Keynote Speakers
May Berenbaum, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
May Berenbaum has been on the faculty of the Department of Entomology at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign since 1980, serving as head since 1992 and as Swanlund Chair of Entomology since 1996. Her work is focused on characterizing biochemical, genetic, and molecular mechanisms underlying interactions between insects and the plants they consume, including detoxification of natural and synthetic chemicals, and for applying ecological principles in developing sustainable management practices for natural and agricultural communities.
Her research, supported primarily by NSF and USDA, has produced over 300 refereed scientific publications and 40 book chapters. A member of the National Academy of Sciences, she has chaired two National Research Council committees, the Committee on the Future of Pesticides in U.S. Agriculture (2000) and the Committee on the Status of Pollinators in North America (2007). Devoted to teaching and fostering scientific literacy through formal and informal education, she has authored numerous magazine articles and six books about insects for the general public; on the UIUC campus, she founded outreach efforts including the Insect Fear Film Festival, the citizen-science web portal Beespotter, and the UIUC Pollinatarium. She graduated summa cum laude, with a B.S. degree and honors in biology, from Yale University in 1975 and received a Ph.D. in ecology and evolutionary biology from Cornell University in 1980.
Colleen Reid, University of Colorado Boulder
Colleen Reid studies how environmental and social exposures interact to influence health with a particular focus on exposures caused by global climatic changes and society’s responses to those changes. To date, her research has focused on the health impacts of exposure to air pollution from wildfires, extreme heat events, and proximity to urban vegetation. Reid has received research funding from the EPA, NSF, CDC, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and the JPB Foundation. Prior to becoming an assistant professor in Geography at the University of Colorado, Boulder, she was a post-doctoral fellow at the Harvard Chan School of Public Health. Reid completed her Ph.D. in Environmental Health Sciences at the University of California, Berkeley in 2014, a Masters of Public Health in 2007 from the University of California Berkeley, and a Bachelor of Science from Brown University in 2000.
Session Speakers
Michael Aiuvalasit, Illinois State Archaeological Survey, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Michael Aiuvalasit serves as a Research Scientist at the Illinois State Archaeological Survey, part of the Prairie Research Institute at the University of Illinois. His work as an environmental archaeologist focuses on how social institutions, built infrastructure, and land management practices influenced the resilience of communities to climate change in the past. He also explores how historic preservation can protect these stories of adaptation into the future. Current projects involve developing a deep-time perspective on the history of people, fire, and prairies in the Midwest. He is also combining experimental archaeology with micro-scale analyses of soils to make better archaeological interpretations when (and if) new excavations at cultural sites are necessary.
Mallory Barnes, Indiana University
Mallory Barnes is an Assistant Professor at Indiana University linking remote sensing and flux measurements across spatial and temporal scales to assess drought impacts on plant productivity.
Jeff Brawn, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Jeff Brawn is an ecologist and Emeritus Stuart L. and Nancy J. Levenick Professor of Sustainability at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He received a B.S. in wildlife biology from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, a M.S. in Wildlife Ecology from the University of Missouri, and a Ph.D. in Zoology and Ecology from Northern Arizona University. His research has focused on the conservation of bird populations and communities. Brawn’s research in the midwestern United States considered issues such as habitat fragmentation and the local diversity of birds, the role of birds in the dynamics of West Nile virus, and the effects of prescribed fire on the sustainability of oak savanna bird populations. He worked in the Republic of Panama for over thirty years where, in collaboration with the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and many students, he studied the demography and behavior of tropical forest birds. He has recently explored relations between expected climate change—especially changes in precipitation—and prospects for tropical bird populations. Brawn has served on numerous scientific review panels and editorial boards and is an elected Fellow of the American Ornithological Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Steve Brown, Illinois State Geological Survey, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Steven (Steve) Brown is the Interim Director of the Illinois State Geological Survey at the Prairie Research Institute, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and the Illinois State Geologist. He has 35 years of experience in geologic research and public service, having worked across four state geological surveys—Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, and Wisconsin—as well as the U.S. Geological Survey. His research has advanced understanding of the glacial geology and stratigraphy of the southern Lake Michigan region. He is currently working with the Illinois Department of Natural Resources Coastal Management Program to address issues affecting communities along the Lake Michigan shoreline.
