Twelve creative thinkers–scientists, artists, writers, teachers, economists, spiritual leaders from around the U.S. and Alaska–were invited to serve as the Core of our 2012 Roundtable.
Twelve creative thinkers–scientists, artists, writers, teachers, economists, spiritual leaders from around the U.S. and Alaska–have been invited to serve as the Core of our 2012 Roundtable. More information, as well as an opportunity for dialogue through our upcoming blog, will be available soon.
For now, we hope this brief look into the Core group will inspire and excite you. If it does, join us this summer! We are looking forward to the variety of perspectives and experiences that these invitees are bringing to spark and guide our conversations in July.
Gordon Blue
Gordon Blue was educated in shipbuilding, vessel operations, and engineering at Seattle trade schools and the University of Washington, and completed a Master’s in Divinity at University of British Columbia. He is an ordained priest of the Episcopal Church, and has served on boards or as officer of twenty nonprofit and for-profit entities, with missions in domestic and international fisheries, community development, economic and policy analysis, advocacy, conservation, social services, and safety at sea.
Phil Burdick
Phil Burdick has called Sitka home since 1990, feeling a palpable connection to the land and people. He is currently co-principal of Pacific High School, offering a supportive, alternative educational experience for Sitka youth. As an educator, Phil serves as an ally to young people, reminding them of their inherent brilliance and power. By strengthening and uplifting them, he helps students carry forward a vision of building and creating community.
Terry Chapin
F. Stuart (Terry) Chapin III is a Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Ecology at the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) and one of the nation’s leading ecologists. He is the only Alaskan to hold an appointment to the National Academy of Sciences. Chapin directs a graduate educational program inResilience and Adaptation at UAF which studies the resilience of regional systems in the face of directional changes in climate, economics, and culture.
Nancy Douglas
Nancy Douglas was born and raised in Sitka, Alaska. Nancy is Yanyeidí, Eagle/Wolf from the Taku river. She learned from her mother and the elders who taught at the Sitka Native Education Program the value of learning and sharing traditional knowledge. Nancy worked for the Juneau School District for seventeen years as a cultural resource specialist and helped establish the Tlingit Culture, Language and Literacy Program. She is currently the Sitka Tribe Education and Employment Director.
Robin Kimmerer
Robin Kimmerer teaches in the Department of Environmental and Forest Biology at SUNY-ESF and is the director of the Center for Native Peoples and the Environment there. She is active in efforts to broaden access to environmental science training for Native students, and to introduce the benefits of traditional ecological knowledge to the scientific community in a way that respects and protects indigenous knowledge. Kimmerer is the author of Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses, which received a John Burroughs Medal.
Kathleen Dean Moore
Island Institute board member Kathleen Dean Moore is a philosopher, nature writer, public speaker, defender of all that is wet and wild, and Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at Oregon State University. Her work brings together the art of the essay, the wisdom of the natural world, and the moral clarity of philosophy to explore our place on the planet and our responsibilities for its thriving. Her newest book, co-edited with Michael Nelson, is Moral Ground: Ethical Action for a Planet in Peril.
Trista Patterson
Trista Patterson repurposes, redesigns, and restructures economic systems to better align them with the larger natural systems of which they are a part. An economist and systems analyst, her research focuses on the value we assign to nature and nature’s services. She explores the use of photography, social media, and dynamic presentations to make some of the most difficult economic issues accessible to the audiences needed to change them. Find out more on her website.
Libby Roderick
Libby Roderick is an internationally acclaimed singer and songwriter, poet, activist, teacher, and lifelong Alaskan. She is also a faculty member at the Institute for Deep Ecology. Her six recordings have received extensive airplay on Earth and, in 2003, NASA played her song “Dig Down Deep” on the planet Mars as encouragement to the robot “Spirit.” Libby’s studio albums include A Meditation for Healing(1998) and How Could Anyone (2005).
Lauret Savoy
A teacher, earth scientist, writer, photographer, and pilot, Lauret Savoy is also a woman of mixed African-American, Native American, and Euro-American heritage. Her courses consider how braided strands of human history and geologic-natural history contribute to the stories we tell of the land’s origin and history, and to stories we tell of ourselves in the land and of relational identity. She is a Professor of Environmental Studies and Geology at Mount Holyoke College. Her most recent book, co-edited with Allison Deming, is The Colors of Nature: Culture, Identity, and the Natural World.
Sam Skaggs
Since arriving in Alaska in 1975 to manage a musk ox farm in Fairbanks, Sam Skaggs has been an advocate for people and place. He is a Registered Investment Advisor, conservationist, philanthropist, sailor, and father of four. He and his partner recently redesigned their entire business strategy to align with the concepts of resiliency.
Joe Solomon
Joe Solomon is an organizer at the frontlines of building powerful new movements combining grassroots community organizing with the only-just-glimpsed potential of the Internet. He is the Social Media Coordinator for www.350.org, which works to inspire and equip large-scale environmental and political action events around the world on issues of climate change.
Molly Sturges
Molly Sturges is an artistic director, composer, performer and facilitator. She is best known for her intergenerational, large-scale, artistic collaborations with communities across the globe which focus on environmental and social equity and healing. She is the Artistic Director and Co-Founder of Littleglobeand is a Professor of Practice in Art and Ecology at the University of New Mexico. A United States Artist Fellow in Music, Sturges is currently at work on a national arts and climate change project entitled COAL: A Musical Fable.