When Values Collide: Deliberating Environmental Issues with Youth and Adults
Thursday, April 23, 3:00–4:00 PM ET
How do we move past polarized debates and create space for real listening and learning around environmental issues? In this interactive webinar, the National Issues Forums Institute (NIFI) introduces deliberation as a values-based approach for engaging both youth and adults in meaningful public dialogue.
Participants will explore how deliberation helps groups weigh tradeoffs, surface underlying values, and build shared understanding around complex environmental and community challenges. Designed for educators, facilitators, and civic leaders, this session will share practical tools and adaptable strategies to strengthen environmental education, build civic skills, and support more thoughtful, collaborative decision-making.
All registrants will receive the recording.
Speakers
Cristin F. Brawner
Executive Director, National Issues Forums Institute
Cristin F. Brawner leads the National Issues Forums Institute (NIFI), a nonprofit and nonpartisan organization dedicated to equipping, empowering, and mobilizing people to use deliberation to take action for the public good. Her career has focused on helping communities and our democracy thrive by building partnerships, designing programs, and strengthening the civic infrastructure that enables people to talk, decide, and act together.
Before joining NIFI, Brawner served as Executive Director of the David Mathews Center for Civic Life in Alabama. Brawner also founded the Southern Deliberative Democracy Network and is a former Associate with the Kettering Foundation.
Dawn Harfmann
Program Coordinator, National Issues Forums Institute
Dawn Harfmann is NIFI’s Program Coordinator, supporting program development and implementation and the coordination of NIFI partner engagement. Dawn has a background in research and practice concerning nonpartisan community collaboration across differences, and she serves as a trained moderator through Braver Angels, a political bridge-building organization. Dawn has served as an educator in K–12 and at the college level, leading place-based and experiential learning initiatives both in the classroom and in field settings.
Mandy Baily
Founder and Principal, Coalescing LLC
Mandy Sunshine Baily's experience spans her early years in the U.S. Peace Corps working closely with a small community to managing a statewide nature-based solutions program in Florida. Across these roles and beyond, she is dedicated to ensuring the human dimension of environmental challenges is central to developing effective paths forward. Mandy is grateful for opportunities to have worked with both NIFI and NAAEE, including serving as one of NAAEE's inaugural Civic and Environmental Change Fellows.
Elizabeth W. Corrie, Ph.D.
Professor in the Practice of Youth Education and Peacebuilding, Candler School of Theology, Emory University
From 2007-2019, Dr. Corrie was the director of the Youth Theological Initiative, an intensive, residential program in justice-seeking theological education with high school students at Emory. Currently, she is the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Youth and Theology and is co-director of The BRIDGE Young Adult Ministry Innovation Hub at Candler. Corrie’s teaching draws on commitments to both peace with justice and the education of young people, particularly the development of teaching and ministry that empower people for global citizenship. Her current research project, funded by the Louisville Institute, studies the use of deliberation to facilitate the centering of young peoples’ perspectives on climate action. She is partnering with Georgia Interfaith Power and Light to help youth groups “green” their churches.
This webinar is brought to you by ee360+.
ee360+: Building a Stronger and More Inclusive Movement Through Collective Impact
An ambitious multi-year initiative, the ee360+ Leadership and Training Collaborative connects, trains, and promotes innovative leaders dedicated to using the power of education to create a more just and sustainable future for everyone, everywhere. Led by NAAEE, ee360+ is made possible through funding and support from U.S. EPA and partner organizations representing universities and nonprofits across the country, and five federal agencies. Through this partnership, ee360+ brings together more than five decades of expertise to grow, strengthen, and diversify the environmental education field. Visit https://naaee.org/programs/ee360 to learn more.
