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2008 PAEE Conference Keynote Speakers The 2008 conference committee is pleased to announce that Rick Flood and Joseph Cornell are confirmed as 2008 conference keynote speakers. Rick Flood is a sustainability expert with 15 years executive leadership in the environmental education field. His expertise lies in sustainable systems for energy, buildings, water conservation, waste assimilation, and food systems. Working with some of the best-known international figures in the ecological design field, he has collaborated with David W. Orr, Sim Van der Ryn, and John T. Lyle in efforts to create a regional, hands-on sustainability education center. Rick created Solutions in Sustainability, LLC in 2006 to provide leadership and guidance to businesses undertaking sustainable development projects in the housing, urban infill and mixed use, and community development markets. His largest project is a 380-acre model residential development that will combine habitat and biodiversity enhancement, naturalized stormwater treatment, organic food growing, 'green homes', and miles of walking trails among acres and acres of planted prairie. Rick serves as a Gubernatorial appointee to the Milwaukee River Revitalization Council, and he was instrumental in organizing the first statewide Sustainability Fair in Oshkosh, Wisconsin in 2005. Rick is a frequent lecturer at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Business, and has given numerous presentations and authored several articles and papers on the topic of sustainability. Mr. Flood's presentation, Environmental Education's Future: Birds, Bugs, and Bogs?, will kick-off the 2008 conference weekend, as he invites us to consider environmental education in the context of climate change, species extinction, and global consumption and to ask ourselves, "Is it our job to foster generations of nature-lovers, or should we be creating people devoted to sustainability?" Rick will help us to explore themes that are at the core of what we do and why, and challenge and inspire us to imagine what might be. He will explore this topic further during a 1-hour workshop entitled Sustainability 101: What Any Family Can Do. An interactive presentation that brings the concept "sustainability" down to earth and explains how to incorporate it into our personal lives, Rick will describe how, for the past 8 years, the entire Flood family has been working to implement specific sustainable strategies without compromising their way of life. Joseph Cornell is one the most inspiring nature educators in the world today. His first book, Sharing Nature with Children, sparked a worldwide revolution in nature education and became a classic. His six Sharing Nature Books have been translated into twenty languages. In 1978, Mr. Cornell founded Sharing Nature Worldwide, a popular and highly acclaimed nature awareness program. He is the honorary president of the Japan Nature Game Association, an organization of 11,000 leaders who use and promote his nature education philosophy and methods in Japan and Southeast Asia. He travels regularly to work with groups in other countries as well as in the United States. Joseph Cornell has lived for over thirty years in Ananda Village, near Nevada City, California. Based on the principles of simple living and high thinking, Ananda Village is one of the most successful intentional communities in the world today. In addition to his nature work, Cornell teaches courses on meditation and other inspirational topics. Mr. Cornell will present Balancing Science with Love, at the PAEE Annual Banquet on Saturday, March 1, 2008. Joseph will discuss the unique role that calm feeling, or intuition, plays in our understanding, empathy, and desire to act and will provide many innovative techniques for encouraging love and care for the Earth. Prior to his keynote presentation, Joseph is facilitating an on-site field study entitled Sharing Nature, an opportunity to experience many nature awareness games from Joseph Cornell's Sharing Nature books. Participants will also experience Flow LearningT-a powerful tool to lead people from their present level of awareness into closer contact with nature.