Improving access through transit infrastructure: Conversation with Veronica O. Davis PE

As Director of Transportation and Drainage Operations for the City of Houston, Veronica O. Davis is responsible for maintaining and improving infrastructure across 671 square miles. She chatted with ESF on Earth Day about challenges in designing roadways for equitable transit through her lens as a civil engineer passionate about transportation and community development.

Veronica O. Davis.  Click for video

Houston is the 4th largest city. Its physically large, but is not contiguous because of its growth through annexation.  Houston's road system and bike lane are used to channel rainwater to prevent property drainage.  Both are swept to prevent debris blocking drains.  

Houston is seeking not just infrastructure, but "really good infrastructure" through better public transit and measures "to live with water.  Houston's highest point is only 100' above sea level.  So, biking is easy, but drainage is difficult."  The city has a big goal of 25 miles/yr of "High Comfort Bike Lanes" plus 50 miles of sidewalk.  These lanes are also called "protective bike lanes", which are bide, protected from traffic by a buffer, and have dedicated travel lanes.  Her office benefits from an "enterprise fund" from a drainage fee on water bills, sales tax on Metro, rather than on the general budget.  She also notes that they benefit from dedicated crews, working to expand their capacity.  Botanists are consulted to choose plants suitable for the ebbs and flows along drainage paths.

Half of roadways are concreate, rather than asphalt, which is cooler.  The city also uses cool pavements, which are gray and permeable, which helps with both heat retention and drainage. Other ways to make biking safer include reducing instances of speeding through better designed roads.   Coupling bike lanes with better public transit also improves bikability, as it helps address "what happens if I need to go far?"

For students nearing graduation, Davis notes that there are lots of opportunities in Houston. 

Ms Davis has 20 years of experience in engineering and transportation planning.  She co-founded Nspiregreen in Washington DC, which manages Community, Multimodal Transportation, and Environmental planning and consulting.  While at Nspiregreen, she led the Vision Zero Action Plans for Washington, DC and the City of Alexandria.  She also co-founded Black Women Bike, an organization and movement that builds community and interest in biking among black women.  She was named a Champion of Change  by the White House (2012) for these accomplishments and advocacy. Davis  earned a Bachelor of Science from University of Maryland College Park and a Master of Engineering and a Master of Regional and Urban Planning, Land Use and Environmental Planning from Cornell University.

This presentation was part of ESF's Earth Week Celebration, and an installment in the College's annual WiSE Professions Speaker Series.

Community Celebrations

Email from Chief Diversity Officer Malika Carter, to all students and campusnews:

Dear ESF Community,

The crisp air and changing leaves tell us that autumn is upon us. And with that comes Halloween and the many ways some observe this festive event. If you choose to participate in Halloween festivities, please be thoughtful and respectful when celebrating.

In particular, please keep in mind that certain Halloween costumes inappropriately perpetuate racial, cultural, and gender stereotypes. Although it may not be the intent, these costumes, and choosing to wear them, can depict identities in ways that are offensive or hurtful to others. Please take care in selecting your Halloween costumes. And, as always, keep in mind the potential for social media posts to have a long-term impact on your reputation.

Halloween is just one occasion on a broad continuum where we all benefit from acting with an understanding of the concepts of diversity, inclusion, equity, and respect. At ESF, we work to foster a campus climate that supports these values, and we seek to weave them into the life and work of every member of our community.

We appreciate your commitment to these values in your choices for daily life and as you celebrate Halloween.

Please post this notice in community spaces for the benefit of individuals without regular access to email.

Be well and be safe.

Dr. Malika Carter, Chief Diversity Officer

Endorsed By:

ESF College-Wide Inclusion, Diversity and Equity Committee [Inclusion, Diversity and Equity Strategic Plan Goals & Strategies (see page 18)]

ESF Professionals of Color

ESF Women’s Caucus

[Drawn from an open letter from Katrice Albert and Danita Brown Young]

This material is available in alternative formats. Please direct comments/inquiries to:

Malika Carter, Ph.D., Chief Diversity Officer, SUNY ESF at mcarte06@esf.edu

Famed primatologist speaks at ESF

Dr. Patricia Wright

As part of the course requirements for FOR496, students share responsibility for reporting on the WiSE Professions Speaker Series.  The following was prepared by Rose Petersky.

In 1986, Dr. Patricia Wright was looking for the Greater Bamboo Lemur, a species that had been thought to be extinct, in Madagascar, the only area of the world where lemurs are naturally found. Weary? from her extended travel, she decided to stop at a local hotel.   Behind the hotel was a forest.  Within that forest, Dr. Wright not only found the lemur that she sought, but also a new species-- the Golden Bamboo Lemur.   Despite the ecological significance of these finds, she knew that the forest would not be around for much longer without protection. She visited the Madagascar Department of Water and Forests to try to persuade them to make the forest a preserve. Their response was that they would be happy to comply, if they were given the necessary funding. Wright recalled to the audience of about 80 in ESF’s Illick Hall that she “walked out of that office thinking, ‘oh dear’ and then [she] became a conservationist.” Seven years later, Ramonafana National Park was founded.  It was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2007.

Golden Bamboo Lemur

Lemurs are the most threatened mammal in the world. Ninety-one percent of lemur species are on the RED list of endangered and threatened species. They are threatened by deforestation, slash and burn agriculture, erosion, and mining. Since humans arrived in Madagascar 1,500 years ago, 90 percent of Madagascar’s forests have been destroyed. Thanks to Dr. Wright, there are 41,600 hectares of tropical forest where 12 species of lemur are protected. In addition to providing this essential habitat, Ramonafana National Park also supports 100 scientific researchers annually and employs 85 full-time staff.

