The Speakers

Dr. Natasha DeJarnett is the interim associate director of Program and Partnership Development at the National Environmental Health Association (NEHA), where she leads research as well as climate and health activities. She is a graduate of University of Louisville in Louisville, Kentucky where she completed her PhD and Masters of Public Health, both concentrating in environmental health sciences. In her postdoctoral studies, Dr. DeJarnett was awarded a fellowship by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences to investigate cardiovascular risks of air pollution exposures. In 2015, she became the recipient of the prestigious Impact Award from the Society of Toxicology’s Cardiovascular Toxicology Specialty Section for her 2014 paper “Acrolein Exposure is Associated with Increased Cardiovascular Disease Risk.” Dr. DeJarnett was named 2017 Alumna of the Year for the University of Louisville School of Public Health and Information Sciences and concurrently awarded designation in the class of 2017 Alumni Fellows. Prior to NEHA, she was a policy analyst at the American Public Health Association, where she led the Natural Environment portfolio, including air and water exposures along with climate change. Dr. DeJarnett is an adjunct professor at George Washington University. She is a member of the Governing Board of Citizens’ Climate Education and the Board of Directors for Physicians for Social Responsibility. In addition, she serves on the Steering Committees of the International Transformational Resilience Coalition and the Emerging Leaders Initiative of the Environmental Law Institute and is a member of the Climate and Health Advisory Panel of the National Recreation and Parks Association.

Mónica Ramírez-Andreotta is an assistant professor of Soil, Water and Environmental Science with a joint appointment in the College of Public Health at the University of Arizona. Ramírez-Andreotta is a community-engaged environmental health scientist investigating the fate & transport of pollutants in environmental systems, exposure pathways, phytotechnologies, and ways to improve environmental health literacy. As such, she is often found talking to and training communities and hosting community gatherings and data sharing events. Ramírez-Andreotta is a playful, highly spirited individual who enjoys hanging with her boo, exercise, and democratizing science. She Tweets @EnvSci_G_Roots. Contact: mdramire@email.arizona.edu

She will discuss the following three topics: (1) Community revitalization, climate change adaptations, and public health efforts may be diminished if gardens are located in environmentally compromised spaces - it's not uncommon to find residential areas neighboring mines or hazardous waste sites and it is critical to work alongside community members to co-design and co-generate a robust environmental monitoring dataset, while informing agricultural practices and public health prevention and intervention strategies. (2) Vegetable data from her work has revealed that in general, when compared to the US Food and Drug Administration’s Market Basket Study (i.e. what could be expected from a typical U.S. grocery store), the locally grown vegetables accumulated more harmful elements. (3) This work has contributed to the fundamental science of environmental exposures, community science, and environmental health literacy and addressed: (a) The need for pollution prevention strategies in “hard-to-reach” Latinx/a/o communities, (b) Water and energy conservation awareness, and (c) knowledge gaps related to climate change, chemistry, and environmental contamination as well as self-efficacy for learning and doing science and environmental action in underserved communities. (*Bonus*) Due to the nature of community science, COVID-19 has impacted Ramírez-Andreotta's program in several ways, which has led to pressing ethical conversations among team members.

Ricardo Salvador leads a team of scientists, economists, policy analysts and organizers at UCS to make the case that modern, sustainable practices can be highly productive while also protecting the environment, producing healthy food, and creating economic opportunity for all. He is a member of the Board of Agriculture and National Resources of the National Academy of Sciences, and of the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food. He has advised a range of leading organizations in sustainable and equitable agriculture, including the Food Chain Workers Alliance, the Fair Food Program of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, The Land Institute, FoodCorps, National Farm to School Network, Center for Good Food Purchasing, Food System 6, and the HEAL Food Alliance.

He is an agronomist with a focus on sustainability and systems analysis. His undergraduate degree in agriculture is from New Mexico State University, and his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in crop production and physiology are from Iowa State University.

