A Hybrid Conference
Meeting Challenges, Facing the Future...Together!

Plenary Speakers

UMISC plenary sessions bring all attendees together (in-person and virtually) to showcase national luminaries in invasive species leadership, management, policy, and research. We are thrilled to announce our plenaries for 2022:

Tuesday October 25th at 9:45AM CDT

Tribal experiences in invasive species management and natural resource restoration
Tribal experiences with invasive species often differ from a binary “Good or Bad” view of the world. Traditionally we view all living things as family members that deserve acknowledgement and respect. Although the eradication of new species can be at odds with this traditional view, we recognize the need to actively manage our land. We believe indigenous knowledge is fundamental to these conservation efforts. An example of this is the collaboration between all 11 Federally recognized Tribes in Wisconsin and the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) to deploy traps throughout Indian Country to monitor and verify the presence of Emerald Ash Borer (EAB). Black Ash is a culturally significant species.

Tehassi tasi Hill
Oneida Nation Chairman
Tehassi Hill is the Chairman for Oneida Nation. This is his second term as Chairman. Prior to his current role, Chairman Hill served two terms as a Council Member for the Oneida Business Committee, who are the elected government officials for the Oneida Nation. Through his service as an elected leader, Chairman Hill demonstrates a commitment to the preservation of the environment and Oneida’s language, culture and traditions. He actively works to support the vision of sustainability and to exercise and protect the Nation’s sovereignty. These guiding principles drive his work with the Oneida Nation and beyond. On behalf of the Oneida Nation, Chairman Hill serves on the Board of Directors for the Great Lakes Inter-Tribal Council, which is a consortium of 11 Tribes in Wisconsin and Lac Vieau Desert of Michigan and is liaison for the National Congress of American Indians. Chairman Hill also serves on the Natural Resources Damage Trustee Council and is a designee to Environmental Protection Agency’s Regional Tribal Operating Committee. Chairman Hill was born and raised on the Oneida reservation and graduated from the Oneida Nation High school. He studied Business Administration at the University of Wisconsin at Green Bay and operated a successful industrial, commercial, and residential painting business for six years prior to working in government. Chairman Hill and his wife, Kanatihal, have nine children and reside in Oneida, Wisconsin. He likes to spend his leisure time hunting, fishing and being actively engaged with his family and the greater community​

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Tuesday October 25th at 10:30AM CDT

​Translational Invasion Ecology: A framework for connecting research and practice to address the combined challenges of invasive species and climate change
The disconnect between research and practice is a problem in many fields but is a particular challenge in invasive species management where science-based decisions are critical to preventing and mitigating the negative ecological, economic and human health impacts invasives cause. However, despite the expanding body of knowledge and technological advances, there continues to be a disconnect between invasive species research and management that can hinder the understanding and application of new information and solutions to these challenges. Although partnerships between researchers and managers can happen serendipitously, more often purposeful engagement across the research – practice divide is required to produce the actionable science that is needed by practitioners in the field. Expanding on Translational Ecology, a new term for an old idea that resource managers and scientists need to work together to solve pressing ecological problems, Translational Invasion Ecology (TIE) is an intentional process in which researchers, stakeholders, and decision makers work collaboratively to develop research on invasive species via joint consideration of the sociological, ecological, and political contexts of invasives management that ideally results in improved decision making. In this talk we will describe how the Regional Invasive Species and Climate Change (RISCC) network has utilized the TIE process to tackle the information gaps surrounding the compounding challenge of invasive species and climate change. RISCC was established to address the question posed by invasive species managers: “How can we manage for upcoming biological invasions in the light of climate change?” and the network has since worked through the TIE process to identify stakeholder needs, synthesize existing research, develop new research and tools, and support increased collaboration among scientists and managers. We propose that more widespread application of the TIE framework will improve our ability to address invasive species issues as they are exacerbated by climate change and globalization.

Carrie Brown-Lima
Director of the New York Invasive Species Research Institute at Cornell University
​Carrie Brown-Lima is the Director of the NY Invasive Species Research Institute at Cornell University. In this role, she works closely with research scientists, state and federal agencies, the NY Invasive Species Council and Advisory Committee and regional managers and stakeholders to promote innovation and improve the scientific basis of invasive species management. She is co-founder of the Northeast Regional Invasive Species and Climate Change Management network and is currently the Chair of the NYS Invasive Species Advisory Committee and the North American Invasive Species Network. Carrie has over 25 years of experience with natural resource conservation and management across ecosystems and borders. She spent more than a decade developing conservation strategies in Brazil and throughout Latin America including programs such as sustainable fisheries certifications, agriculture and conservation, and transboundary protected areas.
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Wednesday October 26th at 11:45AM CDT

​Interactive effects of ships and management on invasion dynamics in coastal ecosystems
Ships are a major driver of invasions by nonindigenous species (NIS) in coastal ecosystems throughout the world.  Over the past thirty years, biosecurity policies have been advanced to abate the risk of new invasions.  This has resulted in a dramatic shift in management by commercial ships, focused especially on treatment of ships' ballast water to reduce the transfer of coastal organisms. Here, I evaluate effects of this shifting biosecurity landscape on (a) vessel management practices, (b) biotic transfers, and (c) invasion dynamics in US coastal waters.

​Dr. Greg Ruiz
Principal Investigator and Senior Scientist with the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center 
Greg is a marine ecologist, working on invasion biology, biogeography, ecology, and sustainability in coastal marine ecosystems.  He leads a research group, based at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC) laboratories, with labs located on Chesapeake Bay and San Francisco Bay. Most of his research explores the patterns, mechanisms, and consequences of coastal marine invasions. His work includes extensive analysis of commercial shipping and trade patterns, evaluating management strategies to reduce coastal invasions.  
 
A Senior Scientist at SERC for 30 years, Greg has published over 200 scientific articles as author or coauthor, focusing primarily on marine invasion ecology and management. He began his career in California and has broad interests in marine biology and dynamics of coastal ecosystems. Greg holds a Ph.D. in zoology from University of California, Berkeley and a B.A. in aquatic biology from the University of California, Santa Barbara.  For additional information visit SERC’s Marine Invasion Research Laboratory website at https://serc.si.edu/labs/marine-invasions-research.  


Wednesday October 26th at 12:30PM CDT

Protecting yourself and others from misinformation
It is all too easy to believe that others only are responsible for spreading misinformation. Unfortunately, sometimes, people in our society do it deliberately with the intention to deceive others. However, we are all vulnerable to adopting and spreading misinformation ourselves in our professional and personal lives. This talk will explore why this happens and offer ways we can build up our skills to protect ourselves and others from the harms of misinformation. Examples will be drawn from the speakers’ areas of scholarship and everyday examples to which we can all relate. The audience will also be invited to provide examples in their fields where misinformation is common.

Dr. Ajay Sethi
​Professor of Population Health Sciences and Faculty Director of the Medicine and Public Health Program
Dr. Sethi is Professor of Population Health Sciences and Director of the Master of Public Health Program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is an infectious disease epidemiologist and works in the areas of HIV/AIDS, COVID-19, healthcare-associated infections among other areas. Since 2018, Dr. Sethi has taught the popular course, Conspiracies in Public Health, to help students who will be client and community facing to having conversations with people with opposing views on various health topics. Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, he helped the public understand the threat we have been facing and how to make sense of the new and emerging research findings and public health policies.

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