November 10, 2025 (Monday, 10:00 -11:00 AM JST)
ONLINE (zoom)
About the Webinar
Partnerships that bring together higher education institutions with community organizations for building climate resilience can simultaneously benefit local communities, enrich student learning and skill building, and strengthen community connections and social infrastructure. In this talk, Dr. Leary will share information about the Resilience Commitment, an initiative of Second Nature that has motivated roughly 100 colleges and universities in the United States to work with their communities to assess and understand local climate risks, examine options for building climate resilience, and develop and implement action plans. The talk will focus on experiences, outcomes and lessons from Dickinson College’s participation in the Resilience Commitment and its ongoing partnership with community groups for climate resilience in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania. The talk will close with thoughts on ways in which resilience building can contribute to peacemaking.
About the Speaker
Dr. Neil Leary is the founding director of the Center for Sustainability Education at Dickinson College in Carlisle, PA, USA. Neil and the Center support faculty members in developing sustainability courses across Dickinson’s liberal arts curriculum and offer diverse co-curricular programs for experiential learning. Neil teaches courses on climate change risks and resilience, sustainable communities, and campus sustainability and has taken students to U.N. climate conferences to conduct research on climate governance. He leads Building Climate Resilience at Dickinson College and in South Central Pennsylvania, a joint initiative of the college and communities of Cumberland County. Neil has had leadership roles in climate change assessments of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and START International that have engaged hundreds of researchers, policymakers, and practitioners from 80+ countries. Neil received his PhD in economics from the University of Washington in Seattle, WA, USA, and his BA from Macalester College in St Paul, MN, USA.
About the NERPS Webinar Series
The Network for Education and Research on Peace and Sustainability (NERPS) at Hiroshima University in Japan is hosting a series of webinars on the relationship between peace and sustainability in the context of environmental, socio-political, economic, and technological transformations. This series is a platform for rethinking and updating the current discourse on peace and sustainability amidst global challenges and transformations. Leading experts discuss the role of resources, digital technologies, migration, governance, and education in peacebuilding, conflict mitigation, humanitarian aid, and capacity-building, among other components that contribute to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals, particularly that of Goal 16 on Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions. Check out our previous webinars here.