CLIMATE SYMPOSIUM

Meet the Participants

Science of Climate Change

Dr. Jessica Whitehead Executive Director, ICAR

Born in Richmond but raised along the marshes of South Carolina, Dr. Jessica Whitehead is the Joan P. Brock Endowed Executive Director of the Institute for Coastal Adaptation and Resilience at Old Dominion University. Her work on coastal climate adaptation and resilience integrates her diverse training in the physical and social sciences. She is the chapter lead for the Northeast Chapter of the Fifth U.S. National Climate Assessment. She is a member of the Virginia Coastal Resilience Technical Advisory Committee. and also serves on the American Meteorological Society's Board on Outreach and Informal Education. Previously, she was North Carolina’s first statewide Chief Resilience Officer, an adjunct lecturer for the Masters in Emergency and Disaster Management program at Georgetown University, and the first coastal climate extension specialist with the NC Sea Grant, the South Carolina Sea Grant Consortium, and the Carolinas Integrated Sciences and Assessments (CISA) Program. She co-chaired the Science and Technical Advisory Committee of the Albemarle-Pamlico National Estuary Partnership until 2020.

Dr. Jeremy Hoffman Chief Scientist, Science Museum of Virginia

Dr. Jeremy Hoffman is the David and Jane Cohn Scientist at the Science Museum of Virginia and Affiliate Faculty in the L. Douglas Wilder School and the Center for Environmental Studies at Virginia Commonwealth University. Dr. Hoffman connects audiences to their changing planet through participatory environmental research and interactive, hands-on, and immersive experiences, earning recognition through his research and work being featured in the New York Times, National Geographic, The Washington Post, as well as being selected as the Chapter Lead for the Southeast Region in the Fifth National Climate Assessment, one of Style Weekly Richmond's Top 40 Under 40 in 2019, one of the Grist 50 Fixers for 2020, a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2021, and one of the Blooloop 50 Museum Influencers of 2022.

Practice of Resilience

Gina Harris Chief Resilience Officer, City of Portsmouth

Gina H. Harris has been the Resilience Officer for the City of Portsmouth since May, 2019. During the beginning of her tenure in this position, her efforts focused on the 2020 US Census and she was dedicated to the goal of every citizen in Portsmouth being counted. Not distracted by the COVID-19 pandemic, she continued to pursue ways to encourage and educate citizens on the importance of participating in the enumeration. Her background in mental health and social science has prepared her to address the resilience stressors that greatly impact the City of Portsmouth, including poverty, homelessness, food insecurity and how to improve the lives of others through coordination and collaboration with other professionals and citizens.

Gina is a native of Portsmouth and celebrates 24 years with the City of Portsmouth, including 20 years with the Department of Behavioral Healthcare Services. She realizes the importance of working with stakeholders to effectuate change and is passionate about working with persons most in need. Gina holds a BS from Swarthmore College and an MS from Virginia Commonwealth University.

Kyle Spencer Chief Resilience Officer, City of Norfolk

Kyle Spencer has been the City of Norfolk’s Chief Resilience Officer for the past year, and served as the Deputy Resilience Officer prior to this role since 2018. He has spent the last 15 years working to make Norfolk a more resilient city as a consultant and as a technology leader with the City prior to working in the Resilience Office.  Kyle’s primary focus is implementing the City’s Resilience Strategy by managing complex water management, environmental, urban planning, and smart cities projects.  While with the City, Kyle has been collaborating with regional partners on resilience innovations to support research projects with universities, and developing business solutions in the resilience sector by turning Norfolk into a coastal community laboratory.  Kyle is a certified GIS Professional, and Certified Floodplain Manager.

Artists

Visual Artists

Nico Cathcart

Nico Cathcart is a painter and muralist hailing from Toronto, Ontario, and currently living in Richmond, Virginia. She strives to discuss Intersectionality and climate change in her highly-colorful realistic works which often include local flora and fauna. The artist is in the process of going deaf, relying on hearing aids and lip reading to communicate. She often includes birds in her work as a nod to her disability. You can find a TEDTalk about her work, and disability on the youtube TedTALK Channel. An experienced mural painter, she has worked on walls across the country, Most recently in Rochester, Birmingham, Napa, Memphis, Atlanta, and Basel Miami. Nico has been shown at the Virginia Museum of History and Culture, and the Hermitage Museum in Norfolk, as well as galleries across the continent. In 2020, Nico was honored as an Agent of Change for her use of activism in her art by the Virginia Museum of History and Culture. You can also find Nico discussing her work in the emmy-winning documentary Mending Walls on PBS.

