
Thursday | February 7, 2013 | 4 - 5 pm | 5 Illick Hall
Sponsored by the Department of Environmental and Forest Biology (ESF) and the Department of Earth Sciences (SU)
Christina Tague's research is focused on the interactions between hydrology and ecosystem processes and, specifically, how eco-hydrologic systems are altered by changes in land use and climate. Much of her work involves developing and using spatial simulation models to integrate data from multiple field-based monitoring studies in order to generalize results to larger watersheds. Reflecting that emphasis, she is one of the principal developers of the Regional Hydro-Ecologic Simulation System (RHESSys), an integrated model of spatially distributed carbon, water, and nitrogen cycling. RHESSys is designed to provide science-based information about spatial patterns of ecosystem health and vulnerability in terms of water quantity and quality. She is currently modeling the impacts of climate change on stream-flow patterns in the western United States and examining how urbanization alters drainage patterns and associated biogeochemical cycling in watersheds in Baltimore, Md., nd Southern California.
Laura Lautz
Associate Professor of Geology, Syracuse University
Water Quality and Hydraulic Fracturing
Tuesday | February 19 | 4 pm | 110 Moon Library
Dr. Lautz investigates how physical hydrologic processes influence water quality and movement through watersheds. In particular, she researches how water moves through paired surface water and groundwater systems, and how nutrients and other solutes are processed and transported by streams. She works on several interdisciplinary research projects that couple field experiments with computer modeling experiments. Prior to joining SU, she was on the Forest and Natural Resources Management Faculty at ESF.
Dr. Patricia Chapple Wright
Professor, Department of Anthropology; Founder and Executive Director, Centre ValBio; Founder and Executive Director, Institute for the Conservation of Tropical Environments, Stony Brook University
Lemur Conservation in Madacasgar: Updates from Ranomafana National Park
Thursday | February 21 | 4 -5 pm | 5 Illick Hall
Sponsored by the Department of Environmental and Forest Biology, ESF Women's Caucus and the Graduate Student Association
Patricia Chapple Wright is an accomplished American primatologist, anthropologist, and conservationist. Considered to be one of the world's foremost expert on lemurs, Wright is best known for her 26-year study of social and family interactions of wild lemurs in Ranomafana National Park, Madagascar. She is the founder of the Institute for the Conservation of Tropical Environments (ICTE) and Centre ValBio (CVB). Wright has worked extensively on conservation. In the late 1980s she spearheaded an integrated conservation and development project that, in 1991, led to the establishment of Ranomafana National Park. Wright has received many honors for her conservation work in Madagascar, including the prestigious "Chevalier d' Ordre National" National Medal of Honor of Madagascar, from the President of Madagascar in 1995. Dr. Wright is a professor in the Department of Anthropology at Stony Brook University, supervising students in the Interdepartmental Doctoral Program in Anthropological Sciences and in the Department of Ecology and Evolution.
Laurie Leshlin
Dean, School of Science, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY
Science on Mars Time: Roving the Red Plant with Curiosity
April 4 | 4 pm | Crouse Hinds 010
Sponsored by the Department of Geology, Syracuse University
Dr. Laurie Leshin leads the scientific academic and research enterprise at the oldest technological university in the USt. Prior to RPI, Dr. Leshin served as the Deputy Associate Administrator for NASA's Exploration Systems Mission Directorate where she played a leading role NASA's future human spaceflight endeavors. She previously served as Director of Science and Deputy Center Director for Science and Technology at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center and The Dee and John Whiteman Dean's Distinguished Professor of Geological Sciences, and the Director of the Center for Meteorites Studies at Arizona State University. Dr. Leshin served on President Bush's Commission on Implementation of United States Space Exploration Policy, a nine-member commission charged with advising the President on the execution of his new Vision Space Exploration. She received the NASA Distinguished Public Service Medal in 2004 for this work, and the Outstanding Leadership Medal in 2011 for her work at NASA. Dr. Leshin's scientific expertise is in cosmochemistry. She is primarily interested in deciphering the record of water on objects in our solar system. She has published over 40 scientific papers, and was the inaugural recipient of the Meteoritical Society's Nier Prize in 1996 for her work. The International Astronomical Union recognized her contributions to Planetary Science with the naming of asteroid 4922 Leshin. She received her B.S. in Chemistry in 1987 from Arizona State University, and her Ph.D. in Geochemistry in 1994 from California Institute of Technology.
Kimberly Schulz
Associate Professor, Department of Environmental and Forest Biology and Director,
Center for Integrated Research and Teaching in Aquatic Science (CIRTAS), SUNY ESF,
Syracuse, NY<br>
Center for Integrated Research and Teaching in Aquatic Science (CIRTAS)
Tuesday | April 9 | 4 pm | 110 Moon Library
Dr. Kimberly Schulz, is the 2012 recipient of ESF's campus-wide Exemplary Researcher Award. She is an Associate Professor in the department of Environmental and Forest Biology, SUNY ESF, and currently Directs the emerging Center for Integrated Research and Teaching in Aquatic Science (CIRTAS). She teaches Limnology and Marine Ecology, and contributes to courses offered at Cranberry Lake and to "Diversity of Life" on the main campus. She earned her Ph.D at the University of Michigan, with post-docs at the University of Minnesota and the University of Oslo, Norway. She was selected as a fellow at the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS), and serves as EFB Curriculum and Course Assessment Committee Chair. In addition, she has a vigorous research program and a successful student mentoring program, and publishes extensively.
Cynthia Downs
Postdoctoral Researcher, Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences, University of Nevada Reno
A tale of two mouse selection experiments: Does selection on metabolic rate or activity alter immune function?
Thursday | April 11 | 4 pm | 5 Illick Hall
Cynthia Downs holds a PhD from the University of Nevada, Reno, Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences and previously completed a Blaustein Postdoctoral Fellowship, Mitrani Department of Desert Ecology, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. She is also and ESF Alum, with a BS in Environmental and Forest Biology.
Tara Kahan
Assistant Professor of Chemistry, Syracuse University - Physical Chemistry
Solid, Liquid, Vapour: Water-mediated Chemistry in the Environment
Friday | April 12 | 3:00 pm | 148 Baker Lab
Cities are hotbeds of chemical activity. Reactions involving emissions from vehicles, industry, and even plants can affect human health and atmospheric composition. Most reactions happen in the air, but many can occur on surfaces such as buildings, roads, and even lakes both in their liquid and solid (frozen) forms. Dr. Kahan investigates interactions between these atmospheric species and various surfaces.
Jackie Carrera
President and CEO, Parks and People Foundation, Baltimore, MD Revitalizing Baltimore
Tuesday | April 23 | 3 pm | Gateway Bldg Event Room B
Sponsored by the Graduate Student Association and the ESF Women's Caucus
Jackie Carrera has been instrumental in the development of a 15-mile urban greenway, community forestry and watershed restoration programs, and numerous youth sports and camp programs which continue to be integral to the revitalization efforts of some of that city's most underserved communities. She also chaired Revitalizing Baltimore, a US Forest Service urban and community forestry project and is a co-principal investigator for the Baltimore Ecosystem Study, a National Science Foundation-funded, long term ecological research project. Ms. Carrera represented the Chesapeake region in preparing for the Obama Administration's America's Great Outdoors Initiative and the Urban Waters Initiative. She served on a national task force initiated by the US Forest Service, Vibrant Cities and Urban Forests: A National Call for to Action. Ms. Carrera was voted one of the Daily Record's Maryland's Top 100 Women and 100 Most Influential Marylanders by The Maryland Daily Record and was named the 2008 University of Baltimore Distinguished Social Entrepreneur. Ms. Carrera is a graduate of the Greater Baltimore Committee Leadership Program and the Weinberg Fellows Program. She earned a BA, Business Administration degree in Finance from Loyola College in Maryland.
2012
Kathy Bunting-Howarth
Associate Director, New York Sea Grant Institute & Assistant Director, Cornell Cooperative Extension-Coastal Programs, Ithaca, NY
40 years of Sea Grant Great Lakes Research:
From where we have come to where we are going
Thursday | September 29, 2011 | 4 -5 pm | 5 Illick Hall
Sponsored by the Department of Environmental and Forest Biology
Prior to her dual role with NY Sea Grant and Cornell Cooperative Extension, Bunting-Howarth was with the Delaware's Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC) where she began in 1998 serving the Division of Water Resources with distinction in a variety of roles culminating in the position of Director overseeing a staff of 160 employees. Bunting-Howarth holds a Ph.D. in Marine Studies and a B.A. in Biology and International Relations from the University of Delaware as well as a J.D. from the University of Oregon School of Law.
Mollie Manier
Research Associate Professor, Biology, Syracuse University
What glowing sperm can tell us about sexual selection in Drosophila
Thursday | October 6, 2011 | 4-5 pm | 5 Illick Hall
Dr. Manier's research interests center around natural variation, both genetic and phenotypic, and its significance in population and species divergence of fitness-related traits. Prior to coming to SU, she held NSF (SU) and NIH NRSA (Hopkins Marine Station, Stanford University) Research Fellowships. She has also worked as a Herpetologist for the Blodgett Forest Research Station and the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, both at UC Berkeley. She holds a B.A. Integrative Biology, UC-Berkeley and a PhD in Zoology from Oregon State University.
Dr. Candace Haigler
Department of Crop Science and Plant Biology - North Carolina State University & Associate Director of the Center for Lignocellulose Structure and Formation
Update on Mechanisms of Cellulose Biosynthesis in Plants
October 28, 2011 | 3 - 4:30 pm | 148 Baker Lab
Cellulose biosynthesis in plants occurs through the activity of a protein-based nanomachine that can convert soluble sugar into strong cellulose fibrils. Undoubtedly, this is one of the most remarkable processes occurring in nature, yet we do not understand the details of how the protein complex is organized or acts mechanistically. The details of how this complex organizes and works affect important cellulose properties such as fibril size, crystallinity, and degree of polymerization. This seminar will provide an update about current knowledge as well as novel recent research approaches.
Dr. Sarah Pabian
NSF Postdoctoral Fellow, Colorado State University
Songbirds, snails, and soils: Calcium limitations in acidified forest ecosystems in Pennsylvania
Thursday | November 17, 2011 | 110 Moon Library
Sponsored by the Department of Forest and Natural Resources
Dr. Pabian is an applied ecologist with interests in ecosystem ecology, biogeochemistry, avian ecology, and environmental pollution. She is interested in the movements and interactions of nutrients, pollutants, and toxic metals through ecosystems. She is currently studying how mercury, aluminum, and calcium move trophically from soils to songbirds in forests impacted by acid rain and mercury pollution.
