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New
Frontiers |
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Conference
2009 |
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Session
2: Women's Leadership in Environmental Change
Description
"Leadership and Environmental Change" is a documentary
devoted to Marion Stoddart, one of the first woman environmental activists in
the US who not only brought back to life a very polluted and practically dead
Nashua-river, but worked with legislators and contributed significantly to a
"Clean Water" Act and was recognized by the US Presidents and
received the Award from the United Nations.
We are honored to have Marion and others involved with this work at our
conference. Learn more about this
amazing story at http://www.workof1000.com/story.htm)
Speakers
Marion StoddartIn the early 1960s, Marion Stoddart,
a mother of three, decided to take on the impossible-cleaning up the Nashua
River, then one of the 10 most polluted rivers in the country. Today, thanks
to her efforts the Nashua is clean and restored. Now nearly 82, Marion has
been featured in National Geographic magazine and is a recipient of the
United Nations Environmental Programme's Global 500 Award. She has also
spread her love of diversity and the environment through her work as a
foreign exchange program coordinator and the founder of her own outdoor
adventure business for women over 40. Marion, a grandmother of five, still
lives with her husband Hugh in Groton, Massachusetts. Susan Edwards formed
Extra Mile Studio Productions in April 2007 to produce web-based learning projects
for the global community offering tangible, replicable, and inspirational
"plans of action" ordinary people can follow to make a difference.
The learning projects focus on important social and environmental issues and
combine interactive community building web sites with documentary film,
online educational resources, and live civic engagement programs.
Extra Mile Studio Productions has improved web-based
information delivery and community connections for libraries and non-profits
across the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and is currently producing a
documentary film and interactive web site on environmental activist Marion
Stoddart. Larisa Schelkin is CEO &
Co-Founding Director of the Diversity and Outreach in Math and Engineering
(DOME) Foundation, Inc. Prior to this position Larisa served as the Special
Assistant to the President for Diversity at WIT in Boston, Massachusetts; the
Director for the Center for Diversity and Inclusive Leadership at Tufts
University in Medford, Massachusetts. Before joining Tufts, Larisa managed
engineering training, college relations, and diversity programs at Tyco
Electronics, M/A-COM; Prior to this position she worked as a Director of
Operations for Center for Loss Prevention and Structural Integrity at
WPI. Larisa is originally from Bashkortostan, South Ural Mountain,
Republic which is a part of Russia. She holds a Bachelor of Science and
Master of Science degrees in Petroleum Engineering from the Russian Petroleum
Engineering University, and a Master of Science from the Moscow Institute of
Physics and Technology. Larisa has done Doctoral work in artificial
intelligence (AI) and the mathematical model of hydraulic processes. Prior to
immigrating to the United States with her family, Larisa was employed as a
petroleum engineer and petroleum engineering research and development
specialist at the Russian Oil and Gas Research Institute in Moscow. Larisa
grew up in engineering family – both Larisa's parents are engineers, her
family lived and worked in Africa and India. Honorable Lisa Wong, Mayor of
Fitchburg is 28-years-old, the daughter of Chinese immigrants, and won 75% of
the vote to become Mayor of Fitchburg, taking office in 2008. From 2001-2006,
Lisa worked for the Fitchburg Redevelopment Authority, including two and a
half years as the agency's director. Lisa also served as the executive
director of the Women's Institute for Housing & Economic Development.
Lisa's ultimate vision for Fitchburg is to take this old-mill-town and make
it new with innovative businesses, affordable housing, job opportunity,
skilled workforce and easily accessed outdoor recreation. Moderator:
Dorie Clark
Dorie Clark is a marketing, media and branding consultant. Clients
include the National Park Service, the Ford Foundation, Yale University, and
Google. Clark served as the New Hampshire Communications Director for Howard
Dean’s presidential campaign and the Press Secretary for former U.S. Labor
Secretary Robert Reich’s race for Massachusetts governor. Prior to her work
as a communications specialist, Clark was a staff writer for the Boston
Phoenix, covering local politics and policy and winning two New England
Press Association awards. She was also a regular contributor to the Boston
Globe, Boston magazine, and Commonwealth magazine, and served as
Executive Director for the nonprofit Massachusetts Bicycle Coalition.
Clark is as an adjunct professor of government and communications at
Emerson College, Tufts University, and Suffolk University, and is a frequent
media commentator on New England Cable News, WGBH, and other outlets. She is
a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Smith College and Harvard Divinity School. She
is the Vice-President of East Somerville Main Streets, and serves on the
Board of Overseers for the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of
Cruelty to Animals and the Board of Visitors for Fenway Community Health.
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