Chesapeake Conservancy’s Executive Director to Speak at University of Richmond’s Global Environment Speaker Series

Joel Dunn to Discuss Conserving the Landscapes and Special Places that Sustain the Chesapeake

Annapolis, MD – Joel Dunn, executive director of the Chesapeake Conservancy, will discuss “Conserving the Landscapes and Special Places that Sustain the Chesapeake,” January 21, 2015 as part of the University of Richmond’s Global Environment Speaker Series.  He will speak at 4:30 p.m. in the Gottwald Auditorium.

To an audience of university students who will be the next generation of leaders in the environmental movement, Dunn will chronicle his own inspiring career path, which began by hitchhiking across the country in high school to experience America’s great National Parks, to studying insects and plants with top scientists in the most remote tropical rainforests in the world, to passing legislation in the U.S. Congress to protect and restore the Long Island Sound and the Chesapeake Bay.  Dunn will share what he learned along the way that led to his own meaningful career in conservation.

Dunn will also discuss conservation in the Chesapeake region, which has a population approaching 17 million and climbing, and tens of thousands of acres of open space vanishing each year.  “I want these future leaders to hear first hand what is required to truly protect a special place in the Chesapeake for current and future generations.  I also want to inspire them to join this worthy cause,” Dunn said.

Each year the University’s Department of Geography & the Environment, the Environmental Studies Program and International Studies Program partner to bring noteworthy speakers and scholars to Richmond to present lectures related to our global environment.  Dunn’s speech is co-sponsored by the Jepson School of Leadership Studies.  All events are free and open to the public. Funding is also provided by the Class of 1992 Environmental Awareness Endowment.