Jaqueline Lu
Director of Research, NYC Urban Field Station, USFS & Forestry Analyst, NYC Parks and Recreation, Flushing, NY
Urban forestry research in the aftermath of Tropical Storm Irene
Thursday | Nov 17, 2011 | 4 - 5 pm | 5 Illick Hall
Sponsored by the Department of Environmental and Forest Biology
Jacqueline Lu leads NYC Parks' efforts in the New York City Urban Field Station, a research partnership between Parks and the USDA Forest Service Northern Research Station. She started working for Parks as a street tree planting forester in 1999, and has since led and coordinated interdisciplinary research projects on a wide variety of topics relevant to urban natural resource management, including using satellite imagery to measure land cover change over time, calculating the value of ecological benefits provided by street trees, assessing built environment and social factors affecting planted street tree mortality and long-term outcomes of forest restoration. Ms. Lu holds a BA from Princeton University and a MA, Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Biology from Columbia University.
Women in Scientific and Environmental Professions
Dr. Marie Garland1 and Ms. Sharon Alestalo2
1Director, ADVANCE & 2 Program Manager, ADVANCE/Women in Science & Engineering, Syracuse University
ADVANCE: Transforming Workplace Culture
February 7 | 3:30 - 4:30 m | Alumni (Nikfin) Lounge, Marshall Hall
National Science Foundation's (NSF) ADVANCE endeavors to increase the representation and advancement of women in academic science and engineering careers, thereby contributing to the development of a more diverse science and engineering workforce. Syracuse University's Institutional Transformation award is one of seven Institutional Transformation grants funded under the 2010 competition. Dr. Garland's academic training and preparation is in organizational communication, specifically in interpersonal negotiation of identity via workplace interactions. Prior to coming to Syracuse University,she directed Faculty and Staff Diversity within central Human Resources at Cornell University. She has also held an appointment at Ithaca College's department of Strategic Communication (previously Organizational Communication, Learning, and Design). Prior to administering SU's Women in Science and Engineering (WISE) program, Ms. Alestalo managed SU's Healthy Marriage and Family Formation Training Grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. She also served for 15 years as the executive director of Girls Incorporated of Central New York.
Marissa Sobolewski-Terry
PhD Candidate, Biological Anthropology, University of Michigan Chimpanzees in Uganda
February 9 | 4 - 5 pm | 5 Illick Hall
Sponsored by the Department of Environmental and Forest Biology
Ms. Sobolewski-Terry is a Graduate Student Researcher at the Smithsonian while pursuing a doctorate at the University of Michigan. Her research is focused on the hormonal correlated of male chimpanzee social behavior. She is an ESF alumna. Despite common perception as lovable pets or actors, in the wild, male chimpanzees are very aggressive. They often attack each other, frequently hunt other primates, occasionally kill adult chimpanzees and cannibalize infants. In this talk, I describe the underlying hormonal correlates of these aggressive behaviors in an unusually large community of chimpanzee from Kibale National Park, Uganda. The common occurrence and variety of these aggressive behaviors provide unique opportunities to ask multiple questions about hormones and behavior. Are all types of aggression associated with elevated testosterone? What is the relationship between testosterone and meat sharing? Are territorial encounters more 'stressful' than hunts? How can hormones help us understand the anticipation of aggression? My observations of territoriality, hunting and meat sharing, linked with the insight hormones provide, increase our understanding of our closest living relatives, chimpanzees.
Deborah Delmer
Women in Scientific and Environmental Professions
Consultant and Professor Emeritus, University of California, Davis
Harnessing the new sciences in support of agriculture in the developing world
Thursday | March 2, 2012 | 4 - 5 pm | 5 Illick Hall
Sponsored by the Department of Environmental and Forest Biology and the ESF Women's Caucus
Dr. Delmer is renowned for her investigation of plant cell biochemistry, so her retirement from that field in 2002 to serve as Associate Director for Food Security for the Rockefeller Foundation surprised her colleagues. In her new role, she was charged with grant making and policy relating to the role biotechnology can play in advancing the improvement of crops for the developing world. Dr. Delmer retired again in 2007 and now serves on a number of advisory boards and works independently as a consultant to foundations, industry, and governments on developing world agriculture and on issues surrounding biomass production. Most notably: in 2009/10, she served as Program Director to help roll out a new program called BREAD that supports innovative research that addresses issues of importance to small-holder farmers in the developing world and is jointly funded by the US National Science Foundation and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. In 2010, she became a member of the Board of Governors of The International Center for Research on the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), one of the 15 centers of CGIAR devoted to research that promotes agriculture in the developing world.
Adaptive Peaks
Andreanna King Welch
Postdoctoral Research Associate, Department of Biological Sciences, University at Buffalo
Using molecular techniques to investigate wildlife populations across space and time.
April 25 | 4 -5 pm | 5 Illick Hall
Sponsored by the Department of Environmental and Forest Biology and the ESF Honors Program
Dr. Andreanna Welch is an evolutionary biologist broadly interested in using molecular techniques to learn about the diversity of life around us. In particular, she is interested in gaining a better understanding of the continuum between populations and species. I investigate the process of divergence, the factors that lead to or impede it, anthropogenic influences on populations and species, their conservation implications, and the process of extinction. She believes that we can gain additional information about these processes by using ancient DNA techniques to incorporate a temporal perspective and look for changes through time. Also, with the advent of new sequencing technology, she increasingly uses genomic approaches to answer these questions. Dr. Welch earned her BS from ESF in 2003, and a PhD in Behavior, Ecology, Evolution and Systematics, University of Maryland, in 2011
Cross-disciplinary Seminar in Hydrological and Biogeochemical Processes
Lilian Na'ia Alessa
Women in Scientific and Environmental Professions
Professor of Biology and Director, Resilience and Adaptive Management Group, University of Alaska Anchorage
Water, Technology and Sustainability: are we Engineering Vulnerability?
Tuesday | April 17, 2012 | 4 -5 pm | Nifkin Lounge, Marshall Hall
Sponsored by ESF, Department of Environmental and Forest Biology, Graduate Student Association, SU VP for Research, ESF Women's Caucus
Dr. Alessa heads the Resilience and Adaptive Management Group at University of Alaska Anchorage, and has served on the board of the Arctic Research Consortium of the United States. She currently conducts extensive research on human adaptation to climate change, funded by the National Science Foundation, including International Polar Year projects such as the Indigenous Arctic Observing Network. Canadian-born and raised, Alessa holds a Ph.D. in cell biology from the University of British Columbia and a dual PhD in cognition and learning. Lil's expertise is in the conceptual development and application of complex systems thinking, and development of research strategies. She holds affiliate appointments at the University of Alaska's Water and Environmental Research Center and Arizona State University's Center for Social Dynamics and Complexity. She sits on the NSF Advisory Committee for the Science, Engineering and Education for Sustainability program and is on the program committee of the National Socio-Ecological Synthesis Center in Maryland.
2011
(Re)Claiming Ground: Landscape, Ecology, and Urbanism
Ms. Nina-Marie Lister
Associate Professor, Urban + Regional Planning, Ryerson University, Toronto, ON and Visiting Associate Professor, Graduate School of Design, Harvard University
Tuesday | Feb 8, 2011 | 4 - 5 pm | Marshall Hall Auditorium
Sponsored by the Randolph G. Pack Environmental Institute, Department of Landscape Architecture and the ESF Women's Caucus
Nina-Marie Lister is Associate Professor of Urban + Regional Planning at Ryerson University, and Visiting Associate Professor at Harvard University, Graduate School of Design. A Registered Professional Planner (MCIP, RPP) with a background in resource management, field ecology and environmental science, Lister is the founding principal of plandform, a creative studio practice exploring the relationship between landscape, ecology, and urbanism. Her research, teaching and practice focus on the confluence of landscape infrastructure and ecological processes within contemporary metropolitan regions. In this context, Lister has developed three specialized areas of research: adaptive ecological design for ecosystem complexity and biodiversity conservation; parklands and waterfronts in post-industrial landscapes; and urban food systems an productive/edible landscapes. Prof. Lister is co-editor of The Ecosystem Approach:Complexity, Uncertainty, and Managing for Sustainability (2008, Columbia University Press).
Cross-disciplinary Seminar in Hydrological and Biogeochemical Processes
Dr. Lindsey Rustad
Hubbard Brook Team Leader & Research Ecologist, Center for Research on Ecosystem Change, US Forest Service, Northern Research Station, Durham, NH and Associate Research Professor, Department of Plant, Soil and Environmental Sciences, University of Maine.
Climate Change: Can Northern Forests Keep Pace?
Tuesday | March 29, 2011 | 4 - 5 pm | Alumni Lounge, Marshall Hall
Sponsored by the Department of Forest and Natural Resources Management and the Department of Environmental and Forest Biology
Dr. Rustad's overarching research interests are the effects of anthropogenic disturbances on forested ecosystems of Northeastern North America, with an emphasis on acidic deposition and climate change. She led the unprecedented collaborative effort to increase communication, share data, and synthesize existing accumulating research on the response of northern forest and aquatic ecosystems to environmental change and establish new multi-site, regional studies. Much of her ecosystems research has centered on nitrogen deposition (from fossil fuel burning, automobile emissions, and high intensity agriculture) and its effects on forest soils, plant roots, and forest floor decay processes. Rustad has an concurrent appointment as Associate Research Professor in the Department of Plant, Soil, and Environmental Sciences, University of Maine-Orono. She has previously served as the chair of Forest, Range, and Wildland Soils Division of the Soil Science Society of America
Shifting Paradigms and Adaptive Peaks
Professor Emerita, Biological Sciences and Geophysics, Stanford University
Evolution of Social Behavior: not the 1970s anymore
Thursday | April 28, 2011 | 5 - 6 pm | Marshall Auditorium
Sponsored by the Department of Environmental and Forest Biology and the Graduate Student Association
Dr. Roughgarden has had a wide-ranging career in theoretical ecology and evolutionary biology. She has worked on an array of problems in diverse systems, ranging from the community ecology and biogeography of Anolis lizards in the Caribbean and barnacles on the California coast, to the economics of the world's ecological services. Her most recent works, Evolution's Rainbow: Diversity, Gender and Sexuality in Nature and People and The Genial Gene: Deconstructing Darwinian Selfishness, challenged Darwin's theory of sexual selection and proposes instead "social selection" in which gender roles and sexuality are adaptations which facilitate cooperation in complex societies. She also co-authored The Science of Ecology, and wrote Evolution and Christian Faith: Reflections of an Evolutionary Biologist. Dr. Roughgarden is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
2009 - 2010
Women in Science and Engineering
Dr. Arlene Blum
Executive Director, Green Science Policy Institute, Berkeley, CA
Breaking Trail: Peaks, Public Health and Policy
Wednesday | October 21, 2009 | 4 -5 pm | 146 Baker Lab
Sponsored by the Syracuse University Women in Science and Engineering, ESF Women's Caucus, Department of Environmental Studies, and the Friends of Moon Library
Dr. Blum is a biophysical chemist, visiting scholar at UC Berkeley's Department of Chemistry, and author of Annapurna: A Woman's Place and Breaking Trail: A Climbing Life. Blum's research contributed to the regulation of two cancer-causing flame retardants used in children's sleepwear in the 1970s, and prevented unnecessary flammability standards that would have led to the use of hundreds of millions of pounds of persistent toxic chemicals each year. She is currently bringing science into policy decisions to reduce the use of toxic chemicals in consumer products and protect public health. Dr. Blum was selected by the National Women's History Project as one of 100 "Women Taking the Lead to Save Our Planet," received the Society of Women Geographers' Gold Medal, and a top Purpose Prize from Civic Ventures. Dr. Blum has also played a groundbreaking role in women's mountaineering. She led the first American—and all-women's—ascent of Annapurna I, considered one of the world's most dangerous and difficult mountains, as well as the first women's team up Mt. McKinley.
