Greetings to all IES students, alumni, faculty, affiliates, staff and friends,
It’s the middle of finals week, and the IES 50th Anniversary Celebration is behind us. It was an amazing event. Gina McCarthy’s visit was phenomenal. Wilks Theater was filled to capacity (about 500 seats) and she rocked the house. Her talk focused on climate change, human health, environmental justice and fighting the good fight. She was moving and inspiring. We also put her to work. She met with graduate students, undergraduates, faculty and alumni, and she was dynamic and informative throughout. What a great start to a terrific weekend.
I’d like to take this opportunity to thank all of you whom came and were part of the festivities. It’s hard to relate how rewarding it was to see our current students mixing with our alumni, including some alumni from the very first MEn class that started in 1971. I met many of you for the first time and heard about your careers as environmental professionals in private companies, the Ohio EPA, the US EPA and elsewhere. It made me very proud to be part of such a great legacy. In October, I was invited to be interviewed on Cincinnati Edition on WVXU, which gave me the opportunity to brag about all of this to the world (well, at least to Cincinnati-area NPR listeners). It was actually great fun. Thanks to our current student Joycelyn Swamidoss and alumna Tammy Jett for joining me on that broadcast and so beautifully representing IES.
As usual there have been many events this semester and more to come next semester. I’m working on our Willeke lecture for the spring and hope to have news about that in just a few days. We have just started planning Earth Fest, our celebration of the 50th Earth Day in Oxford’s uptown park. We want to keep in touch with you and we’re working on updating our email list. Please do email Denise Withrow at IES@MiamiOH.edu with any changes or updates to your email or address or whatever contact information you would prefer.
I’m thrilled to say that we reached our goal in our campaign for raising $50 thousand for the 50th. Most of the money was added to our endowed scholarship fund to help students pursue their environmental careers. The 50th Anniversary celebration is past, but this is still our 50th anniversary academic year, and the campaign continues. If you already gave, you have our heat-felt gratitude. If you haven’t, it’s not too late. Please think about giving back to IES so that even students who cannot bear the entire brunt of tuition and additional expenses on their own can still be a part of IES. Please help support IES in its continuing mission to create a more sustainable society. See our IES support webpage.
I will be in touch soon with details about the spring Willeke lecture, Earth Fest and other events.
All the best,
