February 28, 2025 @ 10:30 am – 11:30 am CST
Invasive species threaten our ecosystems, our economy, and our community’s health and well-being. Yet, mitigating this threat is highly complex. Introduction and invasion of these species touch many agencies, constituencies, and sectors from the very local municipal and community level all the way to global governmental, non-profit, and private sector organizations. In addition, each species that is introduced comes with a completely new array of stakeholders that must be engaged and coordinated to prevent or control invasion. This talk will discuss several models and tools that have successfully fostered collaborative action in 45 countries for addressing complex threats to communities and ecosystems including invasive species.
Speaker: Dr. Katey Pelican, Director, Strategic Partnership and Research Collaborative and Co-Lead Systemwide University of Minnesota Sustainable Development Goals Initiative
Dr. Pelican has worked in 45 countries to strengthen the multi sectoral systems needed to address the world’s most complex challenges in the integrative fields of One Health and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). She founded and directs the SPARC office (sparc.umn.edu) at U. Minnesota charged with establishing and growing large-scale, interdisciplinary programs and projects. She founded and co-leads the system-wide SDG Initiative (sdg.umn.edu) to mobilize UMN to meet these 17 UN goals from the local to the global level. She also created the OH-SMART toolkit (oh-smart.umn.edu) that has improved multi-sectoral cooperation around complex challenges in the US and 29 countries globally.