Panel Discussion on Environment to Focus on Relationship of Knowledge to Policy

Johanna Alderfer Harris '51

On Saturday, April 29, Bryn Mawr will host a panel of distinguished environmental activists, scholars and policy-makers at a forum discussion titled "Environmental Studies: From Knowledge to Policy." The event honors Johanna Alderfer Harris '51 for generous leadership support of the Bryn Mawr College Environmental Studies Program. The panel discussion and a keynote address to follow are free and open to the public; to register, contact Rose McNulty (610-526-5121 or rmcnulty@brynmawr.edu).

Research exhibits by students in the Environmental Studies Program will be on display in the Campus Center Main Lounge beginning at 11:30 a.m. The panel discussion will take place at 2:45 p.m. in Thomas 110, to be followed by the keynote address at 4:30.

Keynote speaker Joanna DeHaven Underwood '62 has been a leading member of the U.S. environmental movement for more than three decades. From 1970 to 1973, she was co-director of the Council on Economic Priorities, where she co-authored Paper Profits, a major study of air and water pollution in the pulp and paper industry. Published by MIT Press, the report was the first to compare company efforts at pollution control and to make the results available to the general public. In 1974 she founded INFORM, Inc., an independent national research organization that assesses industry's effect on the environment and citizens' health. INFORM has been lauded not just for its focus on describing problems, but also for identifying solutions — especially "preventive" solutions — and presenting them objectively. In 1997 Underwood was chosen by Earth Times as one of the world's top 100 environmentalists.

Panelists at the discussion:

From 1999 to 2003, Lauren Liss '86 served as commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, heading the development, implementation and enforcement of air, water, waste and site-cleanup policy for the Commonwealth, as well as managing a $100 million annual budget and a staff of 1,100 employees. Prior to that, she served as general counsel and deputy secretary for environmental policy at the Massachusetts Executive Office of Transportation and Construction, and as senior environmental counsel at Boston's "Big Dig" project. Liss currently is with the regulatory department of the Boston law firm Rubin and Rudman, where she practices in the areas of environmental law and policy, land use, transportation, regulatory compliance and administrative law.

As senior marine conservation biologist at the World Wildlife Fund, Helen E. Fox conducts strategic research with direct conservation application, working closely with program, policy and field staff to ensure WWF's marine conservation efforts are based strongly on science. She is developing tools and guidelines for WWF field programs regarding marine-protected-area design, sustainable fisheries, climate change and related issues. As a D.H. Smith/The Nature Conservancy Postdoctoral Fellow at the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology, she worked on connectivity of reef populations and how this relates to marine protected area design.

Jim Simon is executive vice president of Oceana, an international nonprofit advocacy organization dedicated to protecting the world's oceans. For nearly 20 years, Simon has made the environment the focus of his legal career, holding leadership positions in government and nonprofits and advising businesses on management strategy and operations. He has served as deputy assistant attorney general in the Environment and Natural Resources Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, where he supervised attorneys handling environmental criminal enforcement, appeals of environmental cases to higher courts, policy, legislation, and international treaty implementation and negotiation; as a business consultant at McKinsey & Company; and as a senior attorney in the Natural Resources Defense Council's New York office.

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