Sustainability Speaker Series - Healing the Future
Healing the Future – Sustainability Speaker Series
This four-part speaker series will bring faculty experts and student leaders into discussion on topics of health, health and water. Faculty, staff, and students are encouraged to attend to learn more about these topics and to how to incorporate sustainability into their classrooms, research, and practices.
Healing the Future Session 2 - Heat
November 17th, Noon – 1 pm
Virtual via Zoom
Register Here
Cooling our Communities: Transdisciplinary Approaches to Extreme Heat and Urban Resilience
Through a moderated speaker series and audience Q&A, participants will learn about the socio-environmental drivers of urban heat and its impact on community resilience, heat resilience initiatives and research taking place at the University of Arizona and beyond, and identify strategies for integrating heat-health and climate adaptation topics into their curriculum.
Ladd Keith, Ph.D., is a climate planner and associate professor at the University of Arizona, where he directs the Heat Resilience Initiative. He defined heat governance in Nature, co-authored the American Planning Association’s first guidebook on heat, and writes Heatshed, a newsletter on how we plan for and govern extreme heat.
Dr. Ufuoma Ovienmhada, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor in the School of Geography, Development, and Environment at the University of Arizona. Ufuoma’s research generates theoretical and data-driven insights about the environmental hazards experienced by marginalized identities in the United States.
Alekzander Ryan is a first-year PhD student in the Arid Lands Resource Sciences program at the University of Arizona and works for the Heat Resilience Initiative as a graduate researcher. His research focuses on extreme heat governance through plan evaluation and exploring how governments prepare and respond to heat risk, as well as understanding the challenges of AI-use in environmental planning. Currently, Alekzander is researching the impacts of extreme heat on education and how K-12 schools are experiencing and adapting to extreme heat.
Mark your Calendars
Healing the Future Session 3 – Water
March 23rd, Noon – 1 pm
Virtual via Zoom
Register Here
Water is Life - Innovations in Water Quality, Policy, and Arid Lands Sustainability
Through a moderated speaker series and audience Q&A, participants will learn about the critical intersection of water scarcity, environmental quality, and climate adaptation. Participants will learn about water sustainability projects and collaborative centers at the University of Arizona, and identify ways to embed water stewardship and resource management topics into teaching and professional practice
Dr. Karletta Chief, PhD, is the Director of the Indigenous Resilience Center and Professor and Extension Specialist in the Department of Environmental Science at the Arizona Institute for Resilience. As an Extension Specialist, she works to bring relevant water science to Native American communities in a culturally sensitive manner. The Indigenous Resilience Center aims to facilitate efforts of UArizona climate/environment researchers, faculty, staff, and students working with Native Nations to build resiliency to climate impacts and environmental challenges. Dr. Chief leads the NSF Native FEWS Alliance and NSF Indigenous Food, Energy, and Water Security and Sovereignty Program whose vision is to develop a diverse workforce with intercultural awareness and expertise in sustainable food, energy, and water systems (FEWS), specifically through off grid technologies to address the lack of safe water, energy, and food security in Indigenous communities. Her primary Navajo projects include Navajo COVID-19 Risks and Indigenous Resilience; Black Mesa Coal Mining Impacts on the Navajo Nation; Climate resilience in Tribal Communities; Regenerative Indigenous Solutions for the Earth (RISE); Cross-border Indigenous Regenerative Agriculture Knowledge Exchange and Transformation Network.
Dr. Vasiliki (Vicky) Karanikola is an Associate Professor of Chemical and Environmental Engineering at the University of Arizona. She holds degrees in Mechanical, Civil, and Environmental Engineering from institutions in Greece, UC San Diego, and the University of Arizona, where she also earned her PhD. Before joining UA in 2019, she completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Yale University. Her research focuses on sustainable water treatment technologies, with an emphasis on novel materials and processes at the water-energy nexus. Dr. Karanikola’s work has been recognized with the 2021 U.S. APEC ASPIRE Prize by the US State Department, the UA Provost Early Career Award, and the Haury Faculty Fellowship for her collaborations with Tribal Nations on off-grid water treatment.
A student engaged in water related sustainability efforts will be added to the conversation.
Healing the Future Session 4 – Workshop
April 27th, 11 am – 1 pm
In-Person – University of Arizona - Tucson
Register Here
From Concept to Classroom – A Sustainability Curriculum Integration Workshop
This session aims to help faculty identify specific entry points into their existing curriculum to incorporate lessons at the intersection of health, heat, and water. In addition, they will gain information to help utilize resources at the University of Arizona to help promote student engagement. Participants will work in small groups to draft one sustainability-based learning outcome or classroom activity tailored to their discipline.
Dr. Alberto Arenas, PhD, is Professor of Environmental and Sustainability Education in the Department of Teaching, Learning, and Sociocultural Studies in the College of Education at the University of Arizona. He specializes in the connections between pedagogy and environmental sustainability; experiential education, with an emphasis on vocational education; and the decolonization of education with a focus on restoring culturally-rich, non-commodified knowledge and skills. Dr. Arenas serves Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Environmental Education, a premier educational journal and the world’s oldest journal in environmental education.
Other faculty with expertise in sustainability and education will be available to facilitate small group discussion.
Past Events:
Healing the Future Session 1 - Health
October 20th, Noon – 1 pm
Virtual Via Zoom
Watch Recording Here
Integrating Sustainability into Health Sciences Practice, Education, and Research
This session will examine the role of health sciences in advancing sustainability. Through a moderated speaker series and audience Q&A, participants will learn about current initiatives at the University of Arizona and community partners, explore the connections among human health and environmental conditions, and identify opportunities to promote sustainability in their own work.
Frank A. von Hippel, PhD is a professor of environmental health sciences in the Mel & Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health and the Director of the Center for One Health Innovation & Practice at the University of Arizona. Frank has taught ecology field courses in over twenty countries, and conducted research in the Americas, Africa and Australia. He conducts research at the nexus of ecotoxicology, mechanisms of toxicity, and public health, with a focus on vulnerable communities. Frank uses locally occurring wildlife and laboratory animals as models for human exposure and disease, and he employs community-engaged research approaches. Frank is the author of The Chemical Age (University of Chicago Press, 2020; https://frankvonhippel.github.io/pubs.html) and he is the host of the Science History Podcast (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/science-history-podcast/id1325288920).
Brian Drummond, MD, FAAEM, is a Clinical Professor of Emergency Medicine at the University of Arizona and a leader in climate and sustainability efforts in healthcare. His work and interests span watershed management, sustainable finance, clean energy, and sustainable transportation, with a focus on the connections between environmental sustainability and human health. He is a leader with Arizona Health Professionals for Climate Action, advancing climate-smart healthcare, education, and advocacy.
Nicole Bratsch is a fourth-year medical student at the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Tucson and recently completed an MPH in Quantitative Methods at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Her work in sustainability and health has included student advocacy and education around climate and health, hospital waste, and environmental health, as well as developing research focused on reducing operating room waste at Banner – University Medical Center South. She is also helping launch the U of A chapter of Medical Students for a Sustainable Future and its first Planetary Health Report Card.