Sustainability is topic of ISU Women’s History Month keynote March 8

The Idaho State University Anderson Gender Resource Center has announced that Nancy Jackson, founder of the Climate and Energy Project, is the ISU Women's History Month keynote speaker at 7 p.m. March 8 in the Pond Student Union Salmon River Suite.

Jackson's free keynote speech will address the topic of sustainability. Jackson founded the Climate and Energy Project (CEP) in 1996. CEP created the award-winning Take Charge Challenge, a contest between communities to slash their energy use, and built widespread support for wind energy. CEP created a Kansas chapter of Interfaith Power & Light, co-founded the Kansas Blue Green Alliance, and convened the Heartland Alliance for Regional Transmission, which it coordinates today.

CEP is creating a commercial Take Charge Challenge, in which major businesses in six cities and three states compete against one another to reduce energy use, and is working with Kansas farmers and ranchers to highlight success stories of on-farm energy and water solutions.

Jackson through a gubernatorial appointment served on the Midwest Governors Greenhouse Gas Reduction Accord Advisory Group, the Kansas Energy and Environmental Policy Advisory Group, the Kansas Wind Working Group, and the Citizens Utility Ratepayer Board, which she continues to chair today.

Prior to founding CEP, she published scholarly books on American culture and Western history at the University Press of Kansas. Today, she is development director for the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University of Kansas where she has raised more than $20 million in the last two years toward construction of an Earth, Energy and Environment Complex. She earned a Master of Arts Degree in environmental history at the University of Kansas.

The tradition of Women's History Month traces all the way back to 1911 and has grown into a worldwide celebration of women and recognition of the fight for gender equality. The ISU Anderson Gender Resource Center recognizes Women's History Month every March with various events and opportunities for the ISU campus, as well as the greater Pocatello community. This year, Women’s History Month is focusing on responsibility and sustainability; while celebrating our history and our responsibilities for the future.

For questions or more information about the event, contact the Anderson Center at 282-2805 or visit www.gendersanity.com.

###