Adaptive Peaks Seminar Series
Dr. Anne Magurran
Professor, Gatty Marine Laboratory, University of St Andrews, Fife, Scotland
Thursday | November 5, 2009 | 4 -5 pm | 5 Illick
Sponsored by the Departments of Forest and Environmental Biology,Forest and Natural Resources Management, and the ESF Women's Caucus
Dr. Magurran is Professor of Ecology and Evolution at the University of St. Andrews. She is interested in the measurement, evolution and conservation of biological diversity. Her research looks to link behavior and evolution,asking on the one hand how adaptive behavior evolves and on the other how behavior shapes the course of evolution. She is concerned with the conservation of freshwater fish biodiversity and is examining the role of behavior in the survival of endangered populations. Much of the work is based in the neotropics, particularly Trinidad, Mexico and Brasil, and in the UK.
Adaptive Peaks Seminar Series and Standing on the Shoulders of Giants Lecture
Dr. Meredith Gore
Assistant Professor, Department of Fisheries and Wildlife & School of Criminal Justice, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI
Thursday | March 4, 2010 | 4 - 5 pm | Marshall Auditorium
Sponsored by the Department of Forest and Environmental Biology, Graduate Student Association, and the ESF Women's Caucus
Dr. Gore's formal training is in the human dimensions of wildlife management, and environment and resource policy. She is a member of the Environmental Science and Policy Program (ESPP), serves as core faculty with the Center for Advanced International Development (CASID), and collaborate swith scholars in the MSU Risk Research Initiative and Office of Study Abroad. She also serves as core faculty for the Conservation Criminology certificate program, offered jointly by the Department of Fisheries & Wildlife and School of Criminal Justice. Her research interests focus on public perceptions of wildlife and environmental risk, human-wildlife conflict, community-based natural resource management, human dimensions of natural resource management, conservation criminology, and program evaluation.
Cross-disciplinary Seminar in Hydrological and Biogeochemical Processes
Dr. Kathleen Weathers
Senior Scientist, Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, Millbrook, NY and Program Director, Ecosystem Science Cluster, National Science Foundation, Arlington, VA
Fog, clouds and the maintenance of ecosystems: mist connections?
Tuesday | March 9, 2010 | 4 - 5 pm | 146 Baker
Sponsored by the Cross-disciplinary seminar in Hydrologial and Biogeochemical Processes, Department of Environmental and Forest Biology, and the ESF Women's Caucus, with assistance from the National Science Foundation
Forest and Natural Resources Management Departmental Seminar
Dr. Susan Stout (MS'84)
Research Project Leader, USDA Forest Service, Northeastern Research Station, Irvine, PA
Deer & Forests in Pennsylvania: Surprises from Long-term Research
Wednesday | March 24, 2010 | 12:45 pm | 110 Moon Library
Sponsored by the Department of Forest and Natural Resources Management and the ESF Alumni Association
Since 1981, Susan Stout has been employed as a research forester with the United States Forest Service Research Project located in Warren, PA. In 1991, she was named leader of the research team at that location. Her research interests include measuring crowding and diversity in forests, deer impact on forests, silvicultural systems, and translating results from ecosystem research into practical management guidelines for Pennsylvania's forests and beyond. Currently, she is collaborating with the Sand County Foundation and several landowners in a demonstration project called the Kinzua Quality Deer Cooperative. Landowners, land managers, hunters, and scientists are working together to improve both hunting and habitat on a 74,000 acre landscape in northwestern Pennsylvania. She is an active participant in the annual workshops in sustainable forestry offered by the Warren Forestry Sciences Laboratory team, and Coordinator of the Northeastern Research Station's Science Based Technology Applications Program.
Dr. Stout serves on the Pennsylvania State Bureau of Forestry Ecosystem Management Advisory Committee, and has served as the Chair of the Silviculture Working Group of the Society of American Foresters and on the Northeastern Research Station's Science Advisory Team. She serves on the adjunct faculty at the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry and the Pennsylvania State University. She was elected a Fellow of the Society of American Foresters in 2003. She has also served as the President of the League of Women Voters of Warren County.
Forest and Natural Resources Management Departmental Seminar
Dr. Laura Kenefic (MS '95)
Research Forester and Principal Silviculturalist, Center for Research on Ecosystem Change, USDA Forest Service and Faculty Associate, University of Maine, Orono.
Northern white cedar: what we know and why you should care
Wednesday | April 28, 2010 | 12:45 pm | 110 Moon Library
Sponsored by the Department of Forest and Natural Resources Management
Dr. Kenefic began her career with the U.S. Forest Service in 1994 and has been associated with the University of Maine faculty since 2000. Her research addresses ecology and management of mixed-species forests, especially northern conifers and northern hardwoods, with a focus on uneven-aged silviculture and other forms of partial cuttings.
Women in Scientific and Environmental Profession Speaker Series
Drs. Laura Kenefic (MS '95) & Susan Stout (MS '84)
USDA Forest Service, Northern Research Station, Bradley ME and Irvine, PA
USFS Civil Rights Special Project: Influences on Scientists' Career Pathways
Wednesday | April 28, 2010 | 5 pm | 110 Moon Library
Sponsored by the Department of Forest and Natural Resources Management and ESF Women's Caucus, with assistance from the US Forest Service
The primary goals of this project are to understand the diverse career pathways of scientists in the Northern Research Station, and to examine the role, if any, that gender plays in the scientists definitions, perceptions, and attainment of career goals. Drs. Kenefic and Stout, and their colleagues Cherie LeBlanc Fisher and Christel Kern surveyed scientists about career pathways, impact of mentoring, changes in family, and measures of job satisfaction.
Dr. Kenefic is Research Forester and Principal Silviculturalist, Center for Research on Ecosystem Change, USDA Forest Service and Faculty Associate, University of Maine, Orono. Her research addresses ecology and management of mixed-species forests, especially northern conifers and northern hardwoods, with a focus on uneven-aged silviculture and other forms of partial cutting.
Dr. Stout is Research Project Leader, USDA Forest Service, Northeastern Research Station, Irvine, PA. Her primary research interests include measuring crowding and diversity in forests, deer impact on forests, silvicultural systems, and translating results from ecosystem research into practical management guidelines for Pennsylvania's forests and beyond.
Spring 2009
Dr. Betsy Henry
Senior Managing Scientist, Exponent,
Mercury in the Onondaga Lake Remedy
Tuesday, February 24, 4-5 pm, 145 Baker Laboratory
Sponsored by the Department of Chemistry and the ESF Women's Caucus
With a broad background in the transport and fate of contaminants in the environment, Dr. Henry's specialty is in the transport, fate, and bioaccumulation of mercury in both terrestrial and aquatic systems. She has focused on assessment of mercury cycling and bioaccumulation in fresh and estuarine waters, mercury biogeochemistry in wetlands, mercury volatilization from contaminated soils, development of preliminary remediation goals for mercury in sediment and fish tissue for protection of wildlife and humans that consume fish, management options to control methylmercury formation, and residual risk analysis, including assessment of future concentrations of mercury in water and fish following remediation. Her experience includes management of investigations, risk assessment, and agency negotiations at some of the most prominent mercury sites in the country. More recently, she has worked closely with engineers.
Women in Science and Engineering Speaker Series
Ms. Molly Welker--CANCELLED
Ms. Welker's flight was among the many cancelled following the series of eruption
of Mt. Redoubt. Her rebooked flights were also affected. Molly was very much looking
forward to sharing her findings with the University community, meeting colleagues
in CNY, and discussing careers in science and engineering with our students. Unfortunately,
the end of the semester is fast approaching, and Redoubt remains active, so rescheduling
this visit is uncertain.
Senior Project Manager, Bristol Remediation Services, Anchorage, AK
Gold Mining versus Salmon Fisheries in Alaska: The Controversy over the Pebble Mine
Tuesday, March 31, 4-5 pm, Marshall Auditorium
Sponsored by the Office of Multicultural Affairs, Women in Science and Engineering
(Syracuse University), Department of Environmental and Forest Biology, and the ESF
Women's Caucus
Molly Welker is a hydrogeologist and Senior Project Manager for Bristol Environmental Remediation Services in Anchorage Alaska. Molly has developed and administered water quality and environmental monitoring programs for state and federal agencies for more than 20 years. She was previously an Environmental Scientist at HDR Alaska and the project manager for the baseline water quality program for the Pebble Mine in southwest Alaska. She also serves as the President of the Board of Directors of the non-profit organization, Anchorage Waterways Council. Before relocating to Alaska, she was with the Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory at Colorado State. She has a BS and MS in geology.
