Winter Eliot 2021 CANCELED: "Hope Matters" with Speaker Elin Kelsey

Photo credit: Agnes Bernard

Hope Matters: Why evidence-based hope is crucial for solving the critical issues we collectively face

Many of us are struggling amidst the overwhelming onslaught of urgent issues such as climate change, COVID 19 and species extinctions that are happening at a global scale. In this program, Elin Kelsey draws on timely evidence from a plethora of sources including leading science journals, the financial pages, and mindfulness and palliative care practices to show why hope, and not fear and shame enable us to remain resilient and engage more effectively when the going gets tough. She'll show us how and why it's so essential to embrace a solutions-orientation and how to move beyond the incessant predictions of a bleak future that bombards us via the Twenty-four-hour news cycle, alerts on personal mobile devices and social media.  We'll head outside together and explore the agency and resilience that exists within the 8.7 million other species with which we share the planet, and benefit from the mental and emotional well-being of time spent outdoors. 

The program is open to everyone of all abilities and experiences. No special writing or performing skills are needed. 

Link to Hope Matters: Why Changing the Way We Think is Critical to Solving the Environmental Crisis by Elin Kelsey (October 2020)

Link to A Last Goodbye by Elin Kelsey (Spring 2020)

Link to Elin's Website

Biography: Elin Kelsey, PhD, is an award-winning author and thought-leader for evidence-based hope and environmental solutions. Kelsey's work focuses on the study of the reciprocal relationship between humans and the rest of nature. Her newest book for adults, Hope Matters: Why Changing the Way We Think Is Critical For Solving The Environmental Crisis was published by Greystone Books in October 2020. Her influence can be seen in the hopeful, solutions-focus of her clients, including the Monterey Bay Aquarium, and other powerful institutions where she has served as a visiting fellow including the Rachel Carson Center for the Environment and Society, the Rockefeller Foundation, and Stanford University in the Graduate School of Education. In Spring 2022 she will serve as a Kone Foundation fellow in Helsinki, Finland.  She co-created #OceanOptimism, a twitter campaign to crowd-source marine conservation solutions which has reached more than 100 million shares since it launched in 2014. As an Adjunct Faculty member of the University of Victoria School of Environmental Studies, and, Western Washington University’s partnership in the Redfish School of Change, she is helping to forward a solutions-oriented paradigm for educating environmental scientists and social scientists. Passionate about bringing science-based stories of hope and multi-species resilience to the public, Kelsey is a popular keynote speaker and media commentator. She regularly serves as an author/artist in residence, leading hopeful environmental workshops with kindergarten to university students across North America and around the world. She is a feature writer and podcast host for Hakai Magazine and a best-selling children's book author. Her newest book for children, A Last Goodbye was published in April 2020. For more about Elin and her work please visit https://www.elinkelsey.org