Program

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 26

6:00 – 7:00 am

Yoga Class

7:00 –8:00 am

Breakfast

Ad Hocs

8:30 – 9:00 am

Closing Remarks with EGA's Board Chair and Executive Director

Join EGA Board Chair, Stuart Clarke, and Executive Director Dana Lanza, for a short reflection about Retreat take-aways and to learn more about what’s coming up within EGA.

9:00 – 10:30 am
Featured Conversation

Leading the Way:  Western States Turn Up the Heat on Climate Change

States across the country have designed and implemented new policies that reduce greenhouse gas emissions, promote clean energy and create family wage jobs.  Their leadership serves as a guide for bold federal action that can transform the nation-revitalizing the economy and stemming the effects of global warming.  We’ll highlight climate initiatives and their implications for the West and the Nation.

SPEAKERS

Ned Farquhar is Mountain West energy/climate advocate for the Natural Resources Defense Council.  He served as Senior Policy Advisor for Governor Bill Richardson of New Mexico and represented the Governor at the Western Governors’ Association.  He has been program officer for western lands at the Packard Foundation, executive director of the Vermont Natural Resources Council and 1000 Friends of New Mexico, Vermont chapter lobbyist and campaign manager for the Sierra Club, staff director for the Alaska House Resources Committee, and special assistant to Alaska’s natural resources commissioner.  He is a regular columnist (“In the West”) at the Albuquerque Journal.  He has taught at the University of Vermont and the University of New Mexico. 

Steve Owens was appointed Director of the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality by Governor Janet Napolitano in January 2003.  Before joining ADEQ, Steve was an environmental attorney in private practice in Phoenix for 14 years.  Steve graduated with honors from Brown University in 1978 and received his law degree in 1981 from Vanderbilt Law School, where he was editor in chief of the Vanderbilt Law Review.  From 1982-84, Steve served as counsel to the Subcommittee on Investigations and Oversight of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Science and Technology.  From 1985-88, he was chief counsel and later state director for then U.S. Senator Al Gore.

Paul Larmer has worked for High Country News since 1992, a non-profit media organization that covers the American West. He has authored numerous feature stories on endangered species, land-use, and cultural change in the region. He now serves as executive director and publisher. In 2006, HCN won the prestigious American Association for the Advancement of Science journalism award for its coverage of climate change in the West.

10:45 am – 12:15 pm
Featured Conversation

Green Revolution 2.0: New and Old Agendas for Poverty, Agriculture and Environment

Both timely and controversial, we will hear different perspectives on the relationship between agricultural development and environmental issues. Panelists include representatives from two foundations working on these issues in Africa, an African farmers organization and a policy specialist. We will share some ways that institutions within and beyond the continent are thinking about how to integrate concerns for poverty eradication, agricultural production, environment and equity to address global, not just African, challenges. How can funders effectively think and engage globally in key issues of policy and practice around poverty and agricultural development for the environmental future of the planet?

SPEAKERS

Melissa Ho, is an Associate Program Officer in the Global Development Program of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. She works on developing initiatives aimed at improving the capacity of small scale farmers in Africa and South Asia to improve their livelihoods through agriculture.  Melissa has over 13 years of experience in the Agricultural Development field.  Prior to working with the Foundation, She served as the Agriculture Policy Advisor for Senator Hillary Clinton; her work with Senator Clinton focused on drafting legislation to create market linkages for small and medium sized farmers and improving school nutrition programs in the New York area, as well as planning and implementation of new initiatives. Previously, Melissa lived in Nairobi, Kenya, where she was a Project Associate for the World Agroforestry Center. Melissa has a BA from Cornell, a Masters in Soil Science from UC Davis, and a PhD in Plant Physiology from Penn State University.

Dr. Esther Mwangi

Dr. Michel Pimbert is an agricultural ecologist at the International Institute for Environment Development, with experience in research, training and consultancy on resource management issues and people-environment interactions. Since joining IIED in 1999, Dr. Pimbert has co-ordinated action research on Sustaining Local Food Systems, Agricultural Biodiversity and Livelihoods as well as a joint IIED project with the UK based Institute for Development Studies (IDS)- Institutionalising Participation in Natural Resource Management. Over the last 20 years he has authored and edited several books, journal articles, technical and policy papers on agriculture, natural resource management, participatory action research and the political ecology of biodiversity, rights and culture. He is a French and English bilingual and speaks Spanish.

Dr. Mandivamba Rukuni, a Program Director for the W. K. Kellogg Foundation, received a PhD from the University of Zimbabwe and a MSc in Tropical Agricultural Development from the University of Reading, (Pennsylvania). Prior to his current position he was a professor of Agricultural Economics at the University of Zimbabwe and visiting professor at Michigan State University.

MODERATOR

E. Walter Coward Jr. (retired), formerly of Cornell University and the Ford Foundation
Walt Coward holds M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Iowa State University. His career has combined five years in Laos with International Voluntary Services and serving as research director for the International Institute for Rural Reconstruction in the Philippines with an academic career first briefly with Pennsylvania State University and then sixteen years at Cornell. At Cornell University he served as Professor of Rural Sociology and Asian Studies, Chair of the Department of Rural Sociology and Director of the International Agriculture Program. Walt then spent nine years with the Ford Foundation as Director of the Foundation’s Rural Poverty and Resources Program and later as the Senior Director of the Foundation’s Asset Building and Community Development Program. Walt is currently on the Board of the Christensen Fund.

12:30 – 1:30 pm

Lunch