The Changing Coast: Insights That Shape Policy, Science, and Society (virtual)
Virtual Event with Captions, Free, and Open to All
How do we study a world in which changes in coastal landscapes, higher education, and policy occur in tandem? Perspectives from faculty in environmental sciences, policy, and religious studies will explore the scope and innovation of UVA’s work in coastal regions and beyond. From policy to spirituality, from connecting the science to people's livelihoods, join Lifetime Learning for a conversation about changes in scholarship and coastal communities. In honor of the 20th Anniversary of UVA’s Anheuser Busch Coastal Research Center, this discussion will explore the enduring collaborations among scholars and the community to support vibrant coastal futures.
Faculty Speaker Biographies
Karen McGlathery, Sherrell J. Aston Professor of Environmental Sciences, Director of the UVA Environmental Institute, Department of Environmental Sciences, College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
Karen McGlathery is a marine ecologist whose research focuses on coastal habitats, including seagrass meadows and salt marshes. She studies the causes of coastal change, the resilience of coastal ecosystems and communities, and nature-based solutions for climate mitigation. She has led several large, interdisciplinary projects, including for over 20 years the Virginia Coast Reserve Long-Term Ecological Research program based at UVA’s Anheuser-Bush Coastal Research Center. She collaborates with NGOs, universities, and regional stakeholders to co-produce coastal adaptation and resilience strategies. McGlathery’s group is an international leader in coastal ‘blue carbon’ sequestration. In addition to Virginia, she and her students have worked in New England, Florida, Bermuda, Denmark, New Zealand, and Mozambique. Before coming to UVA in 1996, Karen received her B.S. from Connecticut College, her Ph.D. from Cornell University, and worked as a program officer for the Earthwatch Institute and as a Research Fellow at the University of Copenhagen and Danish Ministry of the Environment. She has served on the Virginia Governor’s Technical Advisory Committee for Coastal Resilience for two administrations, and she was elected a Senior Fellow of the UVA College of Arts and Sciences Society of Fellows in 2019. Karen was inspired to study the ocean by a seafaring British grandfather.
Elizabeth Andrews, Distinguished Law and Policy Fellow, Institute for Engagement & Negotiation at the Weldon Cooper Center, University of Virginia
Elizabeth was formerly on the law faculty at William & Mary Law School, where she directed their Coastal Policy Center and taught practicum classes focused on real-world projects addressing environmental, administrative, and land use law topics. During that time, she also co-founded the Resilience Adaptation Feasibility Tool (the RAFT) project, which works with communities across Virginia to help them increase their resilience. In 2023, she was selected as the inaugural Practitioner Fellow for the Environmental Institute at the University of Virginia (UVA), where she authored an online guide to resilience planning for local governments and community leaders in Virginia (Virginia Adaptation Guide). She is currently the Distinguished Law and Policy Fellow at the Institute for Engagement & Negotiation, a part of the Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service at UVA.
Elizabeth is a peer-elected Fellow in the American College of Environmental Lawyers. She formerly served as Senior Assistant Attorney General and Chief of the Environmental Section of the Virginia Office of the Attorney General, where she oversaw a team of attorneys representing the natural resources agencies of the Commonwealth. She also managed water policy for the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality. Elizabeth was appointed by the Governor to the Technical Advisory Committee charged with developing Virginia’s first Coastal Resilience Master Plan; served on the Board of Directors of the Virginia State Bar’s Environmental Law Section and as the Virginia representative on the Chesapeake Bay Program’s Climate Resiliency Workgroup; and is a legislatively-appointed member of the Virginia Land Conservation Foundation Board of Trustees and a gubernatorially-appointed member of the Hampton Roads Sanitation District Commission. She is a graduate of the College of William & Mary and holds a J.D., summa cum laude, from the Washington College of Law at American University.
Willis Jenkins, Associate Dean for Arts and Humanities, John Allen Hollingsworth Professor of Ethics, College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
Willis Jenkins is Associate Dean for Arts & Humanities and John Allen Hollingsworth Professor of Ethics in the College of Arts & Sciences at the University of Virginia. He is the author of two award-winning books, including The Future of Ethics: Social Justice, Sustainability, and Religious Creativity, which won an American Academy of Religion Award for Excellence. He is co-editor of several volumes, including the Routledge Handbook of Religion and Ecology, and has written dozens of essays about intersections of ethics, culture, and environmental change. Jenkins co-directs the Coastal Futures Conservatory, which integrates arts and humanities into coastal change research at the Virginia Coast Reserve.
UVA Lifetime Learning presents this program in partnership with the Coastal Research Center.
