Keynote Addresses
Ann Bartuska
Monday, June 24
Is this the decade of the forest?
Dr. Ann M. Bartuska is a Senior Contributing Scientist with the Environmental Defense Fund focusing on natural climate solutions through forestry and agriculture. She also is a Senior Advisor at Resources for the Future, an environmental economics think tank in Washington, DC. Dr. Bartuska served as Deputy Under Secretary for Research, Education and Economics (REE) within the U. S. Department of Agriculture from 2010 to September 2017. While in this role, she served as Vice-Chair of the Civil Applications Committee; she was asked to serve in this role due to the extensive use by USDA Forest Service in remote sensing technology. Dr. Bartuska also held the position of Acting Under Secretary for REE and Acting Chief Scientist for USDA from December 2016 till her departure from USDA. Prior to that, she was Deputy Chief for Research and Development (R&D), U.S. Forest Service (FS), which she held from 2004 to 2010 and held numerous positions with the Forest Service, including Director of the Forest and Rangeland Management staff and Director of the Forest Health Protection staff. Most recently, she is serving on the Wildland Fire Mitigation and Management Commission (WFMMC).
Ken Raffa
Tuesday, June 25
Predicting impacts of novel trophic interactions driven by human transport and changing climate
Dr. Ken Raffa studies processes that drive the population dynamics of forest insects. Some of these processes include tree defense physiology, chemical communication, predator - prey interactions, and symbiosis, which he commonly approaches within a multi-disciplinary and multi-scalar context. Following his undergraduate degree in Biology he began his career as a technician for the US Forest Service in Asheville, NC doing aerial sketch mapping and ground truthing of various forest pests. He then obtained his MS in entomology at the University of Delaware researching biological control of the spongy moth. He completed his Ph.D. at Washington State University in 1980 researching tree defense mechanisms and insect counter adaptations in conifer - bark beetle – fungal interactions. He was a research biologist at DuPont from 1981 to 1985 where he studied methods of using induced plant defenses and insect behavior to manage agricultural pests and mitigate evolution of pesticide resistance. He then joined the faculty at The University of Wisconsin - Madison as their forest entomologist, where he studies how factors such as species introductions, land use alteration, and climate change influence herbivory and disease from the molecular through landscape scales. He has mentored 42 graduate degree recipients and published over 350 scientific papers. Among his recognitions are the Silverstein-Simeone Award of the International Society of Chemical Ecology, the Lifetime Achievement Award in Plant Insect Interactions of the Entomological Society of America, and the Hilldale Award in Biological Sciences at the University of Wisconsin.
Chris Oishi
Thursday, June 27
Ecosystem services under a changing climate in the southern Appalachian Mountains
Dr. A. Chris Oishi is a research ecologist with the USDA Forest Service where he has worked at the Coweeta Hydrologic Laboratory in western North Carolina since 2013. His research examines biosphere-atmosphere interactions affecting carbon and water dynamics in forested ecosystems. Current projects range from the southern Appalachian Mountains to the coastal plain of the southeastern US. He earned a B.A. and Ph.D. from Duke University and M.E.M. from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies.