These two scientists, authors, and visionaries have dedicated their lives to connecting humans to the ecosystems we inhabit and the crucial knowledge we can gain from better respecting them. As a world-recognized biochemist and botanist, Diana Beresford-Kroeger—the Jane Goodall of plants—urges us to dig deeper into the science of forests and the ways they will save us from climate breakdown in Our Green Heart. Dr. Jennifer Grenz, a professor in Forest Resources Management, builds on sacred stories and field observations to share how applying new-old worldviews can save our land—and ourselves—in Medicine Wheel for the Planet. Their joint, interweaving expertise has never been more crucial for our collective future. Don’t miss a remarkable event probing how we use scientific lessons from both Indigenous and western thought. Moderated by Sarah Cox.
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DIANA BERESFORD-KROEGER, a world-recognized scientist in the fields of medical biochemistry, botany and medicine, has spent a lifetime interpreting science for the general public. In 2023, Dr. Beresford-Kroeger received the University College Cork Distinguished Alumni Award and the Royal Canadian Geographical Society Kamookak Medal. She is the author of a number of bestselling books on nature. Arboretum America: A Philosophy of the Forest won the Arbor Day Foundation Award for an exemplary educational work on trees and forests. In 2020, she received the Sigurd F. Olson Nature Writing Award for her autobiographical To Speak for the Trees. She is the author and presenter of the feature documentary Call of the Forest, which is based on her book The Global Forest. Beresford-Kroeger continues her research and writing in her private arboretum in Eastern Ontario, Canada.
SARAH COX is an award-winning author and journalist based in Victoria, B.C. In May 2022, Cox won the Canadian Association of Journalists’ Award for Environmental & Climate Change Reporting and her investigative reporting for the Narwhal has also been awarded the World Press Freedom Award and the Canadian Journalism Foundation’s Jackman Award for Excellence in Journalism. Cox’s 2018 book Breaching the Peace: The Site C Dam and a Valley’s Stand Against Big Hydro won a B.C. Book Prize and was a finalist for the Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing (Writers’ Trust of Canada) and the George Ryga Award for Social Awareness in Literature.
DR. JENNIFER GRENZ is a Nlaka’pamux Indigenous ecologist and scholar with a PhD in Integrated Studies in Land and Food Systems from the University of British Columbia. She is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Forest Resources Management at UBC and has traveled extensively across North America presenting keynote lectures on invasive species management issues, environmental policy, and effective environmental communication strategies to different professional organizations and government agencies.
