Community Collaboration

Presented with Citizens' Climate Lobby, Omaha Chapter

Join us for a post-screening panel discussion with Graham Christensen (Nebraska Farmers Union, GC Resolve), Luis Marcos (Comunidad Maya Pixan Ixim), Grace Thomas (Verdis Group, Mode Shift Omaha), and Alison Freifeld, MD (UNMC) on human-led climate change, its effects on local communities in the Nebraska area, and how they can be addressed by actors on the ground. Moderated by Citizens' Climate Lobby, Omaha Chapter.

About the panelists

Graham Christensen is a 5th generation family farmer from Omaha, NE, and the State Secretary of and a Director for the Nebraska Farmers Union. He is the Founder and President of GC Resolve - a communications and consulting company that focuses on grassroots community development, mobilization, and education with an emphasis on environment and equality, and the creation of more resilient communities - and of GC ReVOLT - a solar and alternative energy development company.

Luis Marcos belongs to the Q'anjob'al Maya Nation; he is a Spiritual and Political Authority within the Q'anjob'al Maya Government and Ambassador to the Omaha Nation. Luis Co-founded and Co-Directs Comunidad Maya Pixan Ixim (spirit of corn) and co-founder of the Maya Economic Development Corporation. Luis is working with Indigenous Peoples Governments, State Governments, Academic Institutions and community based organizations to implement a regenerative agriculture program at scale in Omaha Nation Territory-Nebraska and Maya Territories.

Grace Thomas is a Senior Associate at Verdis Group, an environmental sustainability consultancy. Grace has helped lead sustainability and climate resiliency planning and implementation processes for the Metropolitan Utilities District, the Dallas Zoo, and Black Hills State University, among other clients. Grace volunteers for the Omaha Missing Middle Housing Campaign, serves as the Vice President of Mode Shift Omaha, and is the president of the Hanscom Park Neighborhood Association.

Alison Freifeld, MD is a professor of Infectious Diseases and Medicine at the University of Nebraska Medical Center where, over the last 20 years, she has implemented programs in management of infectious complications in cancer and solid organ transplant patients. She comes to the climate change space through the lens of its effects on human health, especially the enhanced spread of infectious diseases in the human population.