Dr. Ann Lemley
Professor, College of Human Ecology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY
Chemical Remediation of Contaminants in Water and Soil using Fenton Advanced Oxidation
Systems
Tuesday, April 7, 4-5 pm, 145 Baker
Sponsored by the Department of Chemistry and the ESF Women's Caucus
Ann T. Lemley is a Professor in the College of Human Ecology and is currently Chair of the Department of Fiber Science & Apparel Design. She is also a founding member of the Graduate Field of Environmental Toxicology. Her faculty appointment is a combination of Research and Outreach. Her research goal is to study the remediation of contaminants in the environment, particularly water and soil systems, in order to assess and decrease risks through removal or treatment. Projects have focused on pesticides, pharmaceuticals, and other organic contaminants. She and her group study advanced oxidation treatment methods, particularly the electrochemical Fenton method, including degradation kinetics, degradation products, and mechanisms. She is the author of over 60 papers in refereed journals and is on the Editorial Board of several journals. She is the former chair (2000) of the Agrochemical Division of the American Chemical Society and is currently a member of its Executive Committee. Her Outreach Program is conducted through Cornell Cooperative Extension and other outlets and focuses on environmental issues such as drinking water quality, protection of water, household chemicals, pesticides in the home, and household hazardous waste. She was recognized by the USDA with an IMPACT 2000 award for her Rural Water Quality Education Program. She is the author of an extensive library of educational facts sheets and other materials, many of which can be found on her Water Quality Website, http://waterquality.cce.cornell.edu/.
Spring 2008
Women in Science and Engineering & K. Douglas Nelson Lecture Series
Dr. Robin Bell
Doherty Senior Research Scientist, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University
Subglacial Lakes Linked to Ice Dynamics
Tuesday, March 4, 4 pm, Marshall Auditorium
Sponsored by Syracuse University's Department of Earth Sciences, Women in Science
and Engineering, and ESF Women's Caucus
Dr. Robin E. Bell is a Doherty Senior Research Scientist at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, where she directs major research programs on the Hudson River and Antarctica. She is also the Director of the ADVANCE program at the Earth Institute.
Dr. Bell has studied the mechanisms of ice sheet collapse and the chilly environments beneath the Antarctic ice sheet, including Lake Vostok, and she has led seven major aero-geophysical expeditions to Antarctica. After receiving her undergraduate degree from Middlebury College in Vermont, she built a 24-foot dory, which she sailed and rowed down the Hudson River past Lamont and Columbia on to Woods Hole where she worked for several years. Returning to the Hudson River Valley, she received her doctorate in marine geophysics from Columbia University. Presently she is chair of the National Academy of the Sciences Polar Research Board and Vice Chair of the
C. Eugene Farnsworth Lecture Series
Dr. Margaret Shannon
Associate Dean, The Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources, University
of Vermont
The Essential Role of Research for Sustainable Forest Management: Feminist Theory
and Practice
Friday, April 4, 3:30 pm, 146 Baker Laboratory
Sponsored by the Faculty of Forest and Natural Resource Management, the C. Eugene
Farnsworth Memorial Endowment and the ESF Women's Caucus
Dr. Shannon joined The Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources as Associate Dean and Professor in August 2007. She was previously at the State University of New York at Buffalo Law School (since 1999) where she was a Research Professor, Director of the Environmental Law Program, and Convener of the Environmental Governance and Stewardship Working Group in the Baldy Center for Law and Policy. Her husband, Dr. Errol Meidinger (the other NRLI Senior Fellow hired in 1979), accepted a position at SUNY Buffalo Law School in 1982 and she moved to Buffalo with their infant son, Chris. For several years, she consulted and did research through her firm – Resource Policy Analysis. In 1986, she joined the Faculty at SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse where she served as the policy professor and received tenure in 1991. In 1992, she could not resist an opportunity to return to the west. She joined the Faculty of Forest Resources as the Corkery Family Endowed Professor of Forest Resources at the University of Washington in Seattle in July 1992. She was the Professor of Forest Policy and Law at the UW as well as the Director of the Institute for Society and Natural Resources in the College. Unwilling to continue a cross-country commuting life with young children, in 1995 she left UW to return to Buffalo with her family. She joined the Department of Public Administration at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University at that point and cooperated with her colleagues at ESF from the other side of the campus. In 1999, she gave up the 'commuting life' for a while and served as a research professor in the SUNY Buffalo Law School where she was the Director of the Environmental Law Program, Convener of the Environmental Governance and Stewardship Working Group in the Baldy Center for Law and Social Policy.
Dr. Shannon was one of the first 'natural resource social scientists' specialized in policy and law. Her research and professional interests have always been focused on democratic practices within natural resources and environmental governance. Beginning in the 1970s, she focused on public land management planning and the place of public participation in policy planning and management decision-making. Beginning in the 1990s, she was part of early work on meaning of sustainability for forests. She was a member of the U.S. delegation of experts who developed the Montreal Process Criteria and Indicators for Sustainable Forest Management and was the initiator of Criteria Seven on Institutional and Legal factors. She was a co-leader of the social science team for the Forest Ecosystem Management Assessment Team that developed the scientific analysis for the Northwest Forest Plan in 1993. She was a Senior Fulbright Fellow at the Faculty of Forest and Environmental Science at the University of Freiburg , Germany in 1999 and is now a Professor-in-Honor there with a substantial doctoral program as well as regular teaching. She was a member of the EU COST Action E-19 on 'National forest programmes in a European context' and an advisor to the research action following it on 'New modes of governance for sustainable forest management in Europe.' She is currently working on emerging modes of governance in the Pacific NW as a result of changes since the NWFP in 1993.
Ms. Patricia Riexinger
Director of Fish, Wildlife, and Marine Resources, New York State Department of Environmental
Conservation, Albany, NY
Freshwater Wetlands: Conservation Policy in New York State
Tuesday, April 8, 4-5 pm, 146 Baker
Sponsored by the Environmental Studies Randolph G. Pack Environmental Institute and
the ESF Women's Caucus
Patricia Riexinger is the Director of the Division of Fish, Wildlife and Marine Resources at the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation. She has a B.S. degree in Wildlife Biology from Cornell University, and a M.S. degree in Biodiversity Conservation and Policy from the University of Albany. She began her career at DEC in 1976in the Waterfowl Management Unit, and then spent four years in the Endangered Species Unit as the reptile and amphibian specialist. In 1983, she took responsibility for coordinating and leading the Freshwater Wetlands Program, and along the path added responsibility for stream protection, the NY Natural Heritage Program, and sundry other conservation issues. She was appointed to the Director's position in September 2008. Pat is an avid outdoorsperson who loves to watch birds, snorkel, and travel. She has two teenaged kids, serves on her town Conservation Board, and leads a Girl Scout
Ms. Susan Crow
Packard Fellow, PlaceMatters, Denver, Co
Creating Resilient Communities: tools for regional land-use planning in the face of
coastal hazards in South Carolina
Tuesday, April 22, 4-5 pm, 146 Baker Laboratory
Sponsored by the Department of Landscape Architecture and the ESF Women's Caucus
Susan brings considerable experience in comprehensive planning, landscape ecology and participatory decision making to the PlaceMatters-David and Lucile Packard Foundation Fellowship. Since 1993, Susan has applied GIS and other technologies to help communities better understand growth implications and envision alternative futures. As a member of the public service faculty of the Institute of Government and the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences at the University of Georgia, Susan was the Principal Investigator for a three-year Coastal Incentive Grant Program project, Visualizing Land Cover and Land Use Changes on the Georgia Coast (www.nespal.org/gtl). As a Senior Program Specialist Susan participated on ESRI's spatial modeling team from 1999 to 2001. She has been a Visiting Fellow at the Coastal Institute at the University of Rhode Island and an invited speaker at various universities and professional meetings. Currently she serves on the National Science Foundation Advisory Committee for AgrowKnowledge: The National Center for Agriscience & Technology Education at Kirkwood Community College (Ohio). She has been peer reviewer for professional journals and conference submissions, and for three years served as an Associate Editor of Wetlands, the Journal of the Society of Wetland Scientists. Susan obtained a Master of Landscape Architecture with Distinction from The University of Georgia and an A.B. in Psychology with High Honors from Smith College. Presently, she is an Ecology doctoral candidate at the University of Georgia. Her research interests include assessing the influence of various technologies on community and regional planning and decision making processes; citizen participation in environmental planning and policy development, and; effectiveness of incentive-based programs in achieving public policy initiatives for land conservation.
Spring 2007
Dr. Lauren Heine
Director of Applied Science, GreenBlue, Charlottesville, VA
Green Chemistry and Cradle to Cradle Product Design
Tuesday | February 6 | 4-5 pm | 140 Baker Laboratory
Sponsored by the Faculty of Chemistry, Faculty of Paper and Bioprocess Engineering
and the ESF Women's Caucus
Dr. Lauren Heine has extensive experience in the areas of sustainability and green chemistry. As Director of Applied Science at GreenBlue, she guides the development of technical tools and approaches that help organizations integrate Green Chemistry and Engineering into their product and process design and development activities -- eliminating toxics and the concept of waste, and moving toward economic, environmental and community sustainability. Dr. Heine is currently directing the development of CleanGredients™ and the Sustainable Textile Metrics standard. Both of these projects are multi-stakeholder initiatives. CleanGredients is an information platform that promotes green chemistry by providing human and environmental health, safety and sustainability information on cleaning product ingredients to support environmentally preferable product formulation. The Sustainable Textiles Metrics are being developed as a standard for contract textiles in collaboration with the Association for Contract Textiles and NSF International. Dr. Heine consults and publishes on issues related to green chemistry, alternatives assessment and sustainable material flows. She was previously Director of Green Chemistry and Engineering at the Portland, OR-based, Zero Waste Alliance (ZWA) and a Fellow with the American Association for the Advancement of Science in the Green Chemistry Program of the Industrial Chemicals Branch of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in Washington, D.C. Prior to that, Dr. Heine taught Organic Chemistry labs at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, ME where she helped to develop the Microscale Organic Lab program. Dr. Heine earned her doctorate in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Duke University.
Women in Science and Engineering-Syracuse University Speaker Series
Dr. Brenda Ekwurzel
Climate Scientist, Global Environment Program, Union of Concerned Scientists, Washington,
DC
Global warming: the science behind the headlines
Tuesday, March 6, 4-5 pm, Marshall Hall Auditorium
Presented by Syracuse University's WISE initiative, Syracuse University Graduate School,
SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, and the ESF Women's Caucus
Dr. Sharon Todd
Associate Professor, Recreation and Leisure Studies, and Co-Director, Outdoor Recreation
Practicum, SUNY Cortland
Cut from the Same Cloth:Quiltmakers, SCUBA Divers, and Outdoor Adventurists. Taking
Your Leisure Seriously!
