PROGRAM OVERVIEW
This virtual program addresses ecosystem restoration through bioregional collaborations with a specific focus on higher education institutions. Our featured speaker is Dr. Daniel Wahl, former director of Findhorn College and author of the acclaimed book Designing Regenerative Cultures, which has been called by David Orr as “the doorway to a possible, indeed, a necessary future.” In it, Dr. Wahl promotes the concept of bioregionalism as a way to honor and restore earth systems overridden by years of extractive practices. In so doing, he offers a pathway to reimagine our economic, agricultural, and social constructs. As we begin to explore “the next world” after Covid, Wahl shows us ways to move forward toward what he calls “transformative innovation, biologically-inspired design, health and resilience, and living systems thinking.”
This program is co-hosted with ROAR: Regional Ohio Action for Resilience, which is putting in place a Higher Education Collaborative focused on central Ohio as a bioregion, uniting many of its small universities and campuses (including Otterbein University, Denison University, Ohio Wesleyan University, Kenyon College, the Methodist Theological School in Ohio, Ohio State Marion and Ohio State Newark) to leverage their collective buying power for renewable energy and food aggregation, and to seek collaborative curricular programming. Together they are establishing a ROAR Academy for summer 2021, forming a team of interns focused on bioregional cooperation.
This program features both webinar-style educational sessions with Dr. Wahl and ROAR leaders as well as networking and discussion round table sessions to review and utilize the principles of bioregionalism and ecosystem restoration and for ROAR Academy students to meet with environmental professionals for networking and information sharing.
AGENDA
9:55 a.m. Waiting room opens
10:00 a.m. Jeff Sharp, PhD, director, School of Environment and Natural Resources provides welcome remarks.
10:05 a.m. Daniel Christian Wahl, PhD, shares transformative innovation strategies for bioregional regeneration.
10:40 a.m. Participants join in a facilitated, smaller-group discussion* on bioregionalism, ecosystem restoration, and the role of higher education collaboratives.
10:55 a.m. Audience Q & A with Dr. Wahl and ROAR Academy leaders.
11:05 a.m. Networking roundtables* for students and environmental professionals.
11:25 a.m. Concluding remarks by Dr. Sharp.
*Bioregionalism and ecosystem restoration breakout and networking topic areas include:
- Environmental Education and Communication
- Environmental Policy and Renewable Energy
- Wildlife Conservation
- Farm and Garden Management
- Ecosystem Restoration and Function
- Climate and Food Justice
