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Thought Leaders Talk About Environmental Challenges

Environment | Pollution | Green New Deal

A panel discussion will focus on local and global environmental issues. The event is open to the public.

ST. PETERSBURG – A panel discussion scheduled for Friday (April 26) will bring together a diverse group of Tampa Bay thought leaders to focus on the environment and the issues that impact it.

The event – Local to Global: Environmental Challenges Facing Us Today – is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. with a reception from 8 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at Allendale United Methodist Church, 3803 Haines Road N, St. Petersburg. For information about the event, go to facebook.com. To sign up, go to eventbrite.com.

The event is hosted by Fired Up Pinellas with co-sponsors: Chart 411, Suncoast Sierra Club, Allendale UMC, Democratic Socialists of America, Indivisible FL-13, League of Women Voters St. Pete and the Leif Nissen Social Justice Lecture Series.

It is scheduled to be moderated by Jennifer Rubiello, state director for Environment Florida since 2012. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of California, Berkeley and has been canvass director for Fund for the Public Interest as well as Work for Progress and a field organizer for Green Corps

Environment Florida exclusively focuses on protecting Florida’s air, water and open spaces through independent research and tough-minded advocacy. Members work at local, state and national levels to improve the quality of our environment and lives.

Panelists:

BRYAN BECKMAN, Suncoast Sierra Club leads the Pinellas Ready for 100 campaign. In 2018, he led the Largo Ready for 100 campaign, which resulted in a city resolution to achieve 100 percent renewable energy by 2035. He is a precinct captain in Pinellas County Democrats – District 66, a member of the NAACP, LULAC, and League of Women Voters. Beckman is retired from Kraft Foods/Mondelez International, where he was responsible for global logistics information systems. He enjoys spending much of his time volunteering with Habitat for Humanity and helping nonprofits, churches, and other organizations save energy, money, and understand how to lessen our collective impact on the environment.

RACHAEL CURRAN, Florida staff attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity, is committed to protecting all things wild in Florida. A native Floridian, she holds a law degree and a certificate of concentration in environmental law from Stetson University College of Law and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Florida. Before joining the center, Curran clerked for the EPA and Our Children’s Trust, and was a paralegal for six years at various South Florida law firms.

ZULEMA RAMOS, Extinction Rebellion, activist, and recent graduate from the University of Tampa in philosophy and history. She co-runs seven organizations in Tampa and St. Pete, including Sex Worker Solidarity Network, Occupy ICE Tampa, Tampa Food Not Bombs, and Extinction Rebellion Tampa Bay. Extinction Rebellion (XR Tampa Bay) is a climate justice group focused on empowering and protecting those affected first and worst by the accelerated climate crisis. like immigrants, non-men, people of color, differently abled/disabled people, LGBTQ++ members, low-income workers, etc. Members work every day to achieve full liberation for all earthlings.

SHARON WRIGHT, community and environmental planner, is St. Petersburg’s sustainability manager for the Mayor’s Office, which involves establishing an internal and communitywide sustainability program. Responsibilities include working with leadership and community to set goals and actions, manage projects related to sustainability, incorporate sustainability into the City’s “DNA” through code and policy revisions, lead sustainable design and green building certification efforts for multiple city projects, and work regionally on climate action and resiliency issues.

Fired Up Pinellas is a grassroots political advocacy organization working at the local, state and national level to protect our progressive values and defend our democracy.

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