Tuesday, April 10, 4-5 pm, 140 Baker Laboratory
Sponsored by SUNY-ESF and the ESF Women's Caucus
Dr. Sharon Todd specializes in the social psychology of leisure, outdoor recreation and research methods. She received a B.S in Business Administration and a BS in Recreation from Southern Illinois University, and MS in Recreation and Parks and a PhD in Leisure Studies from The Pennsylvania State University. Her leisure interests include a year-round range of outdoor sports.
Dr. Rosemary O'Leary
Distinguished Professor of Public Administration and Co-Director, Program for the
Analysis and Resolution of Conflict, Maxwell School, Syracuse University
Managing Guerilla Government: Scientists' Dissent in Environmental Organizations
Tuesday, April 17, 4-5 pm, 140 Baker Laboratory
Sponsored by SUNY ESF and the ESF Women's Caucus
Rosemary O'Leary is Distinguished Professor of Public Administration at Syracuse University. She also serves as the Co-Director, Program for the Analysis and Resolution of Conflict, and Senior Research Associate in Syracuse University's Campbell Public Affairs Institute and Center for Environmental Policy and Administration.. An elected member of the U.S. National Academy of Public Administration, she was a senior Fulbright scholar in Malaysia in 1998-1999 and the Philippines in 2005-2006. Previously O'Leary was professor of public and environmental affairs at Indiana University and co-founder and co-director of the Indiana Conflict Resolution Institute. From 2003-2005, O'Leary was a member of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Return to Flight Task Group assembled in response to the Columbia space shuttle accident. In 2004, she also served as a member of NASA's Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel. O'Leary has worked as a consultant to the U.S. Department of the Interior, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Institute for Environmental Conflict Resolution, the National Science Foundation, the National Academy of Sciences, the Indiana Department of Environmental Management, and the International City/County Management Association. She has worked as an attorney and as an administrator in Kansas state government. O'Leary's areas of expertise include Public Management, Environmental Policy, Dispute Resolution, and Law. She is nationally recognized for her teaching, research, and service.
Spring 2006
Dr. Joanne Westphal
Professor, School of Planning, Design, and Construction, Michigan State University
Gardens, Medicine & Health Care: Past, Present, and Future
Tuesday, February 7, 4-5 pm, 140 Baker Laboratory
Sponsored by the Faculty of Landscape Architecture, Graduate Student Association and
the ESF Women's Caucus
Dr. Joanne Westphal, ASLA, AMA, AOA is a practicing landscape architect and licensed physician in Michigan. A member of the School of Planning, Design, and Construction at Michigan State University, her specialty areas involve environmental design, therapeutic site design, regional landscape design, and research methodology. Dr. Westphal has focused on issues of health in the built environment, including design that complements medical treatment protocols, post-construction evaluation of therapeutic site designs, landscape and environmental issues affecting human health, and resource sustainability and open space protection.
Dr. Lorna Gibson
Matoula S. Salapatas Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, MIT, Cambridge,
MA
Biomimicking: Engineering Design from Natural Structures
Tuesday, February 14, 4-5 pm, 140 Baker Laboratory
Sponsored by the Faculty of Environmental Resources and Forest Engineering, Graduate
Student Association and the ESF Women's Caucus
Professor Lorna J. Gibson received her Bachelor of Applied Science degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Toronto in 1978 and her PhD from the University of Cambridge in 1981. From 1982-84 she was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of British Columbia. She joined the MIT faculty in 1984, where she is currently the Matoula S. Salapatas Professor of Materials Science and Engineering. Her research interests focus on the mechanical behaviour of highly porous materials with a cellular structure, such as engineering foams, trabecular bone and scaffolds used in tissue engineering. She is the co-author, with Professor MF Ashby, of the book "Cellular Solids: Structure and Properties". She has been active in MIT's gender equity efforts, chairing the Committee on Women Faculty in the School of Engineering. Other interests include bicycling touring, walking Toblerone, her chocolate Labrador, baking and gardening.
Dr. Nancy Grulke
Plant Ecophysiologist, Pacific Southwest Research Station Forest Fire Laboratory,
Riverside, CA
Air pollution and the Californian wildfires: an insidious link
Tuesday, March 28, 4-5 pm, 140 Baker Laboratory
Sponsored by the Faculty of Environmental and Forest Biology, Graduate Student Association
and the ESF Women's Caucus
Dr. Nancy E. Grulke received a B.Sc. in Botany from Duke University in 1978,and a Ph.D. in Botany from the University of Washington in 1983. She is currently a physiological ecologist and Project Leader, Atmospheric Deposition on Western Ecosystems,at the Pacific Southwest Research Station, USDA Forest Service, in Riverside, California. She specializes in whole tree responses to atmospheric pollution (O3, CO2, N deposition) and drought stress in mixed conifer forests of California.
23rd Annual C. Eugene Farnsworth Memorial
Sally Fairfax
Henry J. Vaux Distinguished Professor of Forest Policy, College of Natural Resources,
University of California-Berkeley
The Erosion of Public Space: Acquiring and Allocating Conservation Lands
Friday, April 7, 3:00 pm, 140 Baker Laboratory
Sponsored by the Faculty of Forest and Natural Resources Management, Graduate Student
Association and the ESF Women's Caucus .
Professor Fairfax has taught natural resource law and policy at the University of California, Berkeley, College of Natural Resources for over 20 years. She specializes in land conservation and management and has published extensively on legal aspects of administration and related federalism issues. She began her career focusing on federal resource management agencies and is author with Samuel Trask Dana of Forest and Range Policy and with Carolyn Yale of The Federal Lands. She is also a student of state lands and land management and is author, with Jon Souder, of State Trust Lands. She is presently focused on changing institutions of land conservation and management, the dispersion and devolution of federal authority, and is author, with Darla Guenzler of Conservation Trusts. Working with several graduate students, she has just completed a new book entitled: Buying Nature: The Limits to Land Acquisition As A Conservation Tool From 1780 To 2002. She is presently working on a book about food production systems and land conservation. She is an avid nature and underwater photographer and a nascent block printer.
2004 - 2005
Nature/Religion/Knowledge/Politics Speaker Series
Dr. Ursula Goodenough
Professor, Biology, Washington University, St. Louis
Exploring the Concept of Religious Naturalism
Thursday, Oct. 28, 7 pm, 1916 Bird Library
Sponsored by EnSPIRE, Syracuse University's Departments of Biology and Religion, and
Religion and Society Program, and ESF Women's Caucus
Leading cell biologist and Washington University professor of biology Ursula Goodenough, is the author of a bestselling textbook, Genetics, and also wrote the popular discourse on religion and science The Sacred Depths of Nature, which was named Outstanding Academic Book of 1999 by Choice. She has served as president of both the Society of Cell Biologists and the Institute on Religion in an Age of Science. Dr. Goodenough and her colleagues study the molecular basis and evolution of life-cycle transitions in the flagellated green alga, Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. They have cloned genes in the mating-type (mt) locus and genes regulated by mt that control the transition between vegetative growth and gametic differentiation and zygote development. These include genes responsible for mate recognition, uniparental inheritance of chloroplast DNA, and gametic differentiation, allowing them to study their function and their evolution during speciation. Dr. Goodenough earned a BS in biology from Radcliffe College in 1963, MS in biology at Columbia University in 1965, and PhD from Harvard in 1969. In this presentation, Goodenough asks: What is the religious potential of our scientific understandings of nature and of the human's place within nature? She will suggest some ways to think about the word "religious," and will present a variety of responses to this question from the perspective of religious naturalism
Dr. Caryl Fish (CHE '91) Associate Professor, Chemistry, St. Vincent College, Latrobe, PA
Abandoned Mine Drainage: A Resource for Undergraduate Education
Tuesday, February 22, 4 - 5 pm, 140 Baker Laboratory
Sponsored by the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, Faculty of Chemistry,
ESF Alumni Association, ESF Graduate Association, and ESF Women's Caucus
Dr. Fish is an Associate Professor of Analytical and Environmental Chemistry at St. Vincent College. She does research with undergraduate students on abandoned mine drainage and reclamation. Dr. Fish is also the director of St. Vincent's Summer Institute in Watershed Restoration and its Environmental Education Center. Dr. Fish earned her B.S. from Manchester College, MBA at the University of Dayton, and Ph.D. from SUNY-CESF.
Diversity Council Lecture Series and CGMA Speaker Series
Dr. Ann-Margaret Esnard
Associate Professor, Department of City and Regional Planning, Cornell University,
Ithaca, NY
The Nexus of Disasters, GIS and Land Use Strategies
Tuesday, March 22, 4-5 pm, 140 Baker Laboratory&
Environmental Justice in Real and Virtual Communities
Wednesday, March 23, 9-10 am, 313 Bray Hall
Sponsored by the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, ESF Graduate
Student Association, ESF Women's Caucus, ESF's Council of GeoSpatial Modeling and
Analysis, and the ESF Diversity Council/Office of Multicultural Affairs
Dr. Esnard is an Associate Professor of City and Regional Planning and Director, GEDDeS Computer Lab, at Cornell University. Her most recent projects have focused on hazard mitigation planning, and decision tools for post-disaster planning. She directed the natural hazards and vulnerability mapping project for eleven New York Counties and for the Tompkins County chapter of the American Red Cross. She is the co-author of the Hypothetical City workbook and has written on other topics that include quality of life and holistic disaster recovery, spatial analysis of New York metropolitan urban expansion, vulnerability assessments of coastal and flood hazards, public participation GIS, GIS education, and ethics.
Ms. Frances Dunwell Director, Hudson River Estuary Program, NYDEC, New Paltz, NY
Transforming the Hudson River
Tuesday, March 29, 4-5 pm, 140 Baker Laboratory
Sponsored by the the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, ESF Graduate Student Association, ESF Women's he Faculty of Environmental and Forest
Biology
Ms. Dunwell serves as a Special assistant to the commissioner for the Hudson River Valley at NYS Department of Environmental Conservation where she directs the implementation of the Hudson River Estuary Plan. She is also author of The Hudson River Highlands an award-winning book on the region's natural and cultural history.
