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School of Environment and Natural Resources

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EPN Webinar - June 4, 2021, Hear us ROAR: Bioregional restoration of central Ohio’s ecological systems

Jun 4, 2021, 10:00am - 11:30am
Deadline: 
Friday, June 4, 2021
Cost: 
Free
Location: 
Zoom Webinar
Contact: 
Cecil Okotah
614-668-0434

June 4 program banner with images of ecological systems

 


REGISTER HERE


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 (from Otterbein University, Denison University, Ohio Wesleyan University, and Kenyon College, to 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.

The closing segment of this program features a breakout session for ROAR Academy students to meet with environmental professionals for networking, mentorship, and information sharing, and begin to explore and apply the principles of bioregionalism and ecosystem restoration.


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.

11:00 a.m. Audience Q & A with Dr. Wahl and ROAR Academy leaders. 

11:10 a.m. Networking roundtables for students and environmental professionals.

11:25 a.m. Concluding remarks by Dr. Sharp.


SPEAKER

Outdoor image of Dr. Daniel Christian Wahl

 

Daniel Christian Wahl originally trained as a biologist, and holds degrees in Biology (BSc. Hons., Univ. of Edinburgh), Holistic Science (MSc.,Schumacher College) and Natural Design (PhD., Univ. of Dundee). He was the director of Findhorn College between 2007 and 2010, is a member of the International Futures Forum and H3Uni, an advocation partner of r3.0, and on the advisory councils of Ecosystems Restoration Camps, Commonland, the Ojai Foundation, the Systems Change Alliance and the Overview Institute of Australia, as well as, a Findhorn Foundation Fellow. Daniel lives on Majorca where he helped to set up SMART UIB and works locally and internationally as a consultant, educator and activist. Among his clients have been Ecover, Forum for the Future, Camper, Balears.t, Save the Med, Lush, UNITAR, UK Foresight, Future Stewards,  and many universities and N.G.O.s. He served on the academic working group of the Global Ecovillage Network and has been linked to GEN for almost 20 years. Daniel has worked closely with Gaia Education since 2007 and contributed to the development of their Design for Sustainability online course and co-authored the current versions of all four dimensions of the curriculum. He also wrote the content and developed the concept of Gaia Education's SDGs Flashcards which with the support of UNESCO are now translated into 7 languages. Daniel teaches regularly on the MAs in Ecological Design Thinking  and Regenerative Economics at Schumacher College. His 2016 book 'Designing Regenerative Cultures' has quickly gained international acclaim, his Blog on Medium is followed by over 23k people and his social media advocacy has a combined audience of over 550k people around the world.


NEED ACCOMODATIONS?

We strive to host events that are inclusive and accessible to everyone. If you have a disability and require accommodations to fully participate in this activity, please reach out to Cecil Okotah (okotah.1@osu.edu). Requests made five business days in advance will generally allow us to provide seamless access. However, we will make every effort to meet requests made after this time frame. You will be contacted by someone from our staff to discuss your specific needs.

This program will be recorded, edited, and posted to the EPN YouTube page by June 11, 2021.