NEWS & EVENTS

MCC Graduate Students and Staff Present at the 2017 University of Guam Island Sustainability Conference

April 18-21, 2017

MCC student Joanna Norton presenting.
MCC student Joanna Norton presents her project on utilizing invasive albizia for climate smart agriculture at the 2017 CIS. Photo credit: UoG

The Manager Climate Corps (MCC) was fully immersed at the 2017 University of Guam Island Sustainability Conference in Tumon, Guam with graduate student presentations and a climate breakout session. The Island Sustainability Conference provides our region with information and knowledge on climate change, energy, natural resources, and food security topics. The 2017 theme was “Cultivating Communities for Sustainable Action” in order to communicate, adopt, and integrate sustainable practices throughout our communities.

PI-CASC sponsored a pre-conference student research symposium in which five MCC graduate students were able to present within. The students who presented on their manager-driven projects, included Kamala Anthony, Cherie Kauahi, Louise Economy, Joanna Norton, and Rose Hart. To learn more about their presentations, read their abstracts here or visit their project pages here. The symposium provided an excellent platform for MCC students to share and learn from other students in our region. Additionally, the pre-conference event featured plenaries with USAPI managers and researchers to broaden new horizons.

MCC staff Scott Laursen presenting.
MCC staff Scott Laursen kicks off their session with an overview on the MCC program and the 2017 CIS. Photo credit: UoG

MCC staff Scott Laursen and Sharon Ziegler-Chong held a climate breakout session titled, “Collaboration across worldviews: utilizing knowledge co-production on Hawai’i Island to thrive through change while preparing for the future.” The session spotlighted the utility of knowledge coproduction to build transdisciplinary professional networks that are inherently powerful in both shifting human behavior and maximizing adaptive capacities during socio-ecological change (e.g. climate change, land-use change, invasive species impacts, cultural change). Participants also got to enjoy the screening of the 2016 immersion camp film and were provided with an opportunity to discuss the knowledge coproduction process with panelists. Check out the full conference booklet here.

A serene bay in Guam. Photo credit: Xavier Matsutaro