As a segue to the Rude Mechs’ Not Every Mountain, join us for a panel on art and activism at Loyola University’s new LEED certified, sustainable building. Award-winning playwright Kirk Lynn, policy expert Karen Hobbs, and Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists President and CEO Rachel Bronson will discuss the impact of climate change locally, legislative victories, and arts activism.
Kirk Lynn is an award-winning playwright, novelist, and screenwriter and Assistant Professor of Playwriting and Directing at the University of Texas, Austin. As one of five Artistic Directors of the Rude Mechs theatre collective, Lynn has written and adapted over twenty plays, including the critically acclaimed Lipstick Traces, The Method Gun and, most recently, Not Every Mountain. Lynn’s debut novel Rules for Werewolves was published in 2015 by Melville House Books. He’s currently adapting the novel for the screen and is at work on a second novel, The Vow. Lynn earned his MFA as a fellow at the Michener Center for Writers and is Associate Professor of playwriting at the University of Texas in Austin.
Karen Hobbs is the Senior Director of Midwest Advocacy for the Natural Resources Defense Council. She works with NRDC’s programs to ensure alignment of advocacy and long-term power-building priorities across the U.S. Midwest. Hobbs joined NRDC’s Water Program in 2010 and spent the last two years as Deputy Director of the Midwest Program, where she managed the Midwest Climate & Clean Energy team to help win major clean energy policy victories. Before coming to NRDC, she was the First Deputy Commissioner for the City of Chicago’s Department of Environment, where she led the development and initial implementation of the Chicago Climate Action Plan. Hobbs served for five years in the Clinton Administration including at the White House Council on Environmental Quality.
Rachel Bronson is the President and CEO of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists where she oversees the publishing programs, management of the Doomsday Clock, and a growing set of activities around nuclear weapons, nuclear energy, climate change and emerging technologies. Before joining the Bulletin, Bronson served for eight years at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs in a number of capacities. She also taught “Global Energy” as an adjunct professor at the Kellogg School of Management. Bronson’s book Thicker than Oil: America’s Uneasy Partnership with Saudi Arabia (Oxford University Press, 2006) was published in paperback in June 2008. Her writings have appeared in hundreds of publications including Foreign Policy, Foreign Affairs, The National Interest, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Huffington Post, and The Chicago Tribune. Bronson has served as a consultant to NBC News and testified before the congressional Task Force on Anti-Terrorism and Proliferation Financing, Congress’s Joint Economic Committee, and the 9/11 Commission.
