Environmental Organization Panel

Bill Finnegan is the co-founder of Tamarack Media Cooperative, a web design and video production company that helps environmental and social justice organizations harness digital media to communicate, educate and advocate. As a documentary filmmaker, Bill’s work has appeared on US public television, BBC radio and online, and film festivals around the world. Bill is currently a doctoral student at the University of Oxford, where he is researching climate education and school sustainability, and working with young climate activists on a digital storytelling project.

Iris graduated from Purdue University in 2020 with a degree in Natural Resources and Environmental Science with a concentration in Environmental Policy and Economic Analysis. As a civically engaged Hoosier and a scholar in environmental science, Iris's pursuit of sharing the effects of climate change with her peers and the community is becoming a reality. Iris passed a climate resolution for the City of West Lafayette in October 2019, Climate Emergency Declaration in 2021, helped establish a youth advisor on the Go Greener Commission in 2021 and has helped spearhead the collaboration between Tippecanoe County, West Lafayette and the city of Lafayette on combined climate efforts. Iris currently works as the Director of Care with a lifestyle medicine clinic, Coze Health Medical LLC in West Lafayette. She also currently serves as Outreach Chair on the Go Greener Commission, and is a Digital Fellow with the Southern Indiana Development Commission.

Emily works as the Manager of Outreach with the Hoosier Environmental Council, Indiana's largest environmental education and advocacy organization. As Manager of Outreach, she expands the depth and breadth of HEC's statewide network of relationships through helping to organize workshops and their annual conference - Greening the Statehouse, connecting with grassroots and grasstops supporters, and engaging volunteers.

Before joining the HEC team, Emily served two terms of service as an AmeriCorps Member in Indianapolis - as a VISTA and as a Public Ally, where she worked on social media and storytelling, and community outreach efforts. A native to the Hoosier state, Emily has a longstanding commitment to service and environmental sustainability. She has bachelor's degrees from Indiana University Bloomington in international studies (concentrations in Indigenous communities, and global health and environment) and environmental & sustainability studies (concentration in biodiversity, and minor in geography).

JC is a Peruvian biologist with extensive experience in marine biodiversity and landscape ecology. He has worked extensively with local and international conservation organizations to develop freshwater, marine, and forest conservation spatial tools. His primary interest is the development of science-based tools to support policy decision-making in fisheries sustainability and the identification of innovative ways to increase climate change public understanding. JC graduated and received a professional degree in Biology from the Universidad Nacional Agraria La Molina, and he completed the program for a master’s degree in Forest Resources Conservation.

Andrés Scherman (Journalist and MA in Sociology at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile) is a PhD candidate in Communication at Pompeu Fabra University and professor at Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez in Chile. His research interests include political participation, social media, immigration, environmentalism and youth participation.

His research has been published in prestigious journals such as Political Communication, Journal of Communication, Social Media + Society, and Journalism. Currently, Scherman is the principal investigator of the Fondecyt Regular N° 1210923 that studies the situation of immigrants in Chile and the co-investigator of a Fondecyt Regular that focuses journalistic roles and Principal Investigator of the Millennium Nucleus Center for the Study of Politics, Public Opinion and Media in Chile. Between 2012 and 2021, Scherman was Director of the Master in Communication and from 2012-2019 was Coordinator of Scientific Research for the Faculty of Communication at Diego Portales University in Chile. In 2009, he created the Young People, Participation, and Media Consumption Survey.