2023 Nancy Weiser Ignatius Lecture on the Environment

4400 Massachusetts Avenue NW,Washington DC 20016

04 April, 2023

Description

About the EventDean Shannon Hader, MD, MPH invites students, alumni, and friends to attend the 2023 Nancy Weiser Ignatius Lecture on the Environment, featuring keynote remarks from Ramón Cruz, the President of the Sierra Club. After the lecture, Cruz will speak with SIS professor Simon Nicholson, and an audience Q&A will follow the discussion. Keynote Speaker BioRamón Cruz has over 20 years of experience intersecting the fields of sustainability, environmental policy, urban planning, energy and climate change. He has worked in the public sector in his native Puerto Rico as the Deputy Director of the Environmental Quality Board, the state environmental regulatory agency and as Commissioner of the Puerto Rico Energy Commission. He has also worked in the non-governmental sector in senior positions at the Environmental Defense Fund, the Partnership for New York City and the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy. He has been a consultant for the World Bank, the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Greenhouse Gas Management Institute and the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ). In May 2020, he was elected President of the Sierra Club, the nation’s oldest and largest environmental organization with 3.8 million members and supporters in 64 chapters across the United States. Ramón is a graduate of American University in Washington D.C. and Princeton University in New Jersey. About the Ignatius LectureCruz’s address marks the sixth Nancy Weiser Ignatius Lecture on the Environment at the School of International Service. These lectures feature senior policymakers and leaders in the nonprofit and private sectors who are working tirelessly to improve the environment around the world. The Nancy Weiser Ignatius Lectureship on the Environment honors the work of SIS alumna Nancy Weiser Ignatius, SIS/MA '69, an activist who championed environmental causes long before they became mainstream practices. More than four decades ago, Ignatius co¬founded Concern Inc., an all-female volunteer organization that informed and empowered consumers, mostly female home-makers, to demand sustainable options for everyday goods. Concern leveraged consumer power to pressure manufacturers to develop product containers that were less harmful to the environment. Following her success at Concern, Inc., Ignatius began work at the Department of Energy and launched the first solar energy exhibit in 1976 on a section of the National Mall. Later, Ignatius worked for the Environmental Protection Agency. The Ignatius family has long been active in Washington. Paul Robert Ignatius, husband of Nancy Weiser Ignatius, served as Secretary of the Navy, Assistant Secretary of Defense, and president of The Washington Post. The Ignatius family continues to champion environmental causes. Through their generosity, the annual Nancy Weiser Ignatius Lecture on the Environment continues to engage SIS community members with the core environmental challenges facing the world today.