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Earth Summit

Next Earth Summit will be November 2012. Check back for more details!

Earth Summit is a Clean Valley Council (CVC) sponsored day-long event designed to bring high school juniors and seniors from around the Roanoke Valley to explore and understand current environmental topics with professionals from our region and encourage environmental stewardship. In addition to a series of breakout sessions on hot topics about our natural resources and the environment, local companies and organizations will have information tables and representatives to engage the students. Earh Summit began as the vision of Roanoke City student, Lexie Levin, to bring together students from around the Valley to focus on environmental concerns. This year will be the 11^th Earth Summit, a testament to how the dream of one young person can grow into an on-going effort that makes a difference and helps others learn and grow. Schools eligible are those in Botetourt County, City of Roanoke, City of Salem, County of Roanoke and the Town of Vinton, public and private.

To get an idea of what 2012 will bring, here's the line up for 2011:

EARTH SUMMIT 2011

ENERGY IN VIRGINIA

Jefferson Center

Thursday, November 17, 2011

8:30 – 9:10 Atrium Registration & Exhibitors

9:15 – 9:40 Rehearsal Hall Welcome - Cristina Siegel,

CVC Executive Director

Energy in Virginia - John Richardson

9:40 – 9:50 Atrium Break & Exhibitors

9:50 – 10:30 First Floor Breakout Session One (4 sessions)

(Wind, Solar, Energy Conservation, Uranium)

Wind Energy – John Richardson

Solar Power – Ricardo Brown

Uranium in Virginia – Broaddus Fitzpatrick

Energy Conservation – Diana Christopulos

and Jerome Hairston

10:30 – 10:40 Atrium Break & Exhibitors

10:40 – 11:20 First Floor Breakout Session Two (4 sessions)

(Wind, Solar, Energy Conservation, Uranium)

11:30 – 12:30 Shaftman Hall (second floor)

Special Program – “My Coal Journey” by Kathy Mattea

Kathy Mattea, the beloved, multi-grammy winning singer has a

passion for music, her coal mining heritage and environmental

and social justice issues. The Jefferson Center & CVC are

proud to bring Kathy to share her amazing program with our

Earth Summit students as part of an Eco-Arts themed program.

12:30 – 1:15 Atrium Lunch, Exhibitors & Close

2011 Earth Summit

Speakers and Exhibitors

John Richardson

Environmental Science Teacher and Educational Outreach Director of the CEED

gereau.frco.k12.va.us and www.facebook.com/pages/The-CEED/137843206293120

John teaches high school Environmental Sciences at the Gereau Center for Applied Technology and Career Exploration in Rocky Mount, Virginia and is affiliated with the Center for Energy Efficient Design (CEED). He has taught Earth Science, Biology and Environmental Sciences for thirty two years and was selected Franklin County Teacher of the Year in 2001, and Virginia Conservation Teacher of the Year in 2005. He received his Bachelors of Arts in Environmental Sciences from The University of Virginia in May, 1975 and a Masters of Liberal Studies from Hollins University in 1986.

The Gereau Center is an innovative, high tech middle/high school that employs a Problem Based Learning model to address real world issues. John has been involved with the design, construction and use of the CEED, a 3400 square foot “green” building that is a template for a “zero energy” building used as an instructional space for the Gereau Center. Utilizing techniques and technologies including PassivHaus design, photovoltaics, wind and geothermal energies, rainwater harvesting and solar hot water, the CEED is truly a cutting edge example of what is possible and necessary to address energy and climate issues.

Ricardo Brown

Outdoor enthusiast and environmentalist

www.solshineenergysolutions.com and www.directconnectsolar.com

Ricardo’s passions run the gamut from cycling to organic gardening to climbing trees to playing his Spanish-built guitar. A former designer of electronic circuits/systems, he now focuses his attention on renewable energy as the owner of SolShine Energy Solutions, designing and building portable photovoltaic generators, and as the service engineer for Direct Connect Solar and Electric, a local installer of solar electric systems.

He and his wife, Christy Pugh, live in a 300 sq foot PV-powered home that they designed and built. One of the many reasons Rick and Christy moved to Floyd was to pursue living a radically simplified, rural life by developing a small footprint homestead. Rick’s larger goal is to promote, as author/educator Jim Merkel states, “Small footprints on a finite Earth.”

Broaddus Fitzpatrick

Attorney, Public Policy Consultant, Conservationist, Community Volunteer

A former litigating and estate planning attorney, Broaddus continues to work on land conservation and resource management initiatives as well as community service projects. An Elder of his Presbyterian church, a senior high Sunday school teacher and a member of the Dominican Republic Mission Team that continues to build clinics and schools, he is also a disaster relief volunteer and coordinator, working in flood-ravaged parts of West Virginia, Florida, North Carolina, Alabama and Mississippi. Broaddus has rehabbed homes in the eastern Kentucky coalfields with the Appalachia Service Project and has built Habitat homes in Virginia since 1987. In addition to serving on a number of local, state, and national boards, Mr. Fitzpatrick has been a dedicated volunteer for the Blue Ridge Parkway and is committed to protecting and improving the Parkway for the future. Broaddus took his Bachelor’s Degree in Foreign Affairs from the University of Virginia, studied International Law at Queens' College, Cambridge University, and received his Juris Doctor from the University of Richmond.

Dr. Diana Christopulos

President, Roanoke Valley Cool Cities Coalition

www.rvccc.org

After owning a successful management consulting business for almost 20 years, Diana left the Dallas- Ft. Worth area and retired in Salem, Virginia. Her first retirement priority was to hike the Appalachian Trail, a goal she achieved in 2008. Now she is attempting a novel about hiking the AT.

In addition, she co-founded and serves as President of the Roanoke Valley Cool Cities Coalition, an all-volunteer nonprofit organization with more than 200 affiliates representing over 25,000 citizens Cool Cities assists governments, businesses and citizens in measuring and reducing their greenhouse gas emissions.

Diana holds degrees from Cornell University and Binghamton University (New York) and has published in three disciplines: organizational development, history, and the environment. A native of Wyoming, Diana likes to play outside. She is an avid vegetable gardener, and she and Mark McClain have canoed thousands of miles on American rivers.

Jerome Hairston

Environmental Manager, Environmental Management and Consulting (Emc)