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What Comes after the Wildfires
media release: Stream at the WAA YouTube channel.
The devastating wildfires in southern California have taken lives, ravaged property, and raised a host of questions about the future of the region.
This disaster hits close to home for many Badgers: the UW has more than 6,000 alumni in the Los Angeles area.
What do we know about the underlying causes and spread of these fires? What policy interventions can reduce the likelihood or mitigate the impacts of these wildfires? And how will the recent California wildfires change the insurance environment?
Join Wisconsin Foundation and Alumni Association’s Mike Knetter on Tuesday, Jan. 21, at 7 p.m. CST. This UW Now Livestream will feature a live discussion with UW experts who will answer these questions and offer their insights on the situation in California.
Featured Speakers
- Jonathan Patz, MD, MPH, is a Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor and the John P. Holton Chair of Health and the Environment with appointments in the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies and the Department of Population Health Sciences. He was the inaugural director of the Global Health Institute, stepping down in 2022. Patz cochaired the health report for the first congressionally mandated U.S. National Assessment on Climate Change. For 15 years, he served as a lead author for the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change — the organization that shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize. Among his many other awards and recognitions are the Aldo Leopold Leadership Fellows Award, the Fulbright Scholarship, and the Chanchlani Global Health Research Award. Patz is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine.
- Ben Wright ’02 is the senior vice president and chief underwriting officer (property) at American Family Insurance Group. He leads product development, product management, high-risk, and data science teams for the American Family enterprise homeowners’ business. He has been with the American Family enterprise for more than 22 years in roles across actuarial, finance, product management, and product development functions. He graduated from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 2002 with a bachelor of business administration in actuarial science.
- Paul Zedler ’63, MS’66 PhD’68 is a professor emeritus of environmental studies and former associate dean for research and education in the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies. His research centers on plant community and population ecology, with a focus on a variety of problems, including response of species to extreme events and stressful habitats. He has also researched fire and fire effects in Southern California, where massive wildfires have become both social and economic problems in addition to natural resource issues. Zedler received his master’s degree and doctorate at UW–Madison in botany and plant ecology and joined the faculty in 1998. Prior to that, he was a professor and director of biological field stations at San Diego State University.
To watch past programs, check out the Wisconsin Alumni Association YouTube channel.