Environmental organizer Dorien Paul Blythers will speak Tuesday, Oct. 27, at 5:30 p.m. in the Nott Memorial.
His talk, “The Color of Climate: The Changing Face of the American Environmental Movement,” is part of the Kelly Adirondack Center’s lecture series on young leaders, diversity and the environment. It is free and open to the public.
A Los Angeles-based millennial, Blythers was a student at Howard University when he led student efforts resulting in the first university wide recycling mandate in the institution’s 147-year history.
He joined the National Ocean’s Policy team at the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) as an intern and worked alongside former Arizona Gov. and Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt. At EDF, Dorien laid the groundwork for a “Partnership for Environmental Leadership” with Howard University.
In 2012, Dorien spearheaded President Obama’s re-election campaign in Riviera Beach, Fla. He continues to build at the intersection of environmental advocacy, diversity and outreach landing opportunities with congressional candidates, People for the American Way, Outdoor Foundation, Sierra Club, U.S. Green Building Council and the White House.
The Kelly Adirondack Center includes a home built by noted Adirondack conservationist Paul Schaefer in 1934 and the Adirondack Research Library. The center, which Union acquired in 2011 from a private conservation group, is three miles from campus in nearby Niskayuna.
The library boasts the largest collection of material outside of the Adirondack Park, including rare books, maps, photographs, documents and the personal papers of some of the region's foremost conservationists.