October 2, 2024, IWCF presents Our Shared Environment: LEAD! (Learn – Engage – Adapt – Discuss) with a focus on our environment across Idaho; from the water we drink, to the air we breathe, to the land we utilize for food and recreation.

Our Shared Environment: LEAD! (Learn – Engage – Adapt – Discuss)

Featuring

Dinner Keynote by Jonathan Foley of Project Drawdown and

Luncheon Speaker Dana Gunders of ReFED

IWCF is excited to present Dinner Keynote speaker, Dr. Jonathan Foley, Executive Director of Project Drawdown, to discuss his climate action plan to reduce our carbon emissions.  Learn more about his work at the Project Drawdown website. Join the luncheon, Food for Thought, speaker Dana Gunders, Executive Director of ReFED, for insight on fighting food waste. Check out ReFED.org to learn more.  This is a full day of opportunities to learn from a wealth of speakers! See the list of breakout sessions at the links below.

Details for the day: menu choices, breakout session choices and speaker information, helpful items, and inspiration can be found here!
If you purchased your ticket early or are a guest of a sponsor, please let us know your meal preferences and attendance information by September 15

SPONSOR A TABLE AT THE IWCF 2024 SYMPOSIUM!

There are multiple ways to support Idaho Women’s Charitable Foundation and the Fall Symposium, helping to provide education about community needs and the opportunities for philanthropy and collaboration to positively impact the lives of people in our region. The 2024 Symposium will focus on the environment and emphasize women’s impact in our community through philanthropy, while inspiring participants to engage locally.

View our links below to learn more about how you or your business can support this event while engaging with more than 500 community members and leaders. For event sponsorship inquiries or questions, please contact Sally Long at longsall2@gmail.com.

A pre-message from Jon

Event Details: Wednesday, October 2, 2024 at Boise Centre

       7:30 am Registration opens

       8:15 – 8:50 am Opening Session

       9:00 – 11:30 am Breakout Sessions

       11:30 – 1:00 pm Food For Thought Luncheon featuring Dana Gunders, ReFED

       1:15 – 3:30 pm Breakout Sessions

       5:00 – 6:00 pm Social Hour (No-Host Bar)

       6:00 – 8:00 pm Dinner featuring keynote speaker Jonathan Foley, Project Drawdown

       8:00 – 8:30 pm Closing Reception Jonathan Foley
For general symposium questions, contact teresab@iwcfgives.org



Get to Know Dinner Keynote Speaker Jon Foley

Dr. Jonathan Foley is a world-renowned climate scientist, sustainability expert, and public speaker. He is the executive director of Project Drawdown — the world’s leading resource for climate solutions. His work focuses on finding solutions to sustain the climate, ecosystems, and natural resources we all depend on.

Foley’s groundbreaking work has led him to become a trusted advisor to governments, foundations, non-profits, and business leaders around the world. He and his colleagues have made major contributions to our understanding of climate change, ecosystems, food systems, and the sustainability of the world’s resources. He has published over 140 peer-reviewed scientific articles, including many highly cited works in Nature and Science. He is among the top 1 percent most cited global scientists.

A noted science communicator, his presentations have been featured at hundreds of international venues, including the Aspen Institute, the World Bank, the National Geographic Society, the Chautauqua Institution, the Commonwealth Club, the National Science March, and TED.com. He has taught at several major universities on topics ranging from climate change, sustainability solutions, and fixing the global food system. He has also written many popular pieces for National Geographic, the New York Times, the Guardian, and Scientific American. He is also frequently interviewed by international media outlets, and has appeared on National Public Radio, the PBS NewsHour, the BBC, CNN, and in the New York Times, The Guardian, the Washington Post, WIRED, the HBO documentary on climate change Too Hot Not to Handle, and the film series Let Science Speak.

Foley has won numerous awards and honors for his work, including the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, awarded by President Clinton; the J.S. McDonnell Foundation’s 21st Century Science Award; an Aldo Leopold Leadership Fellowship; the Sustainability Science Award from the Ecological Society of America; and the National Science Foundation’s Faculty Early Career Development Award. In 2014, he was also named as the winner of the prestigious Heinz Award for the Environment.

