Our very own Policy Director, Jennifer McKay, has been invited to speak on a panel for Bay View Association‘s “The Big Read” on Tuesday, July 18 at 2:30 PM. This Panel Discussion is FREE and open to the public. Save the date!
THE BIG READ
Panel Discussion:
July 18, 2023 at 2:30pm, FREE under the large tent.
Little Traverse Conservancy: Kieran Fleming
Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians: Eric Hemenway
Tip of the Mitt Watershed Council: Jennifer McKay
University of Michigan Biological Station: Adam Schubel
Health in Harmony: Kinari Webb, M.D.
Keynote Lecture (tickets required):
July 18, 2023 at 8pm in Hall Auditorium
American writer and environmentalist Bill McKibben called Kinari Webb’s Guardians of the Trees a “magnificent, empowering” memoir about a woman spearheading a global initiative to heal the world’s rainforests and the communities who depend on them.
Webb realized her true calling was at the intersection of medicine and conservation after traveling to Indonesian Borneo at 21 to study orangutans. She was both awestruck by the beauty of her surroundings and heartbroken by the rainforest destruction she witnessed. As she got to know the local communities, she realized their need to pay for expensive healthcare led directly to the rampant logging, which in turn imperiled their health and safety even further.
When the Yale School of Medicine graduate returned to Borneo, she founded two non-profits, and worked with local rainforest communities and international teams to build a clinic, develop regenerative economies, provide educational opportunities, and dramatically transform the region. Just as everything was going right, Webb was stung by a deadly box jellyfish and would spend the next four years fighting for her life—a fight that would lead her to rethink everything.
