Carolyn Finney, Ph.D. is a writer, performer and cultural geographer at the University of Kentucky. As the author of Black Faces, White Spaces: Reimagining the Relationship of African Americans and the Great Outdoors, she is deeply interested in issues related to identity, difference, creativity, and resilience. Along with public speaking, writing and consulting, she served on the U.S. National Parks Advisory Board and is part of The Next 100 Coalition. She is currently working on a number of projects including a new book that explores identity, race, lived experience and the construction of a black environmental imaginary and a performance piece about John Muir (The N Word: Nature Revisited).
Kyle Whyte is the Timnick Chair in the Humanities, Associate Professor of Philosophy, and Associate Professor of Community Sustainability at Michigan State University. His research addresses moral and political issues concerning climate policy and Indigenous peoples, the ethics of cooperative relationships between Indigenous peoples and science organizations, and problems of Indigenous justice in public and academic discussions of food sovereignty, environmental justice, and the anthropocene. He is an enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation.
Dr. Karletta Chief (Diné) is an Assistant Professor & Extension Specialist in the Department of Soil, Water, and Environmental Sciences at the University of Arizona (UA). Her research focuses on understanding, tools, and predictions of watershed hydrology, unsaturated flow in arid environments, and how natural and human disturbances impact water resources. She received a B.S. and M.S. in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Stanford in 1998 and 2000 and her Ph.D. in Hydrology at UA in 2007. In 2011, Dr. Chief was named American Indian Science and Engineering Society (AISES) Most Promising Scientist/Scholar, 2015 Native American 40 under 40, 2016 AISES Professional of the Year, 2016 Phoenix Indian Center Woman of theYear, and 2017 Stanford University Multi-Cultural Hall of Fame Inductee. Through her hydrology extension programs to reduce disparities in water and water related-education, since 2011, she has driven ~88,000 miles to tribes and conducted 113 community presentations. Dr. Chief is also a keynote speaker for the Climate Change and Indigenous People’s Lecture taking place Wednesday, May 9th, 2018 at the Many Nations Longhouse. More details are available here.
Dr. Margaret Redsteer is a research scientist who focuses on the perturbations in climate and ecosystem processes and their linkages to landscape stability in order to unravel and understand the impacts and vulnerabilities we face from shifts in seasons, and how these may increase hazards, alter vegetation composition and degrade ecosystem services. Much of this work has focused on Indigenous communities in the southwest and northern Great Plains, including the application of local and traditional knowledge. In addition to her own research, Margaret has contributed to the UN Global Assessment on Disaster Risk Reduction and co-authored several assessment reports, including the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) working Group II Fifth Assessment Report chapter on Adaptation, Planning and Implementation, the National Climate Assessment, and the Second State of the Carbon Cycle report. Dr. Hiza-Redsteer is also a keynote speaker for the Climate Change and Indigenous People’s Lecture taking place Wednesday, May 9th, 2018 at the Many Nations Longhouse. More details are available here.
Panel 1: EDI Practioner Perspectives on Public Lands
- Ava Holliday, Co-Founder, The Avarna Group
- Courtney Rae, Community Organizer, Bark
- Aparna Rajagopal-Durbin, Co-Founder, The Avarna Group
- Alaí Reyes-Santos, Associate Professor of Ethnic Studies, University of Oregon
- Shandra Terry, Regional Public Involvement Coordinator, Pacific Northwest Region, USFS
- Brenna White, Conservation Education Parternship Specialist, Pacific Northwest Region, USFS
Panel 2: Historical Perspectives on Race, Environmental Justice, and Public Lands
- April Anson, Graduate Student, English, University of Oregon
- Sara Fingal, Assistant Professor of American Studies, Cal State Fullerton
- Karen Inouye, Assistant Professor of American Studies, Indiana University, Bloomington
- Laura Pulido, Professor of Ethnic Studies and Geography, University of Oregon
- Sarah Wald, Associate Professor of Environmental Studies and English, University of Oregon
- Jordan Wyant, Graduate Student, Environmental Studies, University of Oregon
Panel 3: Decolonizing Public Lands, Part 1
- Myra Johnson Orange, Elder, Northern Paiute, Warm Springs Reservation
- Clara Gorman, Undergraduate Student, University of Oregon
- Kevin Hatfield, Director of Academic Residential and Research Initiatives, University of Oregon
- Jennifer O’Neal, Corrigan Solari University Historian and Archivist, University of Oregon
Panel 4: Decolonizing Public Lands, Part 2
- Anna Brady, Communications Coordinator, Utah Diné Bikéyah
- Ciarra Greene, Graduate Student, Portland State University
- Kari Norgaard, Associate Professor of Sociology, University of Oregon
- Ron Reed, Cultural Biologist for Karuk Department of Natural Resources
Panel 5: Labor as Public Lands Environmental Justice Issue
- Steve Beda, Associate Professor of History, University of Oregon
- Nick Goulette, Executive Director, Watershed Research and Training Center
- Emily Green, Senior Staff Reporter, Street Roots
- Jordan Katcher, Graduate Student, Community and Regional Planning, University of Oregon
- Cassandra Moseley, Associate Vice President for Research, University of Oregon