22nd Annual C. Eugene Farnsworth Memorial Lecture and Fellowship Ceremony
Dr. Ann Bartuska
Deputy Chief of Research and Development, US Forest Service, Washington, DC
Setting the Stage: A National and Global Perspective on Non-Native, Invasive Species
Friday, April 15, 3:00 pm, 140 Baker Laboratory
Sponsored by the Faculty of Forest and Natural Resources Management and ESF Women's
Caucus with the assistance of the US Forest Service
Ann Bartuska is the Forest Service's deputy chief for research and development. In this position she directs the agency's research efforts to promote ecologically sound management of these nation's natural resources, serve the nation's private forest landowners, and investigate new ways to process and recycle biomass into products. Prior to this, Bartuska directed the Invasive Species Initiative at The Nature Conservancy and worked for the Forest Service for 14 years in positions with research and development; state and private forestry, as the director of forest health protection; and the National Forest System, as the agency's first director of ecosystem management. She currently is on the board of the Council of Scientific Society Presidents and is past-president of the Ecological Society of America.
Spring 2004
Dr. Deborah Swackhamer Professor, School of Public Health, University of Minnesota--Twin Cities
Estrogen Mimics and Sex Education for Fishes
Tuesday, January 27, 4-5 pm, 140 Baker Laboratory
Sponsored by the Faculties of Chemistry and Environmental and Forest Biology, ESF
Graduate Student Association, SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry,
and the ESF Women's Caucus.
Dr. Deborah L. Swackhamer is a Professor of Environmental Chemistry in the Division of Environmental and Occupational Health in the School of Public Health, and serves as Co-Director of the Water Resources Center, at the University of Minnesota. She received a BA in Chemistry from Grinnell College (Grinnell, IA) and a MS and PhD from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in Water Chemistry and Limnology & Oceanography, respectively. After two years post-doctoral research in Chemistry and Public & Environmental Affairs at Indiana University, she joined the Minnesota faculty in 1987. She has studied the processes affecting the behavior and fate of persistent organic compounds including PCBs, dioxins, and pesticides in the Great Lakes for the past 20 years, including sediment accumulation, source determinations, water column processes, and food web bioaccumulation. Her current research is focused on developing chemical indicators of ecological condition for coastal zones of the Great Lakes, and on exposures and impacts of endocrine disruptors. She currently sits on the Science Advisory Board of the International Joint Commission of the US and Canada, chairs the Science and Technology Advisory Committee for the Great Lakes Environmental and Molecular Sciences Center at Western Michigan University, and serves on the Advisory Board for the National Undersea Research Program of NOAA for the North Atlantic-Great Lakes region.
Dr. Karla Henderson
Professor and Chair, Department of Recreation and Leisure Studies
University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill
Leisure and the (Secret) Lives of Women and Girls
Tuesday, February 17, 4-5 pm, 140 Baker Laboratory
Sponsored by the Faculty of Forest and Natural Resources and The Kaleidoscope Project,
a diversity initiative between the Division of Academic Affairs and Student Affairs
to broaden the understanding of diversity and promote healthy dialogue about related
issues at Syracuse University, ESF Graduate Student Association, SUNY College of Environmental
Science and Forestry, and the ESF Women's Caucus.
Dr. Henderson is currently Professor and Chair in the Department of Recreation and Leisure Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where her research focuses on women's leisure, social psychology of leisure, camping, research methodologies. She has been on the faculty at Minnesota, University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Texas Woman's University. She publishes regularly in a variety of journals in the field and has authored or co-authored several books: Both Gains and Gaps (with Bialeschki, Shaw,and Freysinger), Dimensions of Choice, Volunteers in Leisure (with Tedrick), Introduction to Leisure Services (with Sessoms), and Evaluation of Leisure Services (with Bialeschki).Dr. Henderson has served as president of SPRE, president of the AAHPERD Research Consortium, and on numerous editorial boards. She has been the recipient of the JB NashScholar Award, the Julian Smith Award, the NCRPS Special Citation, the ACA Honor Award,and the NRPA Roosevelt Excellence in Research Award.
Diana Bendz (CHE '68)
Senior Location Executive, IBM Corporation, Endicott, NY
Environmentally Friendly Computers: New Concepts of Design, (Re)Use and Recycle
Tuesday, March 2, 4-5 pm, 140 Baker Laboratory
Sponsored by the Faculty of Chemistry, ESF Graduate Student Association, SUNY College
of Environmental Science and Forestry, and the ESF Women's Caucus, with the assistance
of IBM.
Ms. Bendz has been with IBM for 34 years, beginning as a process engineer during the early days of semi-conductor production. Through the years, she filled diverse roles throughout the company until named an executive in 1991. In this position, she developed IBM's much duplicated program for the design, manufacture, and disposition of environmentally conscious products. She currently serves as the senior executive at IBM's Endicott location. Bendz has lectured extensively on the technical aspects of electronics in the environment. The ESF Alumna (Chemistry 1968) serves on the advisory board of Syracuse University's College of Engineering and Computer Science and Binghamton University's Engineering and Management School.
Dr. Christine Sloane
Director, FreedomCAR and Technology Strategy, General Motors Inc.,Warren, MI
Sustainable Transportation: Hydrogen and Fuel-Cell Cars
Tuesday, April 6, 2004, 4-5 pm, 140 Baker Laboratory
Sponsored by the Office of Student Affairs and Educational Services, ESF Graduate
Student Association, SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, and the ESF
Women's Caucus.
Dr. Christine Sloane is the Director of FreedomCAR and Technology Strategy at General Motors Corporation, and their former Director of Environmental Policy and Programs. She is responsible for global climate issues and for mobile emission issues involving advanced technology vehicles. Advanced technology vehicles include vehicles with hybrid-electric, fuel-cell and advanced compression-ignition systems. From1994 to 2000, Dr. Sloane served as Chief Technologist for the Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles (PNGV) where she was responsible for guiding and implementing the development of energy conversion and materials technologies for use in the Precept, GM's 80 mile-per-gallon 5-passenger demonstration vehicle. Her earlier research interests included aerosol chemistry and physics, air quality and visibility, manufacturing & vehicle emissions, and environmental policy. Dr. Sloane received her PhD from MIT in chemical physics.
Dr. Sandra Steingraber
Distinguished Visiting Scholar, Ithaca College, Ithaca, NY
Women's Bodies as the First Environment: Ecological Threats to Pregnancy, Childbirth,
and Breast Milk
Wednesday, April 14, 4 pm, Marshall Auditorium
Followed by a panel discussion at 5 pm, and a reception and book signing--Sandra Steingraber,
2001, Having Faith: An Ecologist's Journey to Motherhood, Berkley Publishing Group,and
1997, Living Upstream: An Ecologist Looks at Cancer and the Environment, Perseus Books
at 6 pm
Spring 2003
Dr. Susan Powers, PhD, PE
Professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Clarkson University, Potsdam, NY
Ethanol in your Gasoline: Energy and Environmental Implications
Tuesday, February 4, 4-5 pm, 140 Baker Laboratory
Sponsored by the Faculty of Environmental Resources and Forest Engineering, Graduate
Student Association, SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, and the ESF
Women's Caucus
Dr. Susan Powers’ area of interest includes understanding the physical and chemical phenomena associated with multiphase flow and contaminant transport in subsurface systems, with specific emphasis on the fate, transport, and remediation of non aqueous phase liquids (NAPLs) in complex systems. Her current research projects include the complexities associated with aquifer heterogeneties and non-ideal chemical mixtures such as coal tars and oxygenated gasoline. Her classes at Clarkson cover the physical and chemical principles affecting the transport and treatment of pollutants. Dr. Powers is also the director of the Clarkson K-12 Project - Based Learning Partnership Program. This program places Clarkson students in local middle schools to teach a science and technology curriculum that focuses on solving environmental problems. She holds a BS in Chemical Engineering and a MS in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Clarkson, and a PhD from the University of Michigan. She joined the faculty of Clarkson in 1992.
Dr. Laura Musacchio (LA BS '89, MLA)
Assistant Professor, School of Planning and Landscape Architecture, Center for Environmental
Studies, and Central Arizona-Phoenix Long-Term Ecological Research Project
Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ
The Dynamics of Cities as Ecosystems and Places: The Challenge of Integrating Ecological
Knowledge into Urban River Corridor Design, Planning, and Policy
Tuesday, February 25, 4-5 p, 140 Baker Laboratory
Sponsored by the Faculty of Landscape Architecture, Graduate Student Association,
SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, and the ESF Women's Caucus
Dr. Musacchio's interests focus on the development of knowledge about the human dimensions of landscape ecology and urban ecology. Her interests have been influenced by her academic experiences in landscape architecture (BLA, magna cum laude, and MLA, SUNY-ESF) as well as landscape ecology, mapping sciences, and environmental planning/policy (Ph.D. Urban and Regional Sciences, Texas A&M University at College Station). Her current investigations focus on the modeling of the dynamics of planned and designed landscapes as self-organized systems within an ecoregional context. the design and planning processes, can affect the spatial and functional heterogeneity of urban patterns and how changes in these patterns affect ecosystem health and services such as water quality, wildlife habitat quality, visual quality, and recreational access quality. Through her scientific investigations, she seeks to contribute to new knowledge and innovations in the development of sustainable communities. Her current research projects include the Rio Alamar Urban River Restoration Project in Tijuana, Mexico and landscape change of suburbanizing floodplains and watersheds in the Phoenix metropolitan region. Her research has been recently published in Landscape and Urban Planning and in Ecological Modeling.
Ms. Virginia Silver
Laboratory Director, Research and Development, Corporate Research Center
International Paper, Tuxedo, NY
Career Paths in Science: Who leads? Who manages?
Tuesday, April 8, 4-5 pm, 110 Moon Library
Sponsored by the Faculty of Paper Science Engineering, Graduate Student Association,
SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, and the ESF Women's Caucus, with
the assistance of International Paper
Ms. Silver is an Analytical Chemist by education and experience and has worked for International Paper for twenty years in the Research and Development area. The past fifteen years have been spent leading the quality process, directing the training and education department, and in management development. For the last three years, she has been the facility director for IP's Corporate Research Center. She works closely with pulp and paper scientists to tackle tough management situations and to create positive outcomes. A significant portion of her career has been in improving the management skills of others. She is a graduate of SUNY Albany.
