CMC’s virtual sustainability conference scheduled for April 21

College to feature Beatriz Soto, in-person activities at Steamboat Springs, Spring Valley, Vail Valley and Summit County campuses

April 10, 2023 – Colorado Mountain College’s sustainability studies program will host its seventh Sustainability and Ecosystem Science Conference from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. on April 21, a day before Earth Day.

“Climate Justice and Nature in Colorado” will be accessible by Zoom throughout CMC’s nine-county district and will be followed by in-person events at CMC Breckenridge, Vail Valley at Edwards, Steamboat Springs and Spring Valley at Glenwood Springs. The conference is free and the public is welcome to register and attend.

Beatriz Soto, director of Conservation Colorado’s Protogéte program, will provide the conference’s keynote address. Soto, a Roaring Fork Valley architect and Garfield County commissioner candidate, was a founding board member of Voces Unidas de las Montañas, a Latino and Latina advocacy nonprofit, and was previously director of the Wilderness Workshop’s Defiende Nuestra Tierra initiative. She will be presenting Latino-centered research on the issues of race, economic class and environmental harms and benefits in Colorado.

The conference will also feature CMC President Dr. Carrie Besnette Hauser, who will describe the college’s educational and operational visions regarding climate justice. Additionally, students graduating from the college’s sustainability studies program will give brief research presentations in online breakout rooms.

Post-conference activities include in-person presentations and a reception at CMC Steamboat Springs, an Earth Day road cleanup at CMC Spring Valley, a community panel at CMC Vail Valley plus films, food and presentations at CMC Breckenridge and Dillon, which are all free and open to the public.

For more information about all the on-campus activities and to register for the virtual conference, go to CMC Sustainability and Ecosystem Science Conference 2023.