NEPAccess UA DC Inaugural Event

On Friday, September 24, SNRE’s Laura López-Hoffman, Aaron Lien and Jonathan Derbridge, along with Marc Miller (College of Law), Sudha Ram (Eller) and Steven Bethard (iSchool) led a session at the UA’s Washington, DC Center for Outreach & Collaboration’s inaugural week.

"Fulfilling NEPA’s Vision Through 21st Century Data Science" (YouTube)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pNMa53kd_M0

NEPA (National Environmental Policy Act) is the centerpiece of federal environmental decision-making. NEPAccess is a knowledge discovery and engagement platform that fulfills the Act’s original vision by making it possible for all citizens to participate in environmental governance. Through cutting edge data science tools, NEPAccess enables scientific information from NEPA processes to be widely available to scientists, agencies and citizens.

The event was hosted by UA President Robert C. Robbins and included opening remarks from the Chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, Brenda Mallory, a demonstration of the platform, and breakout sessions.

SNRE graduate students Ashley Stava and Alex Binford-Walsh helped plan and coordinate the event and roles of the undergraduate students. The breakout sessions were led by the NEPAccess undergraduate researchers: SNRE students Colton Herr, Ella Kaufman, Nicole Williams, Carly Winnebald, Kaya Curry, Saige Thompson, Gianni Velasco; and Seliah McCasland (SGPP) and Abishek Agarwal (iSchool). 

"NEPAccess is huge for us [at CEQ],” said CEQ Chair Mallory. “[T]his is a really important tool in what we are trying to accomplish… I’m particularly encouraged by the opportunities…for public engagement and engagement with communities.”

NEPAccess is now live, at www.NEPAccess.org<http://www.nepaccess.org/>
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Photo by Andy He on Unsplash