Sessions & Presenters

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Raj Shukla is the Executive Director of the River Alliance of Wisconsin with over a decade of experience in program design, development and management to tackle pressing social and environmental needs. Most recently as Director of Programs with Wisconsin-based nonprofit, Cool Choices, he led public engagement and energy efficiency programs in businesses, schools and government agencies across the United States.

Previously, Raj developed youth education programs for former Vice President Al Gore’s Climate Reality Project. He trained elected officials and candidates how to effectively mobilize resources and voters with Progressive Majority Wisconsin. With the Greater Milwaukee committee, he organized businesses in southeastern Wisconsin to invest in inner city neighborhoods.

Raj currently serves as Chair of the Sustainable Madison Committee, a city advisory committee of mayoral appointees who work to realize the community’s social and environmental aspirations.

In their spare time, Raj and his wife, Tora Frank, chase their three young children around the neighborhood, through Wisconsin’s beautiful parks and into the occasional ice cream shop.

Using the Soil Biological Approach to Regenerative Agriculture to Address Water Availability and Quality

The soil is the foundation for any system to work while the management practices are the tools.  A regenerative systems approach focused on soil biology will utilize integrated, dynamic principles to synergize biologically-based practices to address fertility, pest and disease issues.  These regenerative systems have the potential to leverage increasing soil organic matter to feed soil biology.  This presentation will discuss crop diversity including perennials and annuals as well as cover and companion crops, reduced soil disturbance, and managed grazing to increase profitability by maximizing nutrient and water use efficiencies.

Dr. Kris Nichols is the founder and principal scientist of KRIS (Knowledge for Regeneration and Innovation in Soils) Systems Education & Consultation.  She currently works as a Soil Microbiologist and Research Consultant with MyLand Company LLC and Understanding Ag., LLC.  Previously, she was Rodale Institute’s Chief Scientist from 2014-2017 and a Research (Soil) Microbiologist with the USDA, Agricultural Research Service (ARS) for 14 years.  Kris has B.S. degrees in Plant Biology and in Genetics and Cell Biology from the University of Minnesota, an M.S. in Environmental Microbiology from West Virginia University, and a Ph.D. in Soil Science from the University of Maryland.  Her focus is addressing current and future agricultural needs by building upon a soil health foundation to identify biological tools to enhance soil health, water and nutrient use efficiencies, pest and disease management, and mitigate climate change to provide long-term solutions to agricultural economic viability, food insecurity, and ecosystem services loss.  Kris grew up on a 640-acre grain farm in SW Minnesota. Dr. Nichols has received several awards including the 2012 Conservation Research Award from the International Soil and Water Conservation Society and has over 25 peer-reviewed publications as well as been quoted in numerous outreach publications.

Managing Water Now: Individual Behaviors, Structural Barriers, and the Inevitability of Change

Addressing complex problems like water quality in Wisconsin’s rivers and lakes, while attending to the realities of people’s lives and livelihoods, has always been a challenge. Now, however, the problem is all the more acute, since the number of stakeholders has proliferated, the realities of farm and urban economics have become harsher, and rainfall and temperatures in the region have hit new, and unprecedented levels. Can we depend on individual action and responsibility to bring about widespread change? What structural barriers are there that keep citizens and policy-makers from making different decisions? Is just providing more information enough? This session will present some case materials to address these questions. Using the case of consumer landscape chemical use, the presentation will explore the power of individuals to make a difference in improving water quality, while also explaining why individual action is sometimes not enough. The presentation will conclude with implications of these realities for managing water quality more generally, in diverse urban/rural communities.

Paul Robbins is the dean of the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Robbins has years of experience as a researcher and educator, specializing in human interactions with nature and the politics of natural resource management.

With writing focused on diverse interdisciplinary audiences and the broader public, he is author of the foundational textbook Political Ecology: A Critical Introduction. His award-winning book Lawn People: How Grasses, Weeds, and Chemicals Make Us Who We Are is widely recognized as one of the most accessible books on the environmental politics of daily life.

A UW-Madison alumnus with a bachelor's degree in anthropology, Paul Robbins also holds a master's degree and doctorate in geography, both from Clark University. He was raised in Denver, Colorado.

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Memorial Student Center, Great Hall, 10:15 am – 11:15 am

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Memorial Student Center, Ballrooms, 1:30 pm – 2:30 pm

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Memorial Student Center, Cedar/Maplewood, 10:15 am – 11:15 am

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Memorial Student Center, Great Hall, 1:30 pm – 2:30 pm

Title Forthcoming...

Description Forthcoming

Presenters:
Forthcoming

Memorial Student Center, Ballrooms, 10:15 am – 11:15 am