The 2025 Barbara Schlachter and Ann Christenson Memorial Lecture Series is a partnership between the Iowa City Senior Center and 100 Grannies for a Livable Future.
For over 10 years, this team of women has been working to inform and activate communities by drawing attention to risks to our environment. They invite you to meet some of the leaders who help move us to action, discuss priorities you care about and what you can do to support these efforts. These presentations take place every Wednesday from 3-4 PM during the month of March.
March 5 – Clean Water in Iowa. Dr. David Cwiertny, an Environmental Engineer, who will join by Zoom, trained at Johns Hopkins University and University of California, Berkeley. He is the Director of the UI Center for Health Effect of Environmental Contamination, which supports research focused on health outcomes of environmental toxins. He has a vast knowledge of water, wastewater treatment and reuse.
March 12 – The Impact of Litter on Climate, Environment, and Health. Kristin Shevis from Beyond Plastics will connect by Zoom from New York. Kristin is a NY State constituent who is passionate about reducing plastic pollution. NYC has made progress since 2021 when the state Legislature banned plastic straws and plastic bags. Kristin is fondly known as “the Trash Talker” amongst her friends and family. She has spent over 30 years working in sales in the tech industry for startups and large companies.
March 19 – “The Only Way to Save Our Planet.” Glen Merzer is a playwright, screenwriter, podcast host, and author. He has authored or co-authored more than a dozen books with a vegan message, including his book, “Food is Climate: A Response to Al Gore, Bill Gates, Paul Hawken, & The Conventional Narrative on Climate Change,” which argues that the only way to reverse climate change is to eliminate animal agriculture and to protect the oceans from industrial fishing. Dr. Michael Klaper called Food is Climate, “the most important book of the 21st Century.”
March 26 – “Climate Change, Wildfires, and Hurricanes – Where are we heading?” Dr. Jerald Schnoor is Professor in the UI Departments of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Occupational and Environmental Health, and Co-Director of the Center for Global and Regional Environmental Research (CGRER). His research interests include phytoremediation, water quality modeling, groundwater, risk assessments, sustainable development, and the impact of carbon emissions on global change.
Register for the lecture series online or by calling the Senior Center at 319-356-5220.