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Researchers, sovereign tribal communities, and women farmland-owners will discuss how they are collaborating to foster climate resilience through the newly established Central Midwest Climate Opportunities and Learning Team (CM CO-Learn), funded by the NOAA Climate Adaptation Partnerships program, that supports Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, and Missouri. This panel brings together a tribal community member, a woman farmland owner, and several project researchers to share what they are learning from each other, what tangible climate-wise action is underway, and how these strategies participate in global efforts to adapt to a changing climate.

Rosalind Grant is completing an associate's degree in science at Nebraska Indian Community College. She is an enrolled member of the Omaha Tribe of Nebraska and part of the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska. She completed an AIHEC (American Indian Higher Education Consortium) summer climate resilience internship last summer where she helped install weather stations for NICC's campus and has interned for the NICC campus greenhouses. She is an active member of the NICC and local communities and passionate about our environment and education. Her goal is to create climate adaptation plans for the Omaha and Winnebago Tribes.

Carolyn Van Meter owns farmland near to the farm where she grew up in Iowa. Over the past 12 years, she has not only been involved in programming (including part of the CO-Learn project) to integrate climate-wise conservation practices on her land but also has assumed leadership positions to support other landowners in taking action as well.  Her professional background is in the area of trust, estate, and small business taxes. Additionally, she has been involved with nonprofits, land trusts, and as a certified farm transition coordinator.

Martha Durr is a climatologist on faculty at Nebraska Indian Community College where she teaches, conducts research and is learning from Native communities. Martha’s passion for science began at an early age. After witnessing a severe storm on the wide open Plains with her dad, she was hooked on all things weather. The daughter of a lifetime caregiver and growing up in a large family that moved around the country allowed for exposure to providing essential human needs with dignity and knowledge of diverse communities. Each of these impacted Martha’s professional life choices in applied climatology over her 23-year career, which span the geographies of the Arctic and the Great Plains.

Bill Gutowsk is Professor Emeritus of Meteorology at Iowa State University. He has contributed to multiple activities of the World Climate Research Programme, most notably as past Co-Chair of the Coordinated Regional Downscaling Experiment, coordinating global efforts in regional-climate research. He was also a Lead Author for the Fifth and Sixth Assessment Reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, collaborating with fellow Lead Authors from 20 countries worldwide on his chapters, along with dozens of Contributing Authors from around the world.

Linda Shenk is Professor of English at Iowa State University. She applies her background in Shakespeare and performance to community-engaged research on climate resilience. Linda co-leads multiple transdisciplinary research projects, including as a lead investigator for the Central Midwest Climate Opportunities & Learning (CO-Learn) project (part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration/NOAA’s Climate Adaptation Partnerships program) and has published in journals as diverse as WIREs Climate Change; Climate & Sustainability, Environmental Humanities, Community Development; and ELR: English Literary Renaissance.

Register for the event at https://lp.constantcontactpages.com/ev/reg/psv3xy5