April 30, 2018
The ASU-Conservation International annual retreat was held April 23-26, 2018 at the ASU Tempe campus. The retreat celebrated the successful first year of the partnership and outlined priorities for subsequent years.
“As we reflect on the past year of our unique partnership, we are keeping our eye on the horizon,” Project Manager Amy Scoville-Weaver said. “The sky is the limit for our two organizations.”
A number of events were held to increase faculty, student and community engagement and recognition, including a series of speed talks by the ASU-CI professors of practice.
CI CEO and ASU Distinguished Professor of Practice M. Sanjayan served as a keynote speaker during the Spring President’s Club Fireside Chat on April 24. A video recording of his conversation with President Crow can be viewed here (minute 37:11).
Sanjayan also gave a public talk titled “Can nature save us? Stories from the natural world,” which was attended by approximately 70 people. A video recording of this presentation is available here.
“Arizona State University is by far one of our leading partners now in terms of what we are doing and what we hope to do,” Sanjayan said in his talk. “What is the work we do? We are based on the very simple belief that we need nature to thrive.”
Based on this premise, the partnership seeks to make measurable advancements on natural capital protection, sustainable food production and to train the next generation of conservation leaders.
In the past year, ASU and CI have taught a joint course on biodiversity conservation in practice, advanced research through ASU postdocs and faculty and guest-lectured in a wide variety of courses.
Click here to learn more about this exciting partnership.