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Keynote Speaker
The Need to Decolonize the Environmental Movement in the Valley
Valerie Washington
Global warming and other environmental injustices are products of colonialism, capitalism, and racism. Even now, solutions in climate action are tone deaf and exclusive. In this presentation, Val will be talking about environmental racism, issues with climate action efforts and potential solutions specific to the valley.
Valerie (Val) Washington describes herself as a community builder and activist. She believes in solving all systemic issues using solutions that touch upon intersectionality and theories in Black feminism. Valerie is currently pursuing a Master's Degree in Urban and Regional Planning with a concentration in sustainability. Her goal is to use cultural and sustainable practices to reconstruct land use policies in order to make communities of color thrive in spite of colonialism. While environmental justice is one of her passions, she also spends a lot of time working in the reproductive justice field providing support to folks seeking abortion care. In her free time, she enjoys reading afro futurism and exploring rural Virginia. She lives in Harrisonburg with her son and dog.
Student Speakers
Gender Inequality and the COVID-19 Pandemic: US Company Policies and Disclosures
Heather Korzun
The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated gender inequalities in the United States, particularly regarding workplace gender equality. This study uses content analysis of annual reports to explore some of the largest US companies’ responses to these inequalities.
World Hunger and Robotics
Zavion Taylor
The Botanical robot is a robot with the goal of ending world hunger. The robot is capable of independently digging holes, and planting seeds. As well as watering the seeds, and checking the soil moisture. World hunger doesn’t exist because there’s not enough food, it exists because there’s a lack of access to food for various reasons. Which is why the end goal of the project is for the robots to plant fruits and vegetables everywhere.
Small-Scale Black Soldier Fly Production for Sustainable Food Waste Management
Griffin Albrecht and John Stiles
This presentation will focus on the environmental benefits of sustainable farming, the history of the use of black soldier flies, public policy, key stakeholders, some ethical considerations, as well as the current steps that have been taken in this project and future plans.
EMU Hoophouse Project: How interdisciplinary projects can benefit the campus and environment.
Luke Wheeler
Engineers for a Sustainable World, in partnership with the Sustainable Food Initiative, recieved a grant from a national organization to revitalize the campus hoophouse that will provide food for students and community members.
Poster Session Q and A: "Addressing Climate Crisis and Climate Justice through Eco-Theology and Biblical Studies"
Sydney Dudley
Students from James Madison University have crafted posters exploring how biblical studies and eco-theology can help address the climate crisis more effectively and equitably by raising awareness, countering damaging interpretations of the Bible, and spurring direct actions such as policy and lifestyle changes.
Peers Promoting Sustainable Lifestyles in a Residence Hall
Christie-Joy Hartman
This presentation is about James Madison University’s Environment & Sustainability Residential Learning Community for academic year ’22-’23, especially our promotion of sustainable lifestyles to peers in our 500-person residence hall. Those attending this presentation will leave able to access the Anatomy of Action and Campus Race to Zero Waste materials.
Enhanced Chimeric Enzyme for Bioremediation of PET Plastics
Rebecca Romero
In our Capstone project, we attempted to address the problem of insufficient plastic waste management and work towards UN Sustainable Development Goal 12, ‘Ensure Sustainable Consumption and Production Patterns’, by bioengineering a chimeric PETase::MHETase protein for enhanced PET degradation in broader conditions.
Using Satellites to Map the Urban Heat Island Through Time With an Environmental Justice Lens
Trevor Brooks
The urban heat island is a phenomenon where urban centers are hotter than their surrounding rural counterparts. It can be mapped through either satellites or on the ground surveys. This presentation will cover the pros and cons of both methodologies and compare data from two different mapping projects dealing with the Harrisonburg heat island. This presentation will then show how using this data can be used to empower local disenfranchised communities to spark change and action.
Community Food Hub: Providing Free, Healthy Meals to Students Sustainably
Abigail Forrest
Our presentation seeks to inform others of our free food room. We will discuss how we’ve coordinated volunteers for meal packing. Our presentation will show a typical meal-packing day. We will talk about how many meals we generally pack and how many we believe are being taken.
SDG Integration: Further Your Impact During Events
Grace Gardener
This interactive workshop will help you integrate SDG’s into your organization's everyday activities and major events. Learn about the benefits, brainstorm for your club or organization, and engage with other leaders.
AgroBot: An engineering approach to combatting food scarcity
Ethan Spicher, Caleb Hoschtetler, Conrad Nice, and Ethan Ball
This senior engineering capstone project focuses on how technology and engineering can be applied to improve food availability.
Rail Trail Socials: Exploring the importance of social media engagement for alternative transportation projects
Micah Buckwalter, Jaden Jones, and Braydon Collier
This senior Environmental Science capstone project, partnering with the Alliance for the Shenandoah Valley, examined how various social media tactics and techniques an be utilized to garner support and awareness for the Shenandoah Rail Trail.
Interactive Facilitation of Collective Grieving and Processing of Loss Brought On by the Climate Crisis
Olivia Hazelton
Do you feel overwhelmed, stressed, and hopeless for the state of our climate and world? This presentation is for you. This session is a time to process eco-grief and eco-anxiety together as a Harrisonburg/Shenandoah Valley community. Through meditative practices, sharing, and connecting with each other, we will take the necessary step of experiencing grief for our world together. By becoming present to the anger, fear, frustration, and sadness we feel at the destruction and loss of our ecological homes, we will hopefully bring inspiration and motivation to the deep parts of ourselves that want change.
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