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Faculty Panel: Environmental Justice in Uncertain Times 🌿
Faculty Panel: Environmental Justice in Uncertain Times 🌿
Faculty Panelist
Bridgett A. King, Ph.D.
Bridgett A. King, Ph.D.
Bridgett A. King, Ph.D., is an associate professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Kentucky. Current overarching themes in her scholarship include the administrative structure of felony disenfranchisement and its effect on participation and representation, citizen confidence in electoral outcomes, and the consequences of administrative discretion on voter experiences and democratic representation. She also works on interdisciplinary projects that apply systems and architectural engineering approaches to the field of election administration to address challenges associated with administrative decision-making and voter experiences. As an extension of this work, she has an expanding research agenda that considers how citizens engage in and view democratic participation in Liberia.
Dr. King’s research has appeared in the Election Law Journal, State Politics and Policy Quarterly, Journal of Black Studies, Social Science Quarterly, Government Information Quarterly, Policy Studies, and the Journal of Information Technology and Politics. She has received external support for her election research from the National Science Foundation, Rockefeller Family Fund, Democracy Fund, Election Trust Initiative, and others. She holds positions in several election administration applied and research-focused projects and initiatives. She is currently on the Electoral Integrity Project International Academic Advisory Board, a track leader with the Election and Voting Information Center (EVIC), a Research Partner with the Democracy, Power, and Innovation Fund, Engineering for Democracy Institute (URIVOTES), and The Global Development Solutions Lab.
Lastly, she regularly contributes to the broader elections community by speaking to domestic and international audiences about election administration and participating in domestic and international election observation.
Faculty Panelist
Marquita Smith, Ph.D.
Marquita Smith, Ph.D.
Dr. Marquita Smith is the Associate Dean for Graduate Programs and Research at the School of Journalism and New Media at the University of Mississippi. In this role, she oversees the strategic direction of graduate education, research initiatives, admissions, recruitment, and student advising, while also promoting faculty and student engagement in innovative research and creative activities.
A former Fulbright Scholar, Dr. Smith has lived and worked extensively in Ghana and Liberia, contributing to international journalism education and media development. As a Knight International Journalism Fellow, she founded Liberia’s first Judicial and Justice Reporting Network (JJRJ) to enhance accountability and transparency in the country’s legal system. This initiative continues to operate, strengthening investigative journalism and fostering a more informed public discourse on legal and human rights issues.
With over 15 years of experience in higher education and more than 15 years as an award-winning journalist, Dr. Smith has held leadership roles in academic administration, journalism education, and diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts. She also serves as the school’s Access and Opportunity Liaison, advising on policies and initiatives that support an inclusive academic environment.
Her research interests focus on media representations of marginalized communities, health communication, and the ways media serve and inform underrepresented populations. As the former head of the Commission on the Status of Minorities within the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC), Dr. Smith has worked to advance scholarship and mentorship in journalism education, particularly in the areas of racial equity and media diversity. She is the current chair of the National Association of Black Journalists Academic Task Force and serves on the board for the American Journalism Historians Association.
Dr. Smith’s research continues to make an impact on global media discourse. Her latest paper, “Framing Feminism: Gender, and Transnational Media Production in Ghana,” was delivered at the African Women in Media (AWiM) 2024 Conference in Dakar, Senegal, in December. Her professional and academic contributions reflect a commitment to advancing journalism, fostering media literacy, and empowering historically excluded voices through research, teaching, and global engagement.
Faculty Panelist
Wylin D. Wilson, Ph.D., M.Div., M.S.
Wylin D. Wilson, Ph.D., M.Div., M.S.
Dr. Wylin D. Wilson is currently an Associate Professor of Theological Ethics at Duke Divinity School, where she also teaches within the Theology, Medicine and Culture Initiative. Her teaching and research are at the intersection of Bioethics, Gender, and Theology. She is a former Teaching Faculty at the Harvard Medical School Center for Bioethics, and she served as a Senior Fellow at the Harvard Divinity School Center for the Study of World Religions and Visiting Lecturer in Harvard Divinity School Women’s Studies in Religion Program. She is also former Associate Director of Education for the Tuskegee University National Center for Bioethics in Research and Health Care and former faculty member of the Tuskegee University College of Agriculture, Environment and Nutrition Sciences. Her latest book is Womanist Bioethics: Social Justice, Spirituality and Black Women’s Health (New York: New York University Press, 2025). Her other publications include: Economic Ethics and the Black Church (Palgrave Macmillan, 2017); and “‘This is My Body’: Faith Communities as Sites of Transfiguring Vulnerability” in Bioenhancement and the Vulnerable Body: A Theological Engagement (Baylor University Press, 2023).
Dr. Wilson earned her Ph.D. in Religious Social Ethics from Emory University; her M.S. in Agricultural, Resource, and Managerial Economics from Cornell University; and her M.Div. from the Interdenominational Theological Center. She is a member of the Society for the Study of Black Religion, the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities, the American Academy of Religion, and the Center for Reconciliation Advisory Board at Duke Divinity School.
Keynote address: Building Infrastructures that connect and synergize
Keynote address: Building Infrastructures that connect and synergize
Keynote Address
Maya Trotz, Ph.D.
Maya Trotz, Ph.D.
Dr. Maya Trotz is a professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of South Florida. Her work fosters convergence research around various natural and built infrastructures with and within coastal communities. She has led projects to increase research experiences for undergraduate students and teachers, and currently works to improve undergraduate engineering education, and faculty performance to meet Grand Engineering Challenges. Co-creating knowledge with communities and combining stories with data for action, especially around water, are integral to her approach. She is a past President of the Association of Environmental Engineering & Science Professors and a board member of Fragments of Hope Corp, a non-profit focused on coral restoration in Belize.
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