Cody Eskew, Prairie Research Institute, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Cody Eskew is a Senior Scientific Specialist in Coastal Studies with the University of Illinois’ Prairie Research Institute, on assignment to the Illinois Department of Natural Resources' Coastal Management Program. He has been with the Illinois Coastal Management Program for six years, focusing on fostering sustainable coastal resiliency solutions along Illinois' Lake Michigan shoreline, a relatively short but highly diverse landscape that is subject to changing lake water levels and powerful storms. He manages the Shoreline Management Working Group, where he collaborates with Illinois coastal stakeholders to share knowledge and resources to improve community resilience. Eskew holds a Master's in Coastal System Management from the University of Glasgow and a Bachelor's in Marine Science/Biology from the University of Tampa.
Ryan Gauger, The Nature Conservancy
For seventeen years Ryan Gauger has had the pleasure of working for TNC across the Midwest focusing on fire management and stewardship. Since late 2019, Ryan has served as the Missouri TNC Fire and Stewardship Manager. Ryan also serves as the Chair of the Missouri Prescribed Fire Council. When it comes to fire management, the only thing that Ryan is more passionate about than safely increasing the use of prescribed fire is helping partners and private landowners to burn more themselves. In that regard, Ryan has been an advocate for more training opportunities, public/private partnerships for fire implementation, assisting in development of Prescribed Burn Associations, and collaborative planning efforts across all groups/individuals who engage on prescribed fire related challenges. Recently those efforts have taken the form of working with partners within Missouri and from across the country to bring hands-on, experiential learning to Missouri utilizing the Prescribed Fire Training Exchange (TREX) model.
Hillary Glandon, Lake Michigan Biological Station, Illinois Natural History Survey
Hillary Glandon is an Associate Research Scientist at the Illinois Natural History Survey's Lake Michigan Biological Station. She is interested in the response of coastal systems to environmental change, and she draws upon previous research experiences in marine and estuarine systems to bring new perspectives to Great Lakes aquatic ecology. In her role at LMBS, Glandon works with an interdisciplinary team to examine how constructed nearshore reefs mitigate erosion while creating valuable habitat for aquatic species. She strives to connect the results of research on costal processes to communities that need it most, thereby increasing community resilience in the face of an ever-changing coastal landscape.
Yisa Ginath Yuh, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign & MW CASC
Yisa Ginath is a conservation scientist, mostly interested in interdisciplinary research projects at the intersections between climate change and sustainability, biodiversity monitoring and conservation, landscape ecology, ecological modeling, and GIS and Remote Sensing. He is a holder of a Master of Science degree in Forest Information Technology, and a PhD in Geography, Urban, and Environmental Studies. He is working on developing climate refugia maps and web mapping and assessment tools for the MW CASC region, under the Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and Environment, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
Sachiko Graber, Waxwing Consulting
Graber is a south Minneapolis resident and farmer. She formerly served as the Associate Director for Climate with The Nature Conservancy’s Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota chapter, where she led the climate mitigation and climate policy programs. Graber previously worked with RMI's Global South program, where she focused on electricity access and equity in sub-Saharan Africa. She is a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer from Namibia and holds an M.S. from the University of Michigan’s School for Natural Resources and Environment and a B.A. in Physics from Grinnell College. As the principal consultant at Waxwing, she provides a range of technical assistance, writing, and facilitation services to clients.
Kaiyu Guan, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Guan is a Levenick Endowed Professor in agroecosystem sensing and modeling at UIUC, a Blue-Waters Professor in Supercomputing at UIUC-NCSA, a University Scholar of the University of Illinois System, the Founding Director of Agroecosystem Sustainability Center (ASC) at UIUC, and also the Chief Scientist of the NASA Acres Consortium - representing NASA's flagship program in advancing US agriculture research. His major affiliations at UIUC are with the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences (NRES), Siebel School of Computing and Data Sciences (CS), College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences (ACES), Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and Environment (iSEE), and National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA). His research group uses advanced process models, satellite sensing technology, fieldwork, and artificial intelligence to address how climate and human practices affect crop productivity, water resource, ecosystem functioning, and environmental sustainability.
