AT24-383 Hybrid, Birding to Change the World, San Antonio

Event/Webinar Title: Hybrid, Birding to Change the World, San Antonio

AT-VMS: AT: Hill Country Chapter Other Approved Training (Enter AT#, Class Title as posted, Location, and Presenter)

Comments: AT24-383 Hybrid, Birding to Change the World, Bexar Audubon Society of South Central Texas (BAS) Special event, Presenter: Dr. Trish O’Kane (AT=1.5h)

Event Date: 10/2/2024

Event Time: 6:30p-8:00p webinar

6:00p-8:00p in person

Event Summary:

She will discuss her work, her book, and how each of us can use birding to change the world.

Event Description:

Dr. Trish O’Kane is a senior lecturer and environmental educator at University of Vermont’s Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources, Trish’s journey to Vermont was a long and circuitous one. For fifteen years she worked as a journalist in war-torn Central America; she worked for the United Nations in Guatemala investigating massacres by their military; she researched white supremacists for the southern Poverty Law Center in Alabama; she taught women prison inmates how to write; and she taught journalism at the university level.

Through all of that, birds never even registered with her, that’s how focused she was on the ills caused by human beings. It was only when the house she and her husband Jim bought in New Orleans was destroyed in Hurricane Katrina that a bird, a bright red male cardinal, pierced her fog of depression. In the birding world we call that a “spark” bird, but in Trish’s case it was more of a wildfire. It sent her on a life-changing journey that eventually took her to Madison, Wisconsin, where she earned a PHD in Environmental Studies in 2015.

The heart of her research for her PhD stemmed from her proximity to and involvement with Warner Park, an important urban oasis with over 150 species of birds and other animals that was increasingly threatened by so-called “improvements” that were actually polluting the park and reducing the wild and open spaces that the animals and local people depended on. Trish became actively involved in fighting to save the park, forming a coalition that was ultimately successful in efforts to keep Warner Park as it was. That work, and the birding outings that she led for middle school students in Madison, eventually formed the basis for her wildly popular course, Birding to Change the World.

In addition to her PhD, Trish holds a master’s degree in development studies from the London School of Economics and an MA in International Journalism from the University of Southern California. She is as fierce a humanist as you will ever meet, a gorgeous writer, and a terrific teacher who works to empower her students so that they, too, will care about and help to solve global and local problems.

Trish will Zoom in from Vermont to discuss her work, her book, and how each of us can use birding to change the world.

Those who attend in person will be eligible to win a signed copy of Trish’s Book. Signed copies of Birding to Change the World will be on sale at the meeting – $22 (cash, check or card)

Bexar Audubon Society of South Central Texas (BAS) Special event Meeting

Cost: No cost

Register:

If you plan to attend the meeting in person at Alamo Colleges District, 2222 N. Alamo Street, San Antonio, TX 78215, please pre-register and sign up at:

Do not need to pre-register for zoom.

In your zoom app use the following to join the Zoom Meeting at 6:30p

Meeting ID: 868 5612 0955

Passcode: 240194

Presenter: Dr. Trish O’Kane

Event Location:

In person starts at 6:00p at Alamo Colleges District, 2222 N. Alamo Street, San Antonio, TX 78215.  Please see above to pre-register

Contact Information:

Organization Website:

Sponsoring Organization:

Bexar Audubon