Plenary Sessions
Plenary sessions will be a part of each day’s schedule. Several panel discussions are being finalized and will be added.
Elena Bennett
Plenary Presentation: Managing for multiple ecosystem services in Canada’s working landscapes
Biographical Information: Elena Bennett is a professor of sustainability science at McGill University in the Department of Natural Resource Sciences and the McGill School of Environment. She earned her MSc (1999) and PhD (2002) at the University of Wisconsin, where she studied human impact on the biogeochemical cycling of phosphorus. She has won awards for undergraduate teaching and graduate supervision and was an NSERC EWR Steacie Fellow (2017-2019).
Dan Egan
Plenary Presentation: Bridging a culture difference between science and journalism
Biographical Information: Dan Egan is a reporter at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and a Senior Water Policy Fellow at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. He is the author of the The Death and Life of the Great Lakes, a New York Times best seller and winner of The Los Angels Times Book Prize. He has twice been finalist for the Pulitzer prize for his Great Lakes newspaper coverage.
Michelle McCrackin
Plenary Presentation: Bridging the science-policy divide to address environmental challenges facing aquatic ecosystems
Biographical Information: Michelle McCrackin is a Science Policy Fellow with the American Association for the Advancement of Science, hosted by the National Science Foundation. Most recently, she has been a research scientist at Stockholm University in Sweden. Since 2014, she has been working to make scientific knowledge about the Baltic Sea’s environment more accessible to policymakers in the region. As a founding member of Baltic Eye, a boundary-spanning organization at the university’s Baltic Sea Centre, she has written policy briefs, editorials and web articles, presenting findings to international policy- and decision-makers in the region. Dr. McCrackin uses large datasets and computer models to quantify the magnitude and sources of nutrient loading to coastal areas and eutrophication responses to changes in nutrient inputs. She gained 15 years of experience in corporate finance prior to pursuing a career in science. She is a graduate of the University of Michigan (BBA and MBA) and Arizona State University (PhD).
Missy Tracy
Plenary Presentation: Ho-Chunk People of TeeJop Water and Land Stewards
Biographical Information: Missy Tracy is the Municipal Relations Coordinator at Ho-Chunk Gaming Madison and a tribal member of the Ho-Chunk Nation. For the past 11 years, Ms. Tracy has worked for Indian country in public relations, training, regulation and community relations. She has created an award winning strategic public relations program which won accolades from the Central Wisconsin Community Action Council, the Red Cross, and the Baraboo Chamber of Commerce. Ms. Tracy has served as the Seminar Director at the National Indian Gaming Association in Washington, D.C. Additionally, community, regional, and national involvement continues to be an emphasis with her service on several boards.
Katharine Hayhoe
Plenary Presentation: Climate Change
Biographical Information: Katharine Hayhoe is an accomplished atmospheric scientist who studies climate change and why it matters to us here and now. She is also a remarkable communicator who has received the American Geophysical Union’s climate communication prize, the Stephen Schneider Climate Communication award, and been named to a number of lists including Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People, Foreign Policy’s 100 Leading Thinkers, and FORTUNE magazine’s World’s Greatest Leaders. Katharine is currently a professor and directs the Climate Science Center at Texas Tech University. She has a B.Sc. in Physics from the University of Toronto and an M.S. and Ph.D. in Atmospheric Science from the University of Illinois.