Jeremy Guest, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Jeremy Guest is the Levenick Professor and Director of the Levenick Center for a Climate-Smart Circular Bioeconomy at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). He holds appointments in the Departments of Civil and Environmental Engineering and, by courtesy, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. The core goal of Professor Guest’s research group is to advance circular bioeconomies for a more sustainable and just future.
In addition to his role as the Director of the Levenick Center, Professor Guest also serves as the Associate Director for Research for the Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and Environment (iSEE) and as the Sustainable Design Lead for the Center for Advanced Bioenergy and Bioproducts Innovation (CABBI, a Bioenergy Research Center funded by the U.S. Department of Energy). He is the recipient of a National Science Foundation CAREER Award, the Paul L. Busch Award from the Water Research Foundation, and the James J. Morgan Environmental Science; Technology Early Career Award. Professor Guest’s formal training includes a B.S. and M.S. in civil engineering from Bucknell University and Virginia Tech, respectively, and a Ph.D. in environmental engineering from the University of Michigan.
Savannah Jenkins, University of Minnesota
Savannah Jenkins is a Métis descendent of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa, Gates Millennium Scholar, and PhD student within the Department of Natural Resources Science and Management at the University of Minnesota. She is passionate about all things STEM and her academic and professional career, focused on Environmental Engineering and Climate Change Science, allowed her to participate in a variety of projects ranging from computational chemistry to green energy design in northern Mongolia.
Presently, Jenkins is shifting her academic and professional direction toward Indigenous Science in an effort to be a good relative and ancestor. She hopes her work at the University of Minnesota in Dr. Mike Dockry's lab will be an opportunity to utilize her background to center Indigenous philosophies and methodologies in science.
Shibu Kar, University of Illinois Extension
Shibu Kar serves as an Assistant Dean and Program Leader for natural resources, environment, and energy at University of Illinois Extension. Kar provides strategic and functional leadership for Extension specialists, educators, and field coordinators to design and evaluate strategies that encourage the adoption of nature-friendly environmental and energy-related best practices among farmers, businesses, and communities. He also administers a portfolio of legacy programs, including the Master Naturalist program, Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant, and the Energy Education Council. Kar leads a team of experts in nutrient loss reduction, invasive species, climate change, pollinator habitat, and water quality, among other topics.
John Lambert, Illinois State Archeological Survey, University of Illinois
John is an Assistant Research Scientist at the Illinois State Archaeological Survey. He earned a BS (Anthropology), BA (English), and Masters certificate (GIS) from Iowa State University in 2009, and an MA in Anthropology from UC Davis in 2011. His current research focuses on the Pleistocene and Early Holocene archaeology of the Midcontinent and western Great Lakes. This includes work on hunter-gatherer mobility and stone tool technologies, GIS-based site probability modeling, and regional analysis of how human demography, migration, and subsistence respond to large-scale environmental and social change. Other recent work has centered on modeling the potential impact of climate change on cultural resources in Illinois and the application of digital technologies like 3D scanning and photogrammetry to archaeological fieldwork and analysis.
James Lamer, Illinois River Biological Station, Illinois Natural History Survey
James Lamer is a large river ecologist and director of the Illinois River Biological Station.
Sara Smith, College of Menominee Nation
Sara Smith is a citizen of the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin and is the Midwest Tribal Resilience Liaison with the College of Menominee Nation - Sustainable Development Institute (CMN-SDI), in association with the Midwest Climate Adaptation Science Center (MW CASC). As the liaison for the Midwest, she works on facilitating stronger relationships between Tribes, climate researchers, State and Federal organizations, academic institutions, and the MW CASC. In addition, she works with Tribes to build capacity and provides support by helping identify gaps and assisting with climate resilience efforts.
