The W&S community is excited to host leaders in the public and international sector to learn about large scale initiatives focused on women, climate change, and building sustainable communities.
Date: Monday, November 4th, 2013 from 8-10pm
Location: Hamilton Hall room 707, 1130 Amsterdam Ave., New York, NY, 10027
Space is limited, please RSVP. Columbia ID required to swipe into the building.
Our esteemed speakers:
Tracy Raczek, External Relations Specialist for Climate and Enviroment with UNWomen
Christine Negra, Director of Research at EcoAgricultral Partners
Kerry Constabile, Urban Planning Specialist at UNICEF
[Anticipated 3rd speaker]
Note: In order to maintain an intimate setting to alow for a more open and relaxed conversation between the group and our guest speakers the RSVPs will be capped at 25 for the event.
Tracy Raczek (Pronounced ‘Rah-check’) is a climate policy specialist in the UN Secretary General’s Climate Change Support Team. From 2008-2012 she was focal point for climate change within UN Women, previously UNIFEM. Her work was critical in the establishment of UNIFEMs and UN Women’s first efforts to address the gender dimensions of climate change, and she is credited with facilitating the organization’s recognition of environment related issues, such as climate change and sustainable development, as development priorities. Tracy has contributed to dozens of UN publications on these issues, including the Secretary-General’s High-Level Panel for Global Sustainability report of 2012, and provided technical support on gender dimensions of climate change to delegations at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) negotiations from 2008-2011 and Rio+20 process. Tracy has over ten years’ experience previous to joining the UN in the environmental field, specifically forestry and environmental conservation, as well as in education and social justice advocacy.
Dr Christine Negra is the Director of Research at EcoAgriculture Partners and supports the Landscapes for People, Food and Nature initiative. Previously, she led the Secretariat of the scientific Commission on Sustainable Agriculture and Climate Change, which developed policy recommendations for achieving food security in the context of climate change. As Program Director at the Heinz Center for Science, Economics and the Environment, Dr Negra built multi-sector collaborations, brought technical analyses into policy dialogues and developed indicators of ecological condition and use, with emphasis on carbon and environmental contaminants. She earned a Ph.D. in soil chemistry from the University of Vermont and, earlier, worked on sustainable agriculture and community leadership at the USDA Extension System.
Kerry Constabile currently leads UNICEF’s urban programming and planning work in the organization’s Division of Policy and Strategy. UNICEF focuses on reducing inequities and enhancing service delivery for children and adolescents living in cities, primarily slums, through adolescent engagement programming, innovative monitoring tools, ICT for development programming, the Safe and Sustainable Cities joint programme with UNWomen and UNHabitat, and the development of unique data collection and analysis methods for and with the urban poor.
Prior to joining UNICEF, Kerry focused on economic development, natural resource management and environmental finance in the private and public sectors. She began her career with the ecological science division of UNESCO focusing on biodiversity conservation in cities, and has since worked with the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Office of International Affairs, Citigroup Microfinance, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in Mozambique, the Eurasia Group and the sustainable investment firm Sarasin & Partners. Kerry holds a Masters in International Affairs from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) and studied political science, photography and art history as an undergraduate at Columbia University. In her spare time, she is an avid Brooklyn gardener, biker, photographer, frequenter of New York’s new restaurants and concerts and active in social justice and LGBT rights work.
SUMASA 