David Inouye, PhD

Professor Emeritus, University of Maryland

Principal Investigator, Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory

David Inouye studies the effects of climate change on the ecology of wildflowers and pollinators in the Colorado Rocky Mountains, at the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory, where he has worked since 1971. He has a B.A. from Swarthmore College (1971), Ph.D. from University of NC (1976), and was a faculty member in Biology at the University of Maryland from 1976-2014. He has worked with bumble bees and hummingbirds, done field work in multiple countries, and helped write the National Academies report on the status of pollinators in North America, andthe IPBES fast-track assessment of pollinators, pollination and food production. He is Chair of the board of the North American Pollinator Protection Campaign, and in western Colorado where he now lives, chair of Citizens for a Healthy Community.

Venus Welch-White, PhD

National Rural Energy Program Coordinator

U.S. Department of Agriculture's Rural Business-Cooperative Service

Venus Welch-White serves as the National Rural Energy Program Coordinator in USDA's Rural Business-Cooperative Service. In her current role she conducts stakeholder engagement, outreach, business strategy and development, policy support, and facilitates collaborations with internal and external partners in agriculture, energy, biofuels, business development, and financial institutions. She completed a detail assignment Executive Office of the President, Office of Management and Budget, where she analyzed policy and budget legislation, developed Congressional Reports and supported implementation of Executive Orders and Administrative initiatives of across federal agencies. Prior to joining the USDA, she conducted work in agriculture food systems, biotechnology, business, international and state policy. Venus has industry experience with Pioneer Hi-Bred/ DuPont and completed Harvard Business School’s Summer Ventures in Management Program. Venus was 2014 Presidential Management-STEM Fellow, holds a B.S. Degree in Biology, and M.S. and Ph.D. in Integrative Biosciences from Tuskegee University in Alabama.

Julia Bradley-Cook, PhD

Climate Advisor

U.S. Agency for International Development's Bureau for Africa

Julia Bradley-Cook is a Climate Advisor in the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Bureau for Africa. She provides technical support, thought leadership, and program management for USAID’s programs in sub-Saharan Africa. Her portfolio includes climate-smart agriculture, sustainable landscapes, climate adaptation, and natural resources management. As a member of 500 Women Scientists, she has presented on Capitol Hill and contributed to articles about climate justice. She has 11 years of climate and environment professional experience in government, academia, and non-governmental organizations: U.S. Senate as a Congressional Science Fellow, graduate researcher, GK-12 Graduate Science Education Fellow, Climate Central, the Desert Research Foundation of Namibia, and the Gobabeb Training and Research Center. Her dissertation research examined biological feedbacks to climate change in Greenland’s tundra ecosystem. She earned a Ph.D. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from the School of Graduate and Advanced Studies at Dartmouth, and a B.A. in Biology from Grinnell College. She served as an ASA/CSSA/SSSA Congressional Science Fellow in the Office of U.S. Senator Ron Wyden (2015-2016) and AAAS Science and Technology Fellow at USAID (2016-2018).

Education Panelists:

Megan Bang, PhD

Professor, Learning Sciences and Psychology

Northwestern University

Megan Bang (Ojibwe and Italian decent) is a Professor of the Learning Sciences and Psychology at Northwestern University and is currently serving as the Senior Vice President at the Spencer Foundation. Dr. Bang studies dynamics of culture, learning, and development broadly with a specific focus on the complexities of navigating multiple meaning systems in creating and implementing more effective and just learning environments in science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics education. She focuses on reasoning and decision-making about complex socio-ecological systems in ways that intersect with culture, power, and historicity. Central to this work are dimensions of identity, equity and community engagement. She conducts research in both schools and informal settings across the life course. She has taught in and conducted research in teacher education as well as leadership preparation programs. Dr. Bang currently serves on the Board of Science Education at the National Academy of Sciences. She also serves as an executive editor of Cognition and Instruction and is on the editorial boards of several other top tiered journals in the field. In her talk, Dr. Bang will explore how field based science investigations that are driven by “should we” questions can support the necessary shifts in teaching and learning environments that support socio-ecological systems reasoning, decision making and ultimately change. The model of science education draws from the edges of cognitive and developmental sciences, key domains of shifting expert science, and dimensions of culture, power and historicity.

Sara Espinoza

Vice President, Programs

National Environmental Education Foundation

Sara Espinoza is Vice President, Programs at the National Environmental Education Foundation (NEEF). She oversees the design, integration, execution, and evaluation of programs and pilot initiatives focused on conservation, K-12 education, and health, as well as exploration of new themes and concepts in environmental education. She also tracks research and emerging trends in environmental education, identifying and disseminating promising strategies for lifelong environmental learning. Her previous positions at NEEF have included overseeing research and innovation, designing and implementing national public engagement campaigns with NBA and NHL, and working with broadcast meteorologists across the US to incorporate environmental information into the television weathercast. Before joining NEEF, Sara worked with the education programs at World Wildlife Fund and The Jane Goodall Institute. Sara is a member of the Bucknell University Alumni Association Board of Directors.

Sara will discuss how hands-on and place-based learning can drive youth interest in STEM fields and prepare them for future employment. She will share examples of programs that engage youth in investigating real-world environmental issues in their own communities and give them a voice in developing solutions.

Labor Panelist:

Ugbaad Kosar

Senior Policy Advisor

Carbon180

Ugbaad Kosar holds two masters degrees and has over seven years of interdisciplinary experience in the fields of environmental science research, policy development, advocacy and data analysis. She is passionate about climate science and informing responsible, sustainable climate policy. Broadly speaking, she would like to discuss job implications and other impacts of carbon removal technology deployment (e.g. Direct Air Capture) on frontline communities and different labor sectors.

Dennis Dougherty

Executive Director

Colorado AFL-CIO

Dennis Dougherty is the Executive Director of the Colorado AFL-CIO, which represents approximately 165 affiliate unions with membership totaling more than 130,000 working Coloradans. In this role, Dennis fights to raise the standard of living and quality of life for all Colorado working people and their families through organizing and ensuring their voices are heard in all political and public forums. Prior to joining the Colorado AFL-CIO, Dennis was a Commissioner with the Federal Mediation & Conciliation Service (FMCS) for over a decade. He mediated labor disputes, including collective bargaining negotiations and grievances, for the private, public, non-profit and federal sectors in Colorado and Wyoming. Before his appointment with FMCS, Dennis completed his Master in Public Policy at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. Dennis is a member of IBEW Local 68 and currently serves as a board member for the Rocky Mountain Labor and Employment Relations Association (LERA) and the Global Education Fund.

Dennis will be speaking about Colorado's groundbreaking state legislation signed in 2019 forming the nation's first Office of Just Transition which was rooted in the work of a coalition of labor, environment, environmental justice, and faith based organizations. He will also talk about the origins of the coalition and the importance of engaging a broad array of stakeholders around climate, jobs and justice policy and legislation.

Mae Stevens

Executive Vice President

Signal Group

Mae Stevens provides strategic environmental and infrastructure policy expertise to a diverse range of corporate, municipal, and nonprofit entities. Most recently, she served as Environmental Policy Advisor to Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD), where she handled the Senator’s responsibilities as the top Democrat on the Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, including staffing the Senator during the crafting and passage of the FAST Act. During her seven-year tenure on Capitol Hill, Mae was responsible for the Senate Democrats’ response to the Flint water crisis, and focused most of her time on the intersection of water, equity, and affordability. She also spent nine years working with various nonprofit environmental organizations and think tanks. Mae holds a master’s degree from Columbia University and a bachelor’s degree from George Washington University.

Dave Steindorf

Stewardship Director

American Whitewater

Dave Steindorf has been an active river advocate in California since 1997 and has been the Chair of the California Hydropower Reform Coalition since 2007. In this role he has been actively involved in developing state and national policies that regulate hydropower. With a background in Economics, Dave has been keenly interested in the changing energy landscape. In 2017 Dave was invited to testify before the House of Representative’s Energy and Commerce Committee to educate members on the role of hydropower in energy and how to optimize power generation in a way that has the least impact on rivers.

Dennis Cakert

Manager of Regulatory Affairs and Market Policy

National Hydropower Association

Dennis Cakert handles Regulatory Affairs and Market Policy for NHA. Previously, Dennis worked on Capitol Hill where he was an advisor on energy and environmental policy. Dennis is from Sudbury, Massachusetts and graduated from Villanova University with degrees in Economics and the Humanities. He is an outdoors enthusiast and spends his free time in the mountains, rivers, lakes, and beaches of the Northeast and Pacific Northwest.

Madeline Salzman, MS

Management & Program Analyst

U.S. Department of Energy

Madeline Salzman works to reduce costs of deep energy retrofits in US homes through increasing access to energy information, innovative financing, and workforce development initiatives. Madeline focuses on research, analysis, and projects that enable equitable access to the benefits of energy efficiency across communities, housing types, and income groups.

Edward V. Etzkorn, PhD

Budget Analyst (Professional Staff)

U.S. House of Representatives Committee on the Budget

Ed Etzkorn will discuss climate justice funding needs and challenges for equitably reducing harmful impacts, providing resilient services, and generating economic opportunities in communities of color and economically disadvantaged areas. He will also consider potential policy priorities, principles, and cost implications for federal programs, with a focus on adaptation and resilience.

Marion Mollegen McFadden, JD

Senior Vice President for Public Policy and Senior Advisor for Resilience

Enterprise Community Partners

Marion Mollegen McFadden serves as senior vice president for public policy and as senior advisor for resilience at Enterprise. She leads Enterprise’s policy development and research and advocacy at the federal, state, and local levels, where we work with thousands of partners to safeguard, expand, analyze and improve programs that support equitable housing affordability and neighborhoods of opportunity. Marion works nationwide to support resilience planning and programs in communities impacted by flooding, hurricanes, earthquakes, wildfires, and extreme heat so that they can build more resilient futures.

Previously, she served as deputy assistant secretary for grant programs at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Housing (HUD), where she oversaw affordable housing and community development programs, including the Community Development Block Grant Program (CDBG), the HOME Investment Partnerships program, the Housing Trust Fund, the Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP) and CDBG Disaster Recovery funds. In this role she formed and facilitated multiple public-private partnerships, including the award-winning Rebuild by Design competition. Marion has been invited to testify in front of Congress five times and has been widely featured in national media outlets including the NY Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, Fortune, Bloomberg, PBS Frontline, National Public Radio, and the Hill.

Marion McFadden will discuss the federal government’s investments in resilience for disaster-impacted communities via HUD’s Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) program, which has delivered more than $90 billion since 9/11. She’ll emphasize the use of funds for mitigation and policy ideas for ensuring equitable benefits for the people and communities who need them most.

Danny Ritcher, PhD

Vice President of Government Affairs,

Citizens' Climate Lobby

Realizing the potential for a warming world impacting human health, Danny Ritcher pursued and earned a PhD in oceanography to better understand pas warming and cooling in order to counter the current human-caused warming. In the symposium’s finance panel, he will focus his remarks on the importance of citizens participating both in the process of democracy, and in the implementation of policy solutions for establishing long term support. A particularly good example of participatory policy solutions is the Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act (H.R. 763), which he will use as an illustrative example. Dr. Richter will focus his remarks on the importance of citizens participating both in the process of democracy, and in the implementation of policy solutions for establishing long term support. A particularly good example of participatory policy solutions is the Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act (H.R. 763), which he will use as an illustrative example.

Panel Moderator:

Crystal Upperman, PhD, MPA

Scientist

Aclima

Crystal Upperman is leading the enhanced use of hyperlocal air quality data to inform public health decisions for the mitigation and adaptation of climate impacts on human health at Aclima—a San Francisco-based company that delivers hyperlocal air quality intelligence to reduce emissions and protect public health. She has 15 years of experience in the climate change and environmental health area and has worked at the World Resources Institute, the World Bank, AECOM, and state-level environmental and public health agencies in New Jersey, Georgia, Maryland, and the District of Columbia.

Panel Speakers:

Jacqueline Patterson, MSW, MPH

Director

NAACP Environmental and Climate Justice Program

Jacqueline Patterson is an advocate and activist working on women‘s rights, violence against women, HIV&AIDS, racial justice, economic justice, and environmental and climate justice. She leads the NAACP Environmental and Climate Justice Program, supporting community leadership to address environmental injustices, including climate change, which have a disproportionate impact on communities of color and low income communities in the United States and around the world.

Sharon Roerty, AICP/PP/MCRP

Senior Program Officer

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

Sharon Roerty, AICP/PP/MCRP, a senior program officer who joined the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation in 2011, is an urban alchemist who has spent a lot of time at the intersection of health and transportation. She brings her extensive expertise in built environments, transportation, and environmental and urban policy to the Foundation’s efforts to help create healthy communities through community and economic development and preservation that values people and promotes equity.

Sacoby Wilson, PhD

Associate Professor of Public Health

University of Maryland-College Park

Sacoby Wilson is an Associate Professor with the Maryland Institute for Applied Environmental Health and Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, University of Maryland-College Park. Dr. Wilson has over 15 years of experience as an environmental health scientist in the areas of exposure science, environmental justice, environmental health disparities, community-engaged research including crowd science and community-based participatory research (CBPR), water quality analysis, air pollution studies, built environment, industrial animal production, climate change, community resiliency, and sustainability. He works primarily in partnership with community-based organizations to study and address environmental justice and health issues and translate research to action.

John Balbus serves as a senior advisor to the Director on public health issues and he also leads NIEHS efforts on climate change and human health. In this capacity, he serves as HHS principal to the U.S. Global Change Research Program, for which he also co-chairs the Interagency Cross-Cutting Group on Climate Change and Human Health.

Curtis Wynn

Board President of America's Electric Cooperative

President and CEO of Roanoke Electric Cooperative

Curtis Wynn is president & CEO of Roanoke Electric Cooperative. With nearly 38 years of experience in the electric cooperative industry, Curtis began his career at West Florida Electric Cooperative. He is a board member of the National Rural Utilities Cooperative Finance Corporation and has served on the NRECA Board of Directors since 2007, where he was recently elected board president. A graduate of Troy University, Curtis holds a Bachelor of Science in business administration & management information systems. Curtis has led numerous movements at his co-op from the introduction of broadband service to new demand response capabilities. Under his leadership, Roanoke Electric has been a two-time recipient of NRECA’s Community Service Network Award, and Curtis is a past winner of the J. C. Brown Leadership Award. NRECA, is a service organization dedicated to representing the national interests of the 900 electric cooperatives and their consumer-members. Their mission is to promote, support and protect the community and business and empower members to improve the quality of their lives through achieving energy access for all.

Khalil Shahyd

Senior Policy Advocate, Healthy People/Thriving Communities

NRDC

The social dimensions of climate change recognize that the causes and consequences of climate change and inequality are intertwined. Currently, much of what we call climate policy is limited to the technological science of GHG emissions with the goal of regulating the use of those emissions with price signals and penalties to reduce them over time. The social dimensions focus on those human activities that cause climate change and inequality and those that create uneven burdens of climate impacts, mitigation and adaptation cost. Where and how we live, work and play has enormous impact on our contributions to carbon emissions and our capacity to mitigate and adapt to the changes required by climate action. “Addressing climate change without reference to its social dimensions is failing to address climate change at all.”

Elaine Ulrich, PhD

Senior Advisor

Solar Energy Technologies Office, US Department of Energy

Elaine Ulrich holds an advisory role in several efforts to increase access to affordable solar energy for low-income communities, including in the DOE's National Community Solar Partnership and in the effort to rebuild the Puerto Rico grid with renewables. Dr. Ulrich will discuss DOE solar office programs and projects that have advanced low-income solar initiatives, community solar, local resilience, and will include examples of ongoing efforts including support for Puerto Rico’s recovery.