Presenter:

Bonnie McGill, PhD
Ecosystem Ecologist, David H. Smith Conservation Research Fellow, and Science Communication Fellow, Carnegie Museum of Natural History

Virtual Café Sci: Talking Climate Change in Rural Western Pennsylvania
Mon., May 3
7–9 pm

Climate change is happening in Western Pennsylvania, but the subject of climate change remains difficult to talk about especially in rural areas. In this talk, Dr. Bonnie McGill will introduce the Climate and Rural Systems Partnership (CRSP) between the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, University of Pittsburgh, Mercer County Conservation District, and Powdermill Nature Reserve. Bonnie and her team works with a network of community partners in the Mercer and larger Shenango River Valley area as well as in Westmoreland and the larger Laurel Highlands region to build awareness about climate change in our area, how it is impacting the people and places we care about, and community level solutions we all can contribute to and benefit from. In this talk, Bonnie will cover the theory of action, work and results to date, and plans looking ahead. Additionally, she'll cover a few tools to help anyone listening to have more conversations about climate change.

About Dr. Bonnie McGill:

Bonnie McGill, PhD, is an ecosystem ecologist, David H. Smith Conservation Research Fellow, and science communication fellow at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in the Anthropocene Studies section. She grew up in rural Indiana County, PA; graduated with a degree in biology from Washington and Jefferson College in Washington, PA, in 2006; and worked as an ecology lab manager at Duke University before earning her PhD from Michigan State University in 2018 in ecosystem ecology. Prior to her current work at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, she studied the net greenhouse gas footprint of commercial row crops with and without irrigation in the Midwest, the role of climate change in a nitrate polluted aquifer in Botswana, and how conservation practices on farms in Iowa affects nitrate pollution in Iowa rivers. 

About our Virtual Café Sci:

The event is FREE to attend, but preregistration is required! Carnegie Science Center would like to continue to offer programs like Café Sci, Women in STEM, and others. Please consider making a donation when you register. Once you sign up, you’ll get an email confirmation with instructions on how to enter the event. Have a question for Bonnie? You’ll be able to type your questions in the Q&A section during the presentation!