Great Decisions Program: Climate Change

About Iris O’Donnell Bellisario

As a civically engaged Hoosier and a scholar in environmental science, Iris’s pursuit of sharing the effects of climate change with her peers and the community is becoming a reality. Iris passed a climate resolution for the City of West Lafayette in October 2019, and has helped spearhead the collaboration between Tippecanoe County, West Lafayette and the city of Lafayette on combined climate efforts.

She successfully advocated for the city to conduct a greenhouse gas inventory and is developing a plan for the community to achieve carbon neutrality by the date decided upon in the resolution. Recently, she was highlighted as a Top 30 Under 30 for the city of West Lafayette and was named a 2019 Resilience Hoosier Resilience Hero.

About Jason “Jake” Hawes

Jake Hawes is a PhD student in the School for Environment and Sustainability at the University of Michigan. He is a member of the Urban Sustainability Research Group studying the role of food, energy, and water infrastructure in the design of more resilient, sustainable cities. His work seeks to integrate the design sciences and sustainability research, working to understand how the interactions between humans and the world around us empower or undermine environmental, social, and economic sustainability.

About Allison Masterson

Allison Masterson is a recent graduate from Penn High School in South Bend. She is planning to study at Indiana University through the College of Arts and Sciences and the Hutton Honors College. Allison organizes for the Sunrise Movement, a movement focused on stopping climate change and creating millions of good jobs in the process. She currently holds the recruitment lead role in South Bend’s chapter of the Sunrise Movement and is a strong advocate of the Green New Deal.