PRESS RELEASE
Contact: Dr. Jenna Jorns, Program Manager, Great Lakes Integrated Sciences and Assessments (GLISA), jljorns@umich.edu
GLISA AND ASAP HOST THE 2018 GREAT LAKES ADAPTATION FORUM
The Great Lakes Integrated Sciences and Assessments (GLISA) and the American Society of Adaptation Professionals (ASAP) co-hosted the 2018 Great Lakes Adaptation Forum at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor between September 24th – 26th, 2018.
Over 160 registered attendees and students from United States and Canadian-based universities, tribal governments, nonprofits, private industries, and governmental agencies, among others, met to discuss their continued work since the 2016 forum, as well as the latest in adaptation funding, technology, equity, and leadership. The format of the Forum was designed around four tracks, implemented to bridge sectors and facilitate knowledge-sharing among experts in different fields.
“In a lot of conferences, you go to a session specifically on water, or on cities, or rural communities, or public health,” GLISA Program Manager Jenna Jorns told NPR-affiliate station WXXI News, “so instead of having sessions that are designed around one sector we wanted to have sessions that go across those tracks. People from all different disciplines will come together to learn from each other.”
Highlighting the Forum’s specific focus on issues of equity and inclusion, Dr. Dan Wildcat of the Haskell Indian Nations University gave the keynote address, speaking specifically to the importance of including traditional ecological knowledge in adaptation strategies to climate change.
“Before any of us in this room thought in boxes, before any of us worked in silos, before any of us did research that was prescribed, and detailed in our disciplines and methodologies of choice we employ, our ancestors learned, worked, thought, researched out of doors.” Dr. Wildcat told the attendees during the opening plenary.
To view an archive of the individual presentations given at GLAF 2018, please visit presentation pages on the agenda at https://glaf2018.sched.com/.
