Events

Dr. Ingrid Zabel is the Climate Change Education Manager at the Paleontological Research Institution. She strives to make climate change science accessible to the public via exhibits at the Museum of the Earth and the Cayuga Nature Center, online content, teacher resources, and education programs for youth and adults. She began working on climate change through research at the Byrd Polar Research Center at Ohio State University, using radar to study the Greenland ice sheet. She then worked on surveillance radar at MIT Lincoln Laboratory, and she now works in science education.

Peter Bardaglio is coordinator of the Tompkins County Climate Protection Initiative and executive director of the Ithaca 2030 District, one of 24 such districts in the U.S. and Canada. He served as a history professor, dean, and provost for 24 years combined at Goucher College and

Ithaca College before shifting his focus to the climate and sustainability movements in 2007.

Besides his scholarly writings on race and gender in U.S. history, he is co-author of Boldly Sustainable: Hope and Opportunity for Higher Education in the Age of Climate Change (2009), and he has published numerous articles on climate change and sustainability. He currently serves on the boards of New Roots Charter School in Ithaca and the Groundswell Center for Local Food and Farming, and is trustee emeritus at the Paleontological Research Institution/Museum of the Earth.

Laura Vineyard, is the Executive Director of the Center for Community Transportation (CCT). An Ithaca local, she has a strong background in community organizing, nonprofit leadership, and entrepreneurship. CCT envisions a community where travel by shared and active transportation is healthy, safe, affordable, and convenient for all. CCT's mission-focused services and activities include Ithaca Carshare, Bike Walk Tompkins, and Ithaca Bikeshare, emphasizing social equity and environmental sustainability in this era of new transportation options and emerging mobility trends.

Jason Freitag is the Chair of the Advisory Board of Ithaca City of Asylum, and has served on the Board from 2012-2018, and again from 2023 to the present. He is Associate Professor of History at Ithaca College, with an academic specialty in South Asian and Islamic History, and he is the author of Serving Empire, Serving Nation: James Tod and the Rajputs of Rajasthan (Leiden: Brill, 2009).  He was awarded a Presidential Fellowship to study Global Engagement at Ithaca College (2018-19), and served as the co-chair of the Ithaca College Strategic Planning Committee (2018-19), as well as the co-chair of the Ithaca College Presidential Transition Team (2017-18).  In Fall 2025 he will begin a three-year appointment as Robert Ryan Professor in the Humanities at Ithaca College

Dr. Andrew Scheldorf moved to Ithaca for grad school and quickly became involved in the local queer community organizing scene. They organized drag shows, workshops, seminars and collaborative events to put together some of the initial Pride Month events, and after collaborating with the DIA for several years was one of the founders of IPA in 2023. Now serving as the Chair of the organization and the Pride Festival Director they have been inspired by Ithaca's embrace of the organization and the energy that folks have had for IPA.

The presentation will discuss the research conducted at Cornell University as part of an exchange between Belgium and the United States, supported by the Rotary International Foundation. This research aligns with Rotary’s newest area of focus: protecting the environment. By listening to baleen whales, I aim to understand where and when they are present, in order to better conciliate their existence with human activities.