The University of Vermont’s Gund Institute for Environment will host a virtual event, Sustainability in the Pandemic Era, on April 21 from 2:30-4 pm EDT.This Earth Week panel discussion will showcase perspectives on COVID-19 from Gund Fellows and Affiliates, including reports on preliminary research, and provide a forum for sharing promising ideas and opportunities for collaborative work. Topics include food insecurity, disease ecology, mental health, Sustainable Development Goals, rebuilding our economy and more.

To participate in the event, please register via Zoom. To suggest additional topics or speakers, please email Taylor Ricketts.

Confirmed panelists include:

• Meredith Niles (Fellow, College of Agricultural & Life Sciences), who is co-leading a national survey on food insecurity related to the pandemic.
• Chris Danforth (Fellow, Complex Systems) who has tracked coronavirus trends on social media, and the pandemic’s dramatic reduction of global happiness.
• Stephanie Seguino (Fellow, College of Arts & Sciences), who is interested in equity issues regarding patterns of infection, as well as impacts of economic stimulus.
• Brendan Fisher (Fellow, Rubenstein School of Environment & Natural Resources), who is analyzing the pandemic’s effect on global progress toward the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.
• Luz de Wit (Postdoctoral Fellow, Rubenstein School), who studies the ecology of novel infectious diseases, including how they jump from other species to people.
• Jon Erickson (Fellow, Rubenstein School), who is working on economic inequality, rebuilding a sustainable economy, and the pandemic’s climate impacts.