The devastating wildfires in southern California have taken lives, ravaged property, and raised a host of questions about the future of the region. 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 wildfires? And how will the California wildfires change the insurance environment?
Join fellow UW alumni and friends online for a livestream and Q & A with experts who will discuss these topics. The talk will be moderated by Mike Knetter, strategic adviser for investments and business development at the Wisconsin Foundation and Alumni Association.
This disaster hits close to home for many Badgers: the UW has more than 6,000 alumni in the Los Angeles area and more than 27,000 in California. If you’d like to support local groups that are helping those in the LA region, we’ve compiled a list of them in posts on Facebook and Instagram.
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 served as the inaugural director of the Global Health Institute, from 2011-2022. Patz is Director and PI of the new NIH funded Health-First Climate Action Center. 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 formerly 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.
A recording and recap of the livestream will be available on uwalumni.com after the event.
This event is hosted by the Wisconsin Alumni Association®.