Before joining Project Drawdown, Foley led a number of world-leading environmental science and sustainability organizations. He started his career at the University of Wisconsin, where he launched the Center for Sustainability and the Global Environment (SAGE) and served as the first Gaylord Nelson Distinguished Professor of Environmental Studies. Next, he was the founding director of the Institute on the Environment (IonE) at the University of Minnesota, where he was also the McKnight Presidential Chair of Sustainability. Then he served as the Executive Director of the California Academy of Sciences, the greenest and most forward-thinking science museum on the planet. He lives in San Francisco.

 

Get to Know Lunch Guest Speaker Dana Gunders

 

Dana Gunders serves as Executive Director of ReFED, the national nonprofit working to catalyze the food system toward evidence-based action to stop wasting food. Dana is a national expert on food waste and was one of the first to bring to light just how much food is lost throughout the food system. For almost a decade, she was a Senior Scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council; she then launched Next Course, LLC to strategically advise on food waste with companies including Google. Some of her career highlights include authoring the landmark Wasted report and Waste-Free Kitchen Handbook, launching the “Save the Food” campaign with the Ad Council, testifying in Congress, being named “the woman who started the waste-free movement” by Consumer Reports, and serving as a founding Board Member of ReFED.

In the nearly seven years since the U.S. EPA and Department of Agriculture set a federal goal of cutting food waste in half by 2030, the amount of research, investment and awareness around tackling this issue has grown exponentially. Now, as the date for that and so many other sustainability commitments draw closer, Dana will discuss the importance of moving even faster from awareness to action.

 


BREAKOUT SESSIONS

The day is set up for flexible attendance, as individual schedules allow.  Breakouts address a broad range of state, local and individual efforts to positively affect environmental issues. Learn more about community-driven conservation groups, sustainability efforts by for-profit businesses and utilities, research at local universities, and student-led activities. Other sessions will explore climate related to land use, health, home energy audits, rivers, and wildfire management. In addition to the educational value of each workshop, attendees will leave each session with a positive “action” to be part of the solution.



Thank you to our 2024 Symposium Sponsors!

 

Presenter Level

– The Food Hub

 

Educator Level

– Laura Moore Cunningham Foundation, Inc.
– Idaho State University

Impact Level

– City of Boise, Office of the Mayor

– Mikel Ward Group One Sotheby’s

– Dana Kehr

– Nicole & Matt Patterson

– Headwaters Wealth Management

– Michael & Susan Smith

– Lorax of Riverstone International School

– Figure 8 Investment Strategies

– Suzanne & Rick Lierz

– Saint Alphonsus

Community Level

– Jessica and Decker Rolph

– Boise Cascade

– Boise Dental Center

– Idaho Power

– Idaho National Laboratory

– refinery, Interiors by Kristy Weyhrich

– UBS Financial Services, Inc.

– University of Idaho, Boise

– W Design

– Boise State University

– St. Luke’s

– HP, Inc.

– Boise River Enhancement Network, Inc.

– City Peanut Company

– Berkeley, Inc.

– Hotel 43

– Aspen Capital Management

IWCF Table Captains

– Sally Long

– Heather Jauregui and Matt Macha

– Julie Custer and Kathy Scott

– Liebich Friends

– Mary Reiman and Paul Black

– Sherry Bithell

– Annette Christensen

– Representative Lauren Necochea

– Christine Avey

– Debbie Johnson

– Jo Anne Minnick and Vicki Kreimeyer

– Carol Hoidal and Mary Ann Arnold

– Kelli Parker

– Michael and Susan Smith

– The Norris Family

– Teresa Broadus & Beth Schattin

– Wonder Women

– Shawn Shepherd, ReFED

– Donna Wetherley

– Jean Bishop @ HP, Inc.

– erstad architects

More Coming Soon!