"Inside the Activist's Studio": Palm to Palm Certification Celebration

Modeled on the format of ‘Inside the Actor’s Studio’, Palm-to-Palm is hosting ‘Inside the Activist’s Studio’, highlighting the conservation issues impacting the global south and global north through interviews and open questions from the audience in discussion with two conservation activists, Dr. Paul Garber and Dr. Erik Patel. These individuals have devoted their lives and professional careers, and significantly added to the accumulation of knowledge to protect some of the most vulnerable and unique and biologically diverse habitats that are home to a multitude of rare and endangered plants and animals and indigenous human communities. 

Dr. Garber, an Emeritus Professor of Anthropology (University of Illinois at Champaign) is actively working in areas of North, Central, and South America, and in China, to save an array of endangered, threatened, and rare monkey species and their habitats. In addition to mentoring masters and PhD students in the US, he has mentored numerous individuals from global south countries to build professional conservation capacity in situ, and in doing so, has published more than 200 peer-reviewed journal articles. 

Dr. Patel’s PhD from Cornell University focused on the highly endangered and beautiful lemur, the silky sifaka, one of the 100+ lemur species that are all threatened with extinction. Dr. Patel is the Director of Conservation and Research at the Lemur Conservation Foundation based in Florida and Madagascar. His work over many years in Madagascar initiated conservation projects in multiple locations in the island country, and includes systematic surveys of lemur populations, conservation education with local communities and rural schools, reforesting in degraded areas for lemur and human habitation, and building professional capacity of Malagasy primatologists and conservationists. Dr. Patel has also been a driving force behind the efforts to end the trade in rosewood and ebony illegally logged from Madagascar’s remaining forests. 

This will be a hybrid event in partnership with The Jane Goodall Institute and the UM-Dearborn Environmental Interpretive Center 

Event Schedule 

1:00 pm-1:10 pm: Introductions; Palm-to-Palm overview

1:10-1:15 pm: Certification Award Ceremony

1:15-1:20 pm: Award to Allen Attee and Picasso

1:20-1:50 pm: Interview with Dr. Garber about his activism 

• Introducing Dr. Garber (5 min) 

• Personal Journey and Slides (15 min)

• Curated Interview Questions (10 min)

1:50-2:00 pm: Coffee Break

2:00 - 2:30 pm: Interview with Dr. Patel about his activism

• Introducing Dr. Patel (5 min)

• Personal Journey and Slides (15 min)

• Curated Interview Questions (10 min)

2:30-3:00 pm: Open-ended questions from audience 

3:00-3:30 pm: Reception 

3:45-4:00 pm: Clean-up