Dr. Wright states with confidence that Ramonafana would not be possible without the support of the local people that cooperated with her from the very beginning. One half of the admission fees from the park go to local villages for municipal projects.   Ramonafana also participates in outreach programs around Madagascar such as hosting a radio station in the park’s recording studio, and an education program that reaches 32 schools and more than 11,000 Malagasy children. In addition,, Ramonafana’s heath team has constructed 230 latrines and installed 30 water pumps in the local area, and provides disaster relief for 3,000 people.   

About Dr. Wright

Considered to be one of the world’s foremost expert on lemurs, Patricia Wright is best known for her 26-year study of social and family interactions of wild lemurs in Ranomafana National Park, Madagascar, and for leading the effort to establish this park.   For this work, she holds, among other honors, the prestigious National Medal of Honor of Madagascar.  She is the founder of the Institute for the Conservation of Tropical Environments (ICTE) and Centre ValBio (CVB), and a Professor in the Department of Anthropology, all at Stony Brook University.  Wright has worked extensively on conservation. In the late 1980s she spearheaded an integrated conservation and development project that, in 1991, led to the establishment of Ranomafana National Park.  Wright has received many honors for her conservation work in Madagascar, including the prestigious "Chevalier d’ Ordre National” National Medal of Honor of Madagascar, from the President of Madagascar in 1995. 

About the series

Dr. Wright’s lecture “Lemur Conservation in Madacasgar:  Updates from Ranomafana National Park “  on February 21, 2013 was a joint presentation of the Women in Scientific and Environmental (WiSE) Professions and the Adaptive Peaks Speaker Series.  It was sponsored by the Department of Environmental and Forest Biology, ESF Women's Caucus and the Graduate Student Association .   For more information about the WiSE Professions Series, please visit http://www.esf.edu/womenscaucus .

Local History: Women's Baseball leauge reunites in Syracuse!

I am so sorry I missed this. So cool that it was picked up by the AP and Title 9 Sports!  
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The Title IX Olympics?

Title IX, which promotes gender equity in sports and other programs, recently celebrated its 40th anniversary.  Is it a coincidence that in the same year, every national Olympic committee sent women to the Olympic Games.  And women have done well, with US, Chinese and Russian women winning more gold and more medals than their powerhouse male teammates.    Will this be the legacy of the 2012 games?  Or the twitterverse commentary blasting All-Around gold medal gymnast's Gabby Douglas's hair (praytell, how do the haters manage their sweaty locks?) and admonishing British Clean and jerk weightlifting recordholder Zoe Smith for looking like a "bloke."

Zoe's responds that  "We actually would rather be attractive to people who aren’t closed-minded and ignorant. Crazy, eh?! We, as any women with an ounce of self-confidence would, prefer our men to be confident enough in themselves to not feel emasculated by the fact that we aren’t weak and feeble."  Complete text

I'd bet a whole lot of smart women--scientists, engineers, and environmental professionals among them--feel the same way.

Henderson Discusses Women’s Leisure at ESF

As part of the course requirements for FOR 797 Women in Scientific and Environmental Professions, students share the responsibility for reporting on our speakers for distribution to co-sponsors and the Knothole.  The following press release was prepared by Mary Joyce G. Sali.

Dr. Karla A. Henderson, Professor and Chair of the Department of Recreation and Leisure Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, presented a lecture entitled Leisure and the (Secret) Lives of Women and Girls on Tuesday, February 17, 2004 as part of SUNY-ESF’s Women in Scientific and Environmental Professions Speaker Series for Spring 2004. 

            Dr. Henderson discussed the meaning of leisure and five social factors that influence it. She emphasized that leisure is not only freedom to do certain things that a person likes but also freedom from doing certain things such as work-related activities. She also tackled how having a family affects the leisure choices of women. She specifically mentioned that for women who are mothers, the ethic of care often takes precedence over personal leisure needs.

            She discussed that the most significant obsession of our culture is focused on a woman’s body. Media plays a big part on our perception of body image and the issues of eating disorders. She also spoke on how fear and violence in American culture constrains women’s pursuit of leisure.

            The speaker inspired everyone when she discussed seven habits for a highly successful leisure life: be conscious of the myriad of choices, do something you love each day, be open to new things, make leisure a priority, savor all aspects of life, enjoy and challenge yourself, and find an activity partner. She ended her lecture by emphasizing two things- leisure is a right and leisure is a gift.    

Dr. Henderson received her B.S. in Physical Education Chemistry and her M.S. in Education (Major in Guidance and Counseling) from Iowa State University. She finished her Ph.D. in Recreation, Park, and Leisure Studies from the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis.  She has authored and co-authored several books and has published in several journals. Her research endeavors focus mostly on women’s leisure and social psychology of leisure behavior. She has been a recipient of numerous awards such as the NCSU “RPTM Partner” Award, University of Illinois Allen V. Sapporo Research Award, the Julian Smith Honor Award, the NRPA Roosevelt Award for Research, and the JB Nash Scholar Award.

The lecture was sponsored by the Faculty of Forest and Natural Resources Management, the ESF Women’s Caucus, and the ESF Graduate Student Association.  It was also funded by The Kaleidoscope Project, a diversity initiative between the Division of Academic Affairs and Student Affairs to broaden the understanding of diversity and promote healthy dialogue about related issues at Syracuse University.

For more information about this or upcoming speakers in the Women in Scientific and Environmental Professions Seminar Series, please visit  http://www.esf.edu/womenscaucus.