Laura Verden, Illinois Department of Natural Resources
Laura Verden has over 30 years of diverse work experience in both the public and private sectors. She is a Regional Landscape Architect (northeast IL territory) with the Illinois Department of Natural Resources and oversees the Region 2 capital planning and design projects, while also providing regulatory reviews for proposed work on State lands. Whether master planning, working with design consultants, or protecting native plant communities, her deep experience benefits both the Department and the residents of the State of Illinois.
Amy Waananen, Institute on the Environment
Amy Waananen is an ecologist with research interests in landscape ecology, plant-pollinator interactions, and adaptation. Waananen has a PhD in Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior from the University of Minnesota, where she studied how native plant populations might persist amid ongoing habitat fragmentation and climate change. Her prior work focused on how pollinators connect isolated patches of prairie in western Minnesota and the consequences of those connections. At the Institute on the Environment, Waananen works with the Midwest Climate Adaptation Science Center to develop understanding around how management choices, such promoting landscape connectivity, can improve species’ abilities to shift in space or persist in place to cope with climate change.
Jeff Walk, The Nature Conservancy
Jeff Walk is the Director of the Leveraging Our Lands Initiative for The Nature Conservancy’s Midwest Division. In this role, he supports staff conducting real estate transactions, land management and prescribed fire, and managing access to more than 100 preserves in 5 states. Walk earned his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and his professional interests include avian biology, conservation in agricultural systems, conservation planning, and the effects of climate change. Walk is past-president of the Illinois Chapter of The Wildlife Society, served on the Illinois Audubon Society’s board of directors, was appointed to the Illinois Endangered Species Protection Board and presently serves as a consultant to the Illinois Nature Preserves Commission.
Raphael Wahwassuck, Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation
Raphael Wahwassuck is a Tribal Council Member and Tribal Historic Preservation Officer for the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation.
Workshop Leads
Trent Ford, Illinois State Water Survey, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Trent Ford is the Illinois State Climatologist based at the Illinois State Water Survey, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He has expertise in hydroclimatology and climate extremes including drought and heat waves. He leads work to better understand water movement between the land and atmosphere, how these processes create or worsen extreme weather, and how we can better monitor and predict societal impacts. Through his work as the Illinois State Climatologist, Ford has significant experience in stakeholder and decision maker outreach and communication of climate science. He regularly engages with communities, industries, and local to federal level agencies in Illinois and the Midwest in hazard early warning, preparedness, and mitigation, and helps to identify climate solutions from local to global scales.
Esther Ngumbi, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Dr. Esther Ngumbi was born in a rural farming community along the Kenyan Coast. Education for girls was considered unimportant and there were no societal role models to inspire girls to reach for the stars. Her parents were teachers and struggled and sacrificed to raise enough money to pay for their children’s school fees.
She studied hard so that one day she could rescue her family and community from poverty and be a role model to many young African girls in similar situations. She went through high school and eventually college and attained a Bachelor and Masters of Science at Kenyatta University. On a beautiful summer day of August, 6, 2011, she attained what at times seemed to be an elusive dream: a doctorate degree in Entomology from Auburn University. She became the first woman in her community to obtain a Ph.D. degree. She has dedicated all of her passion, efforts, heart, and resources to bringing sustainable change in her community and she has become a role model for girls in her community.
Cristian Proistosescu, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Cristi Proistosescu is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Atmospheric Sciences and the Department of Geology at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign.
Kelsey Taylor, Stamen Design
Kelsey Taylor is a cartographer, geographer, and designer based in Washington, DC. She is determined to advance use of maps and data visualization to understand issues of all types, but particularly around climate change and sustainability. Taylor has a BA in environmental studies and philosophy and an MS in geography from The George Washington University.
Molly Woloszyn, Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, University of Colorado
Molly Woloszyn is a Regional Drought Information Coordinator with the National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS), and is the program point of contact for the Midwest Drought Early Warning Systems (DEWS). While the Program Office for NIDIS is located in Boulder, Colorado, she is remotely located in her region in Champaign, Illinois. The Regional Drought Information Coordinators with NIDIS strengthen integrated systems for drought monitoring, forecasting, and planning and preparedness jointly with federal agency partners, tribes, states, municipalities, academic institutions, and other organizations.