Great Lakes Research Consortium Speaker Series
Dr. Christiane Hudon
Research Scientist and Research Program Coordinator, Centre Saint-Laurent
Environment Canada, Montréal, QC
Managing St. Lawrence River discharge in times of climatic uncertainty: how water
quantity impacts wildlife, recreation, and the economy
Tuesday, April 22, 4-5 pm, 140 Baker Laboratory
Sponsored by the Great Lakes Research Consortium, Graduate Student Association, SUNY
College of Environmental Science and Forestry, and the ESF Women's Caucus
Dr. Hudon currently coordinates Environment Canada’s Program (Quebec Region) assessing the impacts of water level variations on St. Lawrence River ecosystems. This program comprises about 20 scientists from federal and provincial levels of governments and is a part of the third Phase of the St. Lawrence Vision 2000 Action Plan (1998-2003). She also carries out research on St. Lawrence River wetlands diversity and productivity. Dr. Hudon holds a Ph.D. in Biological Oceanography from Laval University (1982). After a post-doctoral appointment at University of Waterloo (1983), she was hired as a research scientist at the department of Fisheries and Oceans, where her studies were concentrated on population dynamics of lobster (1984-86, 1991-93) and Arctic fisheries exploration and development (northern shrimp, arctic char, whitefish) (1987-90). She has been a research scientist since 1993 and Research Program Coordinator since 1998 at the St. Lawrence Centre of Environment Canada in Montreal. She is also affiliated with the Département de Sciences biologiques at the Université de Montréal and the GRIL - a multi-University Group in Limnological Research.
Dr. Devra Lee Davis, MPH, PhD
Finalist for 2002 National Book Award in Non-fiction When Smoke Ran Like Water
Documentary film excerpts from PBS and discussion of her book.
Thursday, May 1, 12-1 pm, Weiskotten Hall, SUNY Upstate Medical University, 766 Irving
Ave.
Sponsored by Faculty Interested in Environmental and Occupational Disease, the Central
NY Occupational Health Clinic, the ESF Women’s Caucus, and the Upstate Chapter of
American Medical Students Association (AMSA).
Dr. Davis is a former Scholar in Residence of the National Academy of Sciences, and President- appointed member of the National Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board . She is currently a Visiting Professor of Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon University and a Senior Advisor to the World Health Organization. She is also a leading environmental epidemiologist working on breast cancer, reproductive health, and the links between fossil fuels and public health.
Spring 2002
Dr. Eleanor Sterling Director, Center for Biodiversity and Conservation,
American Museum of Natural History, New York, NY
Conserving biodiversity in Viet Nam and Bolivia: The need for adaptive management
Tuesday, January 29, 4-5 pm, 140 Baker Laboratory
Sponsored by the Faculty of Environmental and Forest Biology, SUNY College of Environmental
Science and Forestry, and the ESF Women's Caucus.
Dr. Eleanor Sterling is Director of the Center for Biodiversity and Conservation at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, where she administers all Center activities and establishes program priorities and directions for the activities. She also continues to directly lead the development and coordination of the Center's international field projects and the development of the project "Conservation Biology Curriculum Materials for Tropical Countries". Dr. Sterling has worked for several international conservation organizations, and has more than 15 years of field research experience in Africa, Asia and Latin America, where she conducted surveys and censuses, as well as behavioral, ecological, and genetic studies of primates, whales, and other mammals. She has extensive expertise developing environmental education programs and professional development workshops, having trained teachers, students, and U.S. Peace Corps volunteers in a variety of aspects related to biodiversity conservation. For the last four years, she has served as an adjunct professor at Columbia University, where she has taught classes in conservation biology (undergraduate, graduate and adult education). She earned her Ph.D. in Anthropology and Forestry and Environmental Studies at Yale University.
Dr. Marla R. Emery Research Geographer, USDA Forest Service,
Northeastern Research Station, Burlington, VT
Living by gathering in a forested landscape: non-timber forest products in the Northeast
Tuesday, February 19, 4-5 pm, 140 Baker Laboratory.
Sponsored by the Faculty of Forest and Natural Resources Management, SUNY College
of Environmental Science and Forestry, and the ESF Women's Caucus with the assistance
of the US Forest Service.
Marla R. Emery is a Research Geographer with the Northeastern Research Station of the USDA Forest Service, where her research focuses on the role of non-timber forest products (NTFPs) in household economies and other direct human-forest interactions. She conducted the first comprehensive study of contemporary NTFP use in the United States, for which she spent a year in Michigan's Upper Peninsula conducting ethnographic research that documented the material uses of 138 products from over 80 botanical species and the livelihood practices associated with them. She is currently repeating that work in the northeastern United States as well as conducting research on fine-scale land use in the Adirondack Park region of New York. Dr. Emery also serves as Adjunct Associate Professor in the University of Vermont's Department of Geography. Her past duties with the Forest Service have included developing an agenda for research on the human dimensions of global environmental change for the Forest Service's Northern Global Change Program.
Dr. Emery came to the Forest Service from the National Research Council (NRC) in Washington DC, where she served as Staff Officer for the U.S. National Committee for the International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction. During her four years at the NRC, she worked extensively with international organizations and agencies of the U.S. Federal Government. She also spoke to groups in the United States and abroad about natural disaster reduction. Before joining the staff of the NRC she worked for eight years as an educator.
Dr. Emery has a B.A. in French/Spanish from San José State University, California, and a Master's of Science in Education from the University of Miami, Florida. She received her Ph.D. in Geography at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey.
Dr. Audrey Zink-Sharp (WPE '92) Associate Professor, Wood Mechanics, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University,
Blacksburg, VA
Architecture of a wood cell wall: concentric rings or helical plates?
March 5, 4-5 pm, 140 Baker Laboratory
Sponsored by the Faculty of Construction Management and Wood Products Engineering,
SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, and the ESF Women's Caucus, with
the assistance of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
Dr. Audrey Zink-Sharp is Associate Professor, Wood Mechanics, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA. Dr. Zink-Sharp's expertise is in wood anatomy, wood structure and property relations, and digital image analysis and experimental mechanics. She serves as coordinator of Virginia Tech's "Wood Magic Show", an educational program about the science and magic in wood and forest products targeted at third-, fourth-, and fifth graders. Her recent research and teaching projects have focused on Stereoscopic Video Microscopy in Wood Science, Moisture Distribution and Flow During Drying of Wood and Fiber, and Influence of Specific Gravity on Truss Plate Tooth Withdrawal. She has developed a workshop titled: "Education and Research in Wood Science and Natural Resources" for the College of Forestry and Wildlife Resources.
She also serves as a consultant for wood identification to Champion International, Courtland, Alabama University. She has served in various capacities the Forest Products Society, Society for Experimental Mechanics, Society of Wood Science & Technology. She was the 1994 Oak Ridge Associated Universities Junior Faculty Enhancement Award winner.
Dr. Zink-Sharp earned her BS in Wood Sciences and MS in Wood Anatomy at Colorado State University. She completed her Ph.D. in Wood Products Engineering in 1992 at ESF.
19th Annual C. Eugene Farnsworth Memorial Lecture and Fellowship Ceremony
Dr. Susan Stafford (FOR MS '75, PhD '79)
Forest Sciences Department Head and Professor of Applied Statistics and Research Information
Management, Colorado State University
Facing the Future: Meeting the Information Challenges for Natural Resources Management
April 9, 3-4:30 pm, 140 Baker Laboratory
Co-sponsored by the Faculty of Forest and Natural Resources Management, SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, and the ESF Women's Caucus
Dr. Stafford's research interests include: research information management, applied statistics, multivariate analysis and experimental design, scientific databases, GIS applications, and other data management topics. She earned a B.S. in Biology and Mathematics (Magna Cum Laude) at Syracuse University in 1974, a M.S. in Quantitative Ecology at SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry (ESF) in 1975, and a Ph.D. in Applied Statistics at ESF in 1979.
Please join us in welcoming Dr. Stafford back to Syracuse!
Dr. Ellen Druffel
Professor, Earth Systems Science Department, UC-Irvine
Unstable oceans and the long memory of coral reefs
Tuesday, April 16, 4-5 pm, 140 Baker Laboratory.
Sponsored by the Faculty of Chemistry, SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry,
and the ESF Women's Caucus.
Professor Ellen R. M. Druffel is Professor of Earth Systems Science, University of California, Irvine, CA with a joint position at Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Dr. Druffel is internationally known in the area of earth systems science. Her research interests include the cycling of organic carbon between the surface and deep ocean, and determination of past changes in circulation and ventilation in the upper ocean.
Dr. Druffel earned her Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of California, San Diego in 1980. She has formerly served as a member of the National Academy of Science's Ocean Studies Board, as a participant of numerous scientific voyages, and as a scientist with the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. She is an Associate Editor of Oceanography, a Councilor of The Oceanography Society, and chair of the new Honors and Recognition Committee of the American Geophysical Union (AGU).
Spring 2001
Dr. JoAnn Burkholder
Professor and Director, Center for Applied Aquatic Ecology, NCSU
The Toxic Pfiesteria Complex: A Story of Water Pollution, Fish Kills and Human Health at the Science/Policy
Border
January 30, 5 Illick Hall
Sponsored by SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry and the ESF Women's
Caucus
Dr. JoAnn M. Burkholder's world-renowned research has emphasized the nutritional ecology of algae, dinoflagellates, and seagrasses, especially the effects of nutrient pollution on algal blooms and seagrass disappearance. She has held policy-advising positions on the Governor-appointed North Carolina Coastal Futures Committee, and has serves as Chair of the Habitat and Water Quality Committee on the North Carolina Marine Fisheries Commission and as science advisor on a governor-appointed Pfiesteria Commission in Maryland. Her research and environmental education efforts have earned an Admiral of the Chesapeake Award, the Conservationist of the Year Award in Science from the National Wildlife Federation, and the Scientific Freedom and Responsibility Award from the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Dr. Marilyn L. Fogel
Senior Scientist, Geophysical Laboratory, Carnegie Institution of Washington
Searching for Life on Mars--Would we recognize it, if we found it? Chemical Clues
to Life
February 20, 5 Illick Hall
Sponsored by SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry and the ESF Women's
Caucus
Dr. Fofel is a senior scientist in the Geophysical laboratory at the Carnegie Institution of Washington and an adjunct professor at the University of Delaware College of Marine Studies. She uses sophisticated mass-spectrometry techniques and ion microprobes to study evolutionary biology and the history of the earth. She received a BS in biology from The Pennsylvania State University, and a PhD in Botany (Marine Science) from the University of Texas at Austin. She has also held professional and research appointments at the Smithsonian Institution, Dartmouth College, and George Washington University.
Dr. Susan Stout (FOR MS '84)
Research Project Leader, USDA Forest Service,
Northeastern Research Station, Irvine, PA
Are we asking the right questions? Thoughts about a silviculture and biophysical forestry
research agenda for North America
March 27, 5 Illick Hall
Sponsored by the Faculty of Forestry, SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry
and the ESF Women's Caucus
As project leader of the Forestry Sciences Laboratory, USDA Forest Service, Northeastern Research Station, Irvine, PA, Dr. Susan Stout's responsibilities include coordinating the research efforts of the entire team and its research partnerships. Personal research includes studies of the responses of forests to uneven-age, two-age and even-age silviculture, of measures of relative density or stocking and their ecological meaning, and of deer impact and its interaction with deer management strategies. She is also active in the unit's technology transfer program, including training sessions, updating the SILVAH decision support software, and coordinating the unit's contributions to NED decision support programs. Dr. Stout is an alumna; she earned her Master's degree in silviculture at the College.
Frances Spivy-Weber Exec. Director of the Mono Lake Committee, Lee Vining, CA
Environmental Organizing: a woman's local, national, and international leadership
experience
April 17, Moon Library Conference Room
Sponsored by SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry and the ESF Women's
Caucus
Ms. Spivy-Weber has had thirty years in environmental policy work, including international, national, regional, and statewide experience with a wide range of environmental issues (forests, oceans and coasts, wildlife, land use, and water). In her current position, she manages an organization serving 15,000 members, and serves on local and state steering or advisory committees of the Environmental Water Caucus, California Urban Water Conservation Council, Clean Water Action and Clean Water Fund, Governor's Advisory Drought Planning Panel, and she is the Convener for Southern California Water Dialogue. Frances is also a doctoral student at the Johns Hopkins School for Advanced International Studies; she has all but completed her dissertation "The Role of Non-governmental organizations in the Evolution of Environmental Regimes."
In the past, Frances has served as the International Program Director for the National Audubon Society, a Legislative Assistant for the Animal Welfare Institute and the Society for Animal Protective Legislation, and the Education Director for the American Humane Education Society. She holds Bachelors of Arts in political science and history from the University of Texas and in biology from San Francisco State University, and a master of arts from the Johns Hopkins School for Advanced International Studies.
Dr. Shirley Malcom
Head, Directorate for Education and Human Resources Programs,
American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
and past Chair of NSF's National Science Board
Bringing Science to People and People to Science: New Faces --New Places
Tuesday, April 24, 5 Illick Hall
Sponsored by ESF’s Urban Initiative, ESF Women's Caucus and the Office of Multicultural
Outreach
Shirley Malcom is Director of the AAAS Directorate for Education and Human Resources Programs. A former high school science teacher, university faculty member, and NSF Program Officer in science education, Dr. Malcom holds a Ph.D. in ecology from Penn State University. She serves on a number of boards and committees related to science policy and science education at local, state, national, and international levels. She is a trustee of the Carnegie Corporation of New York and American Museum of National History. Dr. Malcom was appointed by President Clinton and confirmed by the Senate as a member of the National Science Board and serves as a member of the President's Committee of Advisors on Science and Technology. She is author or co-author of numerous publications related to the mission of EHR including, Equity and Excellence: Compatible Goals; Science Assessment in the Service of Reform, and The Effect of the Changing Policy Climate on Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Diversity. As directorate head Dr. Malcom is responsible for ensuring programmatic development, adherence of EHR programs to support AAAS' mission, and garnering financial support for EHR projects, in addition to serving as spokesperson and advocate for EHR issues and principal investigator and intellectual contributor for EHR projects.
Spring 2000
Dr. Kristina Hill
Assistant Professor, Landscape Architecture, University of Washington
Fuzzy Sets and Categorical Ambiguity
Tuesday, February 1, 5 Illick Hall
Sponsored by SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry and the ESF Women's
Caucus
Dr. Hill specializes in the analysis and representation of urban ecological patterns and processes. She connects this to design by exploring the design of ecological infrastructure systems that provide habitat, clean surface and ground water, and maintain fertile soil in metropolitan areas. Her research has focuses on articulating a theory of category definition for spatial models, and on the influence of gender on environmental variables.
Ms. Jeannine Siembida
Supervisor of Technical Services, Champion International, Oswego, NY
From Bark to Boxes
Tuesday, February 29
Sponsored by SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry and the ESF Women's
Caucus
Dr. Sandra Brown
Winrock International, Corvallis, OR
Kyoto, forests, and Climate Change
Tuesday, March 28, 5 Illick Hall
Sponsored by the Faculty of Forestry
Sandra Brown has a Ph.D. in systems ecology from the Department of Environmental Engineering Sciences, University of Florida, Gainesville, a MS. in engineering science from the University of South: Florida, Tampa, and a BSc. in chemistry from the University of Nottingham, England. She has been employed as a senior scientist in the Ecosystems Services Unit of Winrock International for about four years. Prior to joining Winrock, she was an Assistant, Associate and full Professor in the forestry department at the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana. Dr. Brown is a specialist on understanding the role of forests in the global carbon cycle and their present and potential future role in climate change and mitigation. She has a national and international reputation as a leader in the field of forests and their relation to climate change and mitigation, and provides scientific leadership and expertise to many national and international organizations. Dr. Brown has 20 years of experience in planning, developing, implementing, and managing research projects focusing on estimating and modeling the stocks and flows of carbon in forests and the environmental and human factors that influence them, that has resulted in more than 160 publications. She has demonstrated expertise in developing successful research proposals, designing and implementing field research studies, leading multi-institutional research projects, developing new techniques for modeling forest biomass, leading the development of programs related to forests for US governmental agencies and international organizations, and synthesizing and reviewing the state of scientific knowledge on land-use change, forestry, and mitigation for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
Ms. Suzanne LaLonde
Director of Recycling and Waste Reduction, Onondaga County Resource Recovery Agency,
Syracuse, NY
Recycling 101
Tuesday, April 18
Sponsored by SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry and the ESF Women's
Caucus
Mrs. LaLonde is the first Director of Recycling and Waste Reduction for the Onondaga County Resource Recovery Agency, and has been with the agency since 1990. She launched its award winning recycling program, and was selected in 1992 as one of the Post Standard's Women of Achievement.
Spring 1999
Dr. Ellen Ketterson
Professor of Biology and Co-Director of the Center for the Integrative Study of Animal
Behavior, Indiana University.
Phenotypic Engineering: Using Hormones to Explore Adaptation and Constraint
February 2, 5 Illick Hall
Sponsored by SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry and the ESF Women's
Caucus
Dr. Ketterson studies avian reproductive behavior and avian migration. Her work on reproduction has focused on the adaptive significance of male parental care and the effects of hormones on parental behavior. Her studies of migration have focused on site fidelity, the role of experience in regulating onset and termination of migration, and the relative importance of a series of selective factors in shaping the distance an individual migrates. Dr. Ketterson's current research is directed toward the relationship between hormones and life histories, particularly the physiological basis for the trade-off between parental effort and mating effort.
Defining Sustainability in Wood Buffalo National Park
February 23, 5 Illick Hall
Lecture sponsored by SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry and the ESF Women's Caucus, Reception and book signing (Tarla Rai Peterson, 1997, Sharing the Earth: The Rhetoric of Sustainable Development, University of South Carolina Press) courtesy of the Friends of Moon Library.
16th Annual C. Eugene Farnsworth Memorial Lecture and Fellowship Ceremony
Donna Perison (FOR)
Manager, Environmental Health and Safety, Forest Resources South Central Region, International
Paper, Jackson, MS
Meeting the Challenge of Change
March 23, 5 Illick Hall
Sponsored by the Faculty of Forestry
Dr. Perison has served International Paper in a number of capacities in her tenure with the company. She earned her BS in Forestry and Forest Biology from ESF, MS
Anne Whiston Spirn, University of Pennsylvania
The Language of Landscape
April 5, Marshall Auditorium
Sponsored by the Faculty of Landscape Architecture. Reception and book signing (Anne
Whiston Spirn, 1998, The Language of Landscape, Yale University Press, 1998),courtesy of the Friends of Moon Library.
As of 2006, Anne Whiston Spirn is an author, photographer, landscape architect, and planner. Her books include the award-winning The Granite Garden: Urban Nature and Human Design (1984) and The Language of Landscape (1998). She currently is finishing The Eye Is a Door, a book on the art of seeing. "Knowing Where to Stand," an exhibit of her photographs that opened at the MIT Museum in 2003, will travel to other venues. Since 1984 Spirn has worked on ecological planning and community design and development in inner-city neighborhoods. She directs the West Philadelphia Landscape Project, an internationally-recognized program that has integrated teaching, research, and community service since 1987. Her next two book projects grow out of this experience: The Once and Future City and Top-Down/Bottom-Up: Rebuilding the Landscape of Community.
Spirn is Professor of Landscape Architecture and Planning at MIT, where she is a member of the Department of Urban Studies and Planning and the Department of Architecture. She has taught at Harvard and at the University of Pennsylvania, where she chaired the Department of Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning. Prior to teaching, Spirn worked at Wallace McHarg Roberts and Todd on diverse projects, including plans for Woodlands New Community in Houston, the Toronto Central Waterfront, and a comprehensive plan for Sanibel, Florida. She received a bachelor's degree from Harvard University, where she majored in art history, and the master's of landscape architecture from the University of Pennsylvania.
In 2001, Spirn was awarded the International Cosmos Prize for "contributions to the harmonious
Anthropologist and independent consultant, United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization,
Washington, DC
Community Forestry--Evolution and Future Prospects of a Global Movement
Marilyn Wakeland
May 14, , 5 Illick Hall
Sponsored by SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry
Hoskins is a consultant with the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. She previously was a senior forestry officer with the FAO's forestry department. She is the author of about 50 publications. Hoskins' focus is community forestry, local governance, and community development. She specializes in the relationships between community residents and the tree and forest resources upon which the residents depend. Her career has taken her to some 40 countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, where she worked on forestry and community development issues in developing nations. She is currently working in the United States, where she is helping the U.S. Forest Service in the area of urban forestry. Hoskins has worked with ESF representatives numerous times at professional gatherings devoted to the discussion of forestry issues. Hoskins will receive a honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters in conjunction with commencement activities at the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry (ESF). In awarding the honor to Hoskins, the SUNY Board of Trustees described her as "one of the world's major innovators in new approaches in managing forests." She will also receive an honorary degree from Syracuse University; both will be awarded May 16 during ESF's joint commencement exercises with SU.