Thursday, April 23, 3:00–4:00 PM ET

Watch the Recording > 

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) introduced deliberation as a values-based approach for engaging both youth and adults in meaningful public dialogue. 

Participants explored 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 shared practical tools and adaptable strategies to strengthen environmental education, build civic skills, and support more thoughtful, collaborative decision-making.

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.

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.

Watch the Recording > 

This webinar is brought to you by ee360+.

Ee360+ Leadership and Training Collaborative: From Inspiration to Impact

ee360+ is an ambitious multi-year initiative that connects, trains, and promotes innovative leaders dedicated to using the power of education to create a more healthy and sustainable future for everyone, everywhere. Led by NAAEE, ee360+ is made possible through funding and support from U.S. EPA and twenty-five partner organizations representing universities and nonprofits across the country, as well as five federal agencies. Through this partnership, ee360+ brings together more than five decades of expertise to grow and strengthen the environmental education field. Visit https://naaee.org/programs/ee360 to learn more.