Garth Fry

Garth Fry (1979 b) is an artist based in Norfolk, Virginia. He graduated with a Masters in Fine Art from California College of the Arts in San Francisco, California in 2016. Fry earned his Bachelors of Fine Art in Graphic Design with a concentration in Printmaking from Longwood University in Farmville Virginia in 2002. Garth has engaged with the art community by working as a gallerist, preparator and through volunteering within a variety of cultural arts organizations in Washington, DC, Virginia, and the San Francisco Bay Area. He currently works at The Chrysler Museum of Art and has worked as a preparator for The Department of Art and Art History at Stanford University. He has previously worked at the Berkeley Art Museum, the Wattis Institute for Contemporary Art, and a host of other galleries in the Bay Area, Washington, DC and Virginia. Garth has been a member of the SF Art Studios from 2016 to 2022. He is co-founder of the ONE + ONE + TWO art collective. He has contributed to the development of an Artist & Scientist online journal. Fry has exhibited his work both nationally and internationally. He is a proud recipient of California College of the Arts 2016 Dennis Leon and Christin Nelson Scholarship. In 2016 Fry also participated in the New York Studio class at the AICAD Residency Brooklyn, New York and the Yellow House Residency in Wonewoc, Wisconsin.  In 2015 he was a student resident at the Fore-stie Foundation in Nevada City, California. Fry was invited to work as a visiting artist in Dan Steinhilber's Washington DC, Union Market Studio in 2013.

Garth's recent works focus on the theoretical constructs surrounding sculpture.

Heather Beardsley

Heather Beardsley is an American visual artist that creates mixed-media projects at the intersection of art, science, and environmental issues. She works primarily with embroidery, cyanotype, and air-dry clay, mixing the aesthetics of scientific illustration with craft and children’s art materials to play with display conventions and visual hierarchies. Beardsley received her MFA in fiber and material studies from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2015, and her BA in studio art from the University of Virginia in 2009. After completing her master’s, she spent a year in Vienna, Austria on a

Fulbright Scholarship for Installation Art, and in 2017, she was awarded a year-long Braunschweig Projects International Artist Fellowship by the Ministry of Science and Culture for Lower Saxony, Germany. Through a series of international residencies, travel has become an important aspect of Beardsley’s art; she incorporates elements from cities she’s visited to into her projects. Some of her residencies include KulturKontakt Austria in Vienna; Shangyuan Art Museum in Beijing, China; IZOLYATSIA in Kyiv, Ukraine; Rogers Art Loft in Las Vegas; Sirius Arts Centre in Ireland; and La Box

in Bourges, France.  Beardsley has shown her work both nationally and internationally, including group exhibitions at Science Gallery Dublin, Museo del Traje in Madrid, the Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art, and Museum Rijswijk in the Netherlands.

Lindsay Horne

With her innate curiosity for the unseen and uncertain, artist and designer Lindsay Horne dives deeper into the unconventional. Her journey back to art began in the fall of 2016 after signing up for an improvisational comedy class she credits to creatively unblocking her brain. Subsequently, Horne began producing art installations focused on her first love in sustainable fashion.

During the Covid-19 global pandemic, Horne found the meditative practice of glass work while learning to process the emotions surrounding grief. The properties and various forms of glass along with the language of the world around her continue to inspire her practice today. She splits her time between dissecting the intersectionalities of American culture and using art to creatively guide others within their own healing and becoming journeys. She believes art to be the most beautiful, transformative, and accessible communicator— both within our communities and ourselves. 

Asa Jackson (Moderator)

Asa Jackson is a visual artist, curator, and director based in Hampton Roads, Virginia. As a multidisciplinary artist, Jackson’s work explores the cross section of textile from various countries, peoples, time periods, and personal histories. His works are often anthropological studies, representing the lives of myriad people, their collective and individual stories. By cutting and sewing fabrics together, Jackson metaphorically mixes cultures, time periods, people and places into unified works of art. 

After graduating from Hampton Roads Academy, where he developed a passion for painting and art making, Jackson studied sociology at Boston University. He then moved to New York in 2010, where he was featured in several exhibitions, including a career-defining solo exhibition at the Samuel Owen Gallery in Greenwich, CT. Jackson then opened 670 Gallery in Virginia, leading the gallery as its director from 2014-2017. He has since been featured in numerous exhibitions, including more recently The Arlington Arts Center in Arlington, VA, and Hodges Taylor Gallery in Charlotte, NC. His work is a part of various prominent collections including the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts,the Capital One Corporate Collection, and the Hascoe Family Collection. Jackson is the co-founder and executive director of  the CAN Foundation, a not-for-profit arts organization in Newport News, VA, with a focus on artist development, arts education, and public projects. He currently serves on the board of the Virginia Commission for the Arts where he acted as chairman for FY 2022.

Poets

Gloria Ogo

Gloria Ogo, a graduate of Rivers State University of Science and Technology, is a Nigerian author, whose numerous works of poetry and prose are widely read and internationally acclaimed. With over eight published works on Amazon, including the novel While Men Slept, she identifies as a writer of conscience and has written articles featured in Opinion Nigeria and Daily Trust. Gloria is a tutor at Old Dominion University, where she is currently pursuing her studies in Creative Writing. Website https://glriaogo.wixsite.com/gloria-ogo

S. Rupsha Mitra

S. Rupsha Mitra is a poet and writer from India with works published in Resonate, Dhaka Tribune, Mekong Review and North Dakota Quarterly. Her book Smoked Frames is out from Authors Press India. Her website is www.srupshapoetry.com. 

