Featured chapter: CCL Oshkosh

CCL chapters around the country are powered by passionate, dedicated people. In Oshkosh, Wisconsin, those people are Dr. Pat Dwyer-Hallquist and Dr. Shannon Davis-Foust.

Shannon (pictured right), whose background is in biology and environmental science, teaches at University of Wisconsin Oshkosh. Shannon joined CCL in 2015. Shannon holds a PhD in ecology and has been teaching climate science in environmental courses for 20 years. Shannon is passionate about promoting environmental action and regularly gives talks and leads events on various environmental topics.

She joined CCL in 2015 and restarted the Oshkosh chapter in 2018 with the Student Environmental Action Coalition. Shannon has been serving on the board for the Wild Ones Fox Valley Area for 15 years and considers promoting native plant landscaping as an important tool to solving climate change because native landscapes hold far more carbon than mainstream lawns. Native landscapes also are important in helping species better mitigate the changing climate.

Pat holds a PhD in biochemistry and worked as an organic chemist for a paper company before eventually finding her way to teaching high school science. There, she advised her high school’s Solar Olympics team, which helped her realize the importance of renewable energy in mitigating climate change.

When she retired from teaching — and even before joining CCL — Pat began giving her own climate presentations! “I have been a member of the American Chemical Society since the late 1970s. ACS is a professional organization which has taken a stand on the importance of mitigating climate change,” Pat explains. Using information from ACS, Pat developed and delivered a talk on climate change to a local League of Women Voters in 2018. That presentation led her to do more local research about climate and find CCL’s Oshkosh chapter.

Under Pat and Shannon’s leadership, the Oshkosh chapter often joins forces with the nearby Fond du Lac chapter to maximize participation and impact. They host joint chapter meetings led and attended by folks from both chapters, and they periodically arrange speakers for both chapters to learn from, either in person or on Zoom. Next month, they are hosting a speaker from UW Madison on the topic of “Lake Responses to Wisconsin’s Changing Winters,” and the chapters will use it as an outreach opportunity to the wider community.

Great work, CCL Oshkosh!