Diane Burko is an American artist based in Philadelphia whose practice is situated at the intersection of art, science, and the environment. Burko has exhibited extensively nationally and internationally, and her work is in the collections of such institutions as the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC, the Minneapolis Art Institute, National Academy of Sciences, Phillips Collection, Tang Museum of Art, and the V&A in London. She is represented by the Cristin Tierney Gallery in NYC.

Burko’s practice seeks to visually emulsify interconnected subjects– extraction, deforestation, environmental justice, indigenous genocide, ecological degradation– so the connection between them becomes impossible to ignore. While her work deals with impending climate catastrophe, rather than lingering in dystopia, it celebrates the sublimity of the landscape by honoring the intricate geological and political webs that shape the identity of a place. Her current body of work uses large-scale mixed media painting to examine climate issues impacting the Amazon Rainforest.

Dr. Lauren Kipp is an oceanographer and Associate Professor in the Department of Environmental Science at Rowan University. She uses naturally occurring radioactive isotopes to study the chemistry of the ocean, with a particular interest in how the oceans influence, and are influenced by, climate change. Much of her research takes place in the Arctic, where she has spent time collecting samples from the coast of Northern Canada all the way to the North Pole. She has a B.S. in Chemistry from the University of North Carolina Wilmington and a Ph.D. in Chemical Oceanography from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology - Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Joint Program. Prior to starting at Rowan, she was a postdoctoral fellow at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University.

Dr. Virginia Schutte brings people together in ways that matter. She started my career as a scientist. She secured enough grant funds to build an international research program that advanced science and informed conservation. After earning her Ecology Ph.D. in 2014, she transitioned to a career in science communication. She has designed and produced digital campaigns and museum exhibits, consulted on communications strategies, trained scientists to meet communications goals, and studied how higher education can better support scholars. Her digital storytelling spans platforms and includes a science fashion series on Instagram, livestreamed events on YouTube, all-day AMAs on Reddit, a career development podcast, and a Whatsapp group that got Snoop Dogg to stop in and say hi. Her latest work includes building and running organizations. Positions she has held include: Interim Executive Director of a scicomm organization that she converted into a nonprofit, Co-Founder and CEO of an ocean tech startup, and Organizer of a non-partisan community action event.

Dr. Cynthia H. Veloric (Moderator) is an art historian, independent curator, adjunct professor, and environmental advocate who has worked at the Smithsonian, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. In 2016, motivated by her volunteer work at the Clean Air Council in Philadelphia she began to specialize in contemporary art that engaged with the climate crisis and environmental risk. Her PhD dissertation is titled “Images, Theater, Embo died Experiences: how Eco artists are shifting consciousness around the climate crisis.” She has taught courses on that subject at the University of the Arts and Drexel University. Amongst her curated exhibitions were the traveling exhibition Risky Beauty: Aesthetics and Climate Change from 2022-2024 (Main Line Art Center, Nurture Nature Center, Easton, PA, and the Annenberg School at the University of Pennsylvania), and Reflections on our Endangered Environment in 2026, a benefit for the Clean Air Council at the Philadelphia Ethical Society.