Bridget Dolan

Bridget Dolan is a second-year MFA student at Old Dominion University and poetry teacher at The Muse. She holds bachelor's degrees in English and Astronomy from the University of Delaware. Her first poetry collection, Dust to Dust, was published in 2020 through Finishing Line Press. Her poetry has also appeared in the online literary journals Marias at Sampaguitas and Ayaskala as well as the print literary journals Caesura and Main Street Journal.

Luisa A. Igloria, Ph.D.

Luisa A. Igloria is the author of Maps for Migrants and Ghosts (Co-Winner, 2019 Crab Orchard Open Poetry Prize), The Buddha Wonders if She is Having a Mid-Life Crisis (2018), 12 other books, and 4 chapbooks. Originally from Baguio City, she makes her home in Norfolk VA where she is the Louis I. Jaffe and University Professor of English and Creative Writing at Old Dominion University’s MFA Creative Writing Program. She also leads workshops for and is a member of the board of The Muse Writers Center in Norfolk. Luisa is the 20th Poet Laureate of the Commonwealth of Virginia (2020-22), Emerita. During her term, the Academy of American Poets awarded her a 2021 Poet Laureate Fellowship. www.luisaigloria.com

Exhibit Participants

Brendan Baylor

Brendan Baylor grew up in the Pacific Northwest, taking in the sights and sounds of the wetlands next to his childhood home. As an interdisciplinary artist, his work explores landscapes as social, historical, and ecological spaces. His work has been shown nationally and internationally, including the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, the Chrysler Museum of Art, and the CONA Institute in Ljubljana, Slovenia. His artistic and curatorial work has been covered by NPR, the New York Times, and the Guardian. Brendan is currently Assistant Professor of Art (Print Media) at Old Dominion University. He lives and works in Norfolk, VA at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay. More of his work can be seen at www.brendanbaylor.art and www.hothouseartproject.com.

Marlowe Emerson

Marlowe Emerson is an artist and educator who creates abstract, mixed media works that explore themes and patterns in nature. She holds a degree in French and Art History from Georgetown University and spent a decade studying painting in the south of France. Her work centers around art as intuitive practice that can help us deepen our relationship with nature. Combining paint with everyday materials on the canvas, she creates layers of meaning and personal narrative that speak to our intimate connection with the natural world. Her work has been exhibited internationally, including the Art in Embassies program. Her latest project windandsand.com, examines connections between nature, art, and mindfulness practices. Marlowe works out of her home studio in Virginia Beach, Virginia. 

Spencer Tinkham

Spencer Tinkham (b. 1992) developed a passion for the natural world, investigating the water’s edge throughout his childhood in Norfolk, Virginia. Before passing away from cancer, his grandfather instilled a lifelong passion for carving at age eight. Nothing enthralled Tinkham more than large flocks of hungry waterfowl wintering behind his home. His first waterfowl carvings were from small wood scraps. Next, Tinkham carved life-sized duck decoys to lure waterfowl closer and to critique his work next to wild birds.

Tinkham twice won the Danner Frazer Youth World Decoy Carving Competition (2008, 2010.) While his sculptures are no longer utilitarian, he still uses found materials. In 2016, Tinkham embarked on a full-time art career with no formal training. He was awarded the 2019 SEWE Scholarship by the National Sculpture Society and is an associate member. His work is collected internationally, and is included in the Barr Foundation, Dollar Tree, Inc. and Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum collections.

Rain Spann

Rain Spann (b. 1998 Abbeville, AL)  is a Virginia based Artist and Computer Engineer whose work focuses on his own practice of introspection, observations of everyday life, societal interactions, and the intersection between art and technology. Spann has devoted extensive time and dedication to his study: utilizing his resources, observation, and environment to further understand his surroundings, their foundation, and how they all interact & coexist. Spann graduated with his B.S. in Computer Engineering from Old Dominion University in 2021. During his time as an engineering student, he dedicated time to his passion for the arts. This time was spent studying and researching how essential art and technology are to the future of creativity.

Jasmine Stith

Jasmine Stith’s work explores the environment and climate change by using a metaphoric artistic view on what plastic continuously does to our oceans and how it is affecting our wildlife. She says that the more humans keep taking the climate for granted, the less beauty we will have to explore and take in. Jasmine Stith is a first grade teacher who also incorporates art into her teaching. She is in the process of finishing her Masters in Education.

Flower Yisra’el

Flower Yisra’el is a Crownsmith & Garb Designer. With a background in Computer Science from Temple University she's organically found her flow of creativity in design. Owner of Noble Garb LLC, the curator of the original handmade crowns, she offers more than a product but a natural gift in empowerment.

Flower spends her days playfully and purposefully homeschooling her children, designing crowns & her own garbs. She enjoys growing her own food and creating honest dialogue that empowers her community to accept nobility as a responsibility.