Renewable and Sustainable

Have you ever struggled with burnout or overwhelm? Do you ever feel alone, and like everyone else has more emotional resilience than you? This forum is meant to create a conversation that shows that you are NOT alone. The champions and activists for the environment and sustainability all struggle with these things too – join the conversation where they explain how they survive, and thrive, in this challenging, but rewarding world.

Scott Koepke - Scott’s passion for vegetable production and community development germinated while serving as a U.S. Peace Corps Volunteer in Senegal. Now his career as a local grower, educator and activist has taken root at ICNC’s Etzel Sugar Grove Farm. Scott founded and directed New Pioneer Food Coop’s Soilmates program, an organic garden education service for children; he co-founded and co-managed Grow Johnson County and taught classes in gardening, soil science and life skills and continues to teach this horticulture therapy content at both Kirkwood Community College’s Continuing Education program and at two correctional facilities, Oakdale Prison and Linn County Juvenile Detention Center. “Gardens Heal People” is Scott’s mantra.

Interviewed by David Gustafson, President of I-Renew

Renewable and Sustainable: The Inner Environment of Environmental Activism  A monthly forum with leaders in the environmental movement, hosted by the Iowa Renewable Energy Association.  We talk a lot about how to heal the outer environment.  But what about our inner environment?  With guests from the community that are champions of sustainability, in all its forms, we explore what are the inner motivations for environmental work.  What are some of your own motivations and concerns when you think about sustainability?  The environment?  Climate change?  Social justice?  Tune in monthly for a live webcast with our guests, followed by a QandA.  All episodes are then uploaded to YouTube and to the major podcast streaming services for later viewing and all posterity. I-Renew can always use your support.  To donate or volunteer or to sponsor an episode, go to Irenew.org.    Episode 1 - June 19th, 2021 - Tamara Marcus  Tamara Marcus - currently the Sustainability Program Manager for Linn County, she is also running for City Council in Cedar Rapids.  Tamara Marcus is a former Fulbright scholar where she completed two years of climate change research in the Indian Himalayas and working with local communities to translate her physical science research into local conservation policy. Tamara is a Ph.D. candidate in the Natural Resources and Earth System Sciences Ph.D. program at the University of New Hampshire. Her research interests include using bioinformatic techniques to understand the impact of warming on microbial mediation of carbon emissions from Arctic lakes. Additionally, she studies how indigenous communities access weather and climate data to better understand how to make results from climate research more accessible and applicable to individuals and communities.  Using a combination of survey data and storytelling, Marcus works with Sami communities and indigenous Australians to record environmental change observed by the traditional owners of the land. Through this work, Marcus hopes to promote collaborative development of conservation policy by both scientists and indigenous communities.  Ms. Marcus has been a Switzer fellow, a NASA New Hampshire Space Grant fellow, and a National Center for Atmospheric Research fellow and completed her B.S. in biochemistry and English from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities.  more info about Tamara: marcusforcr.com (find all her social links there - which are dope) info@marcusforcr.com