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¾¨Ó㴫ý will host renowned author Janisse Ray speaking on "Nature, Community and the Life We Dream" Thursday, March 6, at 7 p.m. in the Witherspoon Rooms of the McKelvey Campus Center.

The presentation is part of ¾¨Ó㴫ý's Distinguished Speaker Series, "Perspectives on the Environment." The lecture series, funded by a grant from the Lewis Foundation, is free and open to the public.

¾¨Ó㴫ý's Drinko Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning is hosting the lecture. The Drinko Center was developed to advance world-class teaching at ¾¨Ó㴫ý and enrich K-12 education through outreach programs for area educators.

"This lecture series explores the economic, social, religious, political, and security aspects of environmental issues," said Dr. Shahroukh Mistry, ¾¨Ó㴫ý assistant professor of biology and coordinator of this series. "To acquire knowledge of, and to demonstrate moral and ethical commitments to, the natural world is an integral part of a liberal arts education at ¾¨Ó㴫ý. This speaker series is an important step toward developing an interdisciplinary and cooperative approach to engaging students in becoming knowledgeable and responsible stewards of the natural world and their communities."

Ray is the author of three nonfiction books: Ecology of a Cracker Childhood, an award-winning memoir about growing up on a junkyard in the ruined longleaf pine ecosystem of the Southeast; Wild Card Quilt, about rural community; and Pinhook: Finding Wholeness in a Fragmented Land, the story of a 750,000-acre wildland corridor between south Georgia and north Florida.

Ecology of a Cracker Childhood won a Southeastern Booksellers Award, an American Book Award, the Southern Environmental Law Center Award for Outstanding Writing, and a Southern Book Critics Circle Award, and was recognized as a New York Times Notable Book.

Ray's essays have been published in Audubon, Gray's Sporting Journal, Hope, Natural History, Oprah Magazine, Orion, Sierra, and The Washington Post. She also writes poetry and fiction, and has been a radio commentator for Vermont and Georgia public radio. 

Ray lectures widely on nature, community, organic agriculture, native plants, sustainability, and the politics of wholeness.  As an organizer and activist, she works to create sustainable communities, local food systems, a stable global climate, intact ecosystems, clean rivers, life-enhancing economies, and participatory democracy.

Contact Mistry at (724) 946-7210 (e-mail mistrys@westminster.edu) or Dr. Virginia Tomlinson, ¾¨Ó㴫ý associate professor of sociology and director of ¾¨Ó㴫ý's Drinko Center, at (724) 946-6033 (e-mail tomlinvm@westminster.edu) for additional information. Visit for more information about the Drinko Center, or to learn about ¾¨Ó㴫ý's environmental initiatives. 

Janisse Ray