Leahy Public Policy Forum

Conversation with Global Climate Leaders

Ira Allen Chapel, 26 University Place, Burlington, VT

5:00pm - 6:30pm

The 2026 Leahy Public Policy Forum brings together three distinguished leaders in climate policy and law: John Podesta and Todd Stern, former Obama administration officials and key architects of U.S. climate policy across multiple administrations, and Melissa Hoffer, incoming president of Vermont Law and Graduate School, Massachusetts’s first climate chief, and a former senior official at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Hosted by UVM’s Patrick Leahy Honors College, the forum offers the university community and people of Vermont a timely, firsthand conversation about the evolution of U.S. climate policy, the challenges ahead, and the leadership required to meet them.

President Marlene Tromp in conversation with:

• Todd Stern, Special Envoy for Climate Change under President Obama
• John Podesta, Former White House Chief of Staff under President Clinton, and Senior Advisor to the President for Climate Policy under President Biden
• Melissa Hoffer, Climate Chief of Massachusetts, and Incoming President of Vermont Law and Graduate School

RSVP Requested

From Commitment to Coherence - Reshaping the Future of Higher Education in Sustainability and Climate

Silver Pavilion, 61 Summit Street, Burlington, VT

9:00am - 10:30am

Many universities nationally and globally have made climate and sustainability commitments. Far fewer have turned them into change that shows up in how the university actually runs. In this opening keynote, Dr. Julie Newman, Director of Sustainability at MIT, asks what it would take to move from pledges to systems-level transformation. Progress tends to stall when research, campus operations, teaching, and community partnerships run on separate tracks. Dr. Newman will challenge us to think beyond traditional institutional structures and silos and consider how universities can become more integrated, agile, and resilient in the decades ahead.

Following her presentation, Dr. Newman will facilitate a panel discussion featuring Dr. Paul Bierman, Amanda Sardonis, Dr. Trisha Shrum, and Caylin McCamp, bringing together UVM perspectives to explore what this changing role could mean for our university and the broader communities we serve.

RSVP Requested

Break

Silver Pavilion, 61 Summit Street, Burlington, VT

10:30am - 11:00am

Climate Innovation Showcase

Alumni House Silver Pavilion, 61 Summit Street, Burlington, VT

11:00am - Noon

Brought to you by the Leahy Institute for Rural Partnerships, the Climate Innovation Showcase will feature quick talks by seven researchers and entrepreneurs working to solve the climate crisis here in Vermont.  Come hear about innovations emerging from UVM labs and Vermont start-ups to solve the climate crisis and create new opportunities for our economy.

Amritanshu Pandey, Ph.D. UVM Center for Resilient Energy and Autonomous Technologies in Engineering (CREATE): “Agentic AI: Accelerating the Clean Energy Transition - Putting grid expertise within reach of every community”

Chad Miller, President and CTO, Verde Technologies, “A Vermont-grown revolution in solar energy”

Joshua Beneš, UVM Water Resources Institute, "Vermont Mesonet: Monitoring for Community Climate Resilience"

Eric Roy, Ph.D., Director, UVM Casella Center on the Circular Economy and Sustainability, “The climate benefits of food waste recycling in the United States”

Cailyn McCamp, Director, UVM Office of Sustainability, “Campus landscapes as a living laboratory for climate adaptation”

Tyler Seeholzer, BETA Technologies, “The Promise of Electric Aviation in confronting climate change”. 

Gillian Galford, Ph.D., Director, UVM Climate Measurement Center for Excellence, "Measuring What Matters: Climate Science for Local Action"RSVP Requested

Additional Opportunity on UVM's Campus on Thursday, October 29, 2026

Explore the Campus Sustainability Series, and the following kick-off event:

Campus Sustainability Tour

Dudley H. Davis Center, 590 Main Street, Burlington, VT

1:00pm – 2:00pm

Brought to you by the Office of Sustainability, this walking tour of campus operations highlights UVM’s sustainability leadership in action. The tour will run rain or shine and offers two tracks to choose from 1) Zero Waste Programs, Local Food Sourcing & Green Buildings or 2) Sustainable Transportation, Landscape Operations & Campus Energy Systems.

Registration Required

Wednesday, October 28:

Free parking for the Conversation with Global Climate Leaders at 5:00 pm is available in Waterman and Votey parking lots as indicated on the parking map.

For the full campus map visit: https://www.uvm.edu/map/

Thursday, October 29:

Due to construction on Summit Street limiting on-street parking, we ask that UVM affiliates use their regular permitted parking areas on campus for Thursday's events.

Parking in the Alumni House and Grasse Mount lots are for UVM Foundation employees only. 

Non-UVM affiliates who indicated they required parking (as of 8:00 am on 10/28) have been sent parking information via email. 

For further information, including visitor parking information, please visit the campus map: https://www.uvm.edu/map/

UVM welcomes all individuals to participate in its programs and activities. To request a disability-related accommodation for this event, please contact the Office of Accessibility Services (OAS) at access@uvm.edu or (802) 656-7753 as soon as possible. OAS will work with you and the event organizers to determine available accommodations.