Submitted on behalf of the Office of Energy Management & Sustainability
Following our initial announcement regarding Ithaca College’s status as a host institution for this year’s Global Conference on Sustainability in Higher Education (GCSHE), the Office of Energy Management & Sustainability is exited to share an initial list of the 2020 keynote speakers (more speakers TBD). The lineup of speakers is diverse and includes individuals and organizations representing multiple facets of sustainability including social justice and anti-racism, the labor rights movement, indigenous rights, and, of course, global climate change.
Please keep in mind that anyone with an @ithaca.edu email address will receive free admission to this year’s conference, Oct 20 thru Oct 22, using the discount code: ITHACA090120 at checkout. Please note that registration is open through the end of the conference and presentation recordings will be available through November 20th, 2020. You can register for GCSHE here.
2020 GCSHE Keynote Speakers
- Ibram X. Kendi – Author of Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America and How to Be an Antiracist. Kendi was also named a 2019 Guggenheim Fellow and is the Director of the Center for Antiracist Research at Boston University.
- Robin Wall Kimmerer – Author of Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teaching of Plants and mother, scientist, decorated professor, and enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation.
- Tasneem Esspo - Executive Director of Climate Action Network - International (CAN-I) and Commissioner of the National Planning Commission of South Africa - a position appointed by the President.
- Suparna Kudesia – Choreographer of Collective Change and Director of CoFED, an organization working toward regenerative food systems and returning stole wealth to BIPOC-led cooperatives.
- Joshua D. Dedmond - Youth Organizer for the Labor Network for Sustainability, which works with unions and their allies to advance a climate action program that is ecologically sustainable and economically just.
- Wanjiku “Wawa” Gatheru – Founder of BlackGirlEnvironmentalist and a 21-year-old environmental justice advocate passionate about creating a more inclusive environmental movement. She is also the first Black person in history to receive the Rhodes, Truman, and Udall scholarships.
- Colette Pichon Battle - Founder and Executive Director of the Gulf Coast Center for Law & Policy and named a 2019 Obama Fellow and 2019 TED Fellow.
- Mateo Nube - Co-founder of the Movement Generation Justice & Ecology Project and national co-chair of the Climate Justice Alliance.
- Sara Goldrick-Rab, PhD. – Named one of POLITICO’s 2016 top 50 people shaping American politics, Dr. Goldrick-Rab is best known for her research on food and housing-insecurity in higher education.
- Sean Sweeney – Director of the International Program on Labor, Climate & Environment at the School of Labor and Urban Studies, City University of New York and coordinator for Trade Unions for Energy Democracy (TUED), a global network of 64 unions that advocates for democratic control and social ownership of energy resources, infrastructure and options.