Lightning Talk Presenters
Marissa Ahlering, The Nature Conservancy
Marissa Ahlering has a passion for prairies and prairie conservation. She joined The Nature Conservancy in 2010 and currently serves as the Science Director for Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota. She works with a team that broadly focuses on conservation and management of natural systems and the benefits they provide. Her work focuses on conservation issues such as the importance of plant diversity to other ecosystem functions, implementing adaptive management, and integrating climate adaptation strategies into TNC’s biodiversity conservation work.
Presentation title: Using Connectivity, Ecosystem Service Modeling, and Climate Exposure to Prioritize Forest and Grassland Restoration in the Upper Midwest, USA
Cinnamon Mittan-Moreau, Michigan State University
Cinnamon Mittan-Moreau is an NSF Postdoctoral and Michigan State University Presidential Fellow based at MSU’s Kellogg Biological Station. She uses cutting edge genomic, transcriptomic, and physiological techniques to investigate species’ ability to adapt to environmental change. Mittan-Moreau has worked on a variety of organisms, from peat mosses to introduced toads, with the common themes of range expansion and adaptation in novel environments. She is dedicated to working with conservation practitioners to incorporate genetic data into management actions.
Presentation title: Leveraging Genomic and Physiological Data to Inform Management of the Critically Endangered Mitchell's Satyr Butterfly
Amelia Olsen, University of Minnesota
Amelia Olsen is an Earth and Environmental Science master’s student working with Dr. Cara Santelli at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities. She is grateful to be a part of the tribal-university collaborative Kawe Gidaa-Naanaagadawendaamin Manoomin (First We Must Consider Manoomin/Psiη/Wild Rice). Her work is focused on the impacts of agricultural chemicals on the water quality of Manoomin lakes, specifically the fate and transport of pesticides and nutrients in the Otter Tail River Watershed.
Presentation title: Groundwater Pathways to Manoomin
Ayla Skorupa, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Ayla Skorupa's work in applied aquatic conservation spans multiple research disciplines, from developing decision frameworks that link science and management, to understanding species ecological needs that govern their persistence. She specializes in field biology, quantitative ecology, and has extensive aquaculture experience. While she has a broad background her degrees are malacology focused, she earned a MSc. studying planktonic mollusks and a PhD researching freshwater mussel conservation.
Presentation title: Climate Sensitivity in Midwest Mussels Varies with Range Size and Trait Combinations
Cary Troy, Purdue University
Cary Troy runs the Troy Lab at Purdue University. His research focuses on coastal hydrodynamic processes with engineering and ecological applications. Troy did his Ph.D. research at Stanford University in the Environmental Fluid Mechanics Laboratory, studying breaking internal waves with a novel set of laboratory experiments. At Purdue University, he has maintained a geographic focus on the Laurentian Great Lakes and examined a wide range of physical processes, ranging from deep-water turbulence and mixing to shoreline erosion. Troy has also conducted pedagogical research, and teaches courses in the areas of hydraulics and hydrology, environmental fluid mechanics, coastal engineering, and basic water science.
Presentation title: Does Less Ice Cover Equate to More Turbulent Overwinter Conditions on Great Lakes Fish Spawning Reefs?
Poster Presenters
- Nouman Afzal, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
- Johnny Baakliny, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
- Hannah Bey, Michigan State University
- Michelle Homann, University of Wisconsin-Madison
- Kesondra Key, Indiana University
- Hannah Jo King, University of Minnesota
- Rebekkah LaBlue, University of Wisconsin-Madison
- Doris Lagos-Kutz, Illinois Natural History Survey, Prairie Research Institute, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
- John Lambert, University of Illinois
- Emerald Otradovec, College of Menominee Nation
- Weiqing Qu, University of Illinois Urbana Champaign
- Eden Rozing, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
- Whitney Sansom, University of Minnesota
- Shotaro Shiratsuru, University of Wisconsin-Madison
- Narda Trivino, Michigan State University
- Riley Tucker, College of Menominee Nation - Sustainable Development Institute
- Xian Wang, Indiana University
- Megan Wilcots, The Nature Conservancy
- Shoutao Wu, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign