Facilitating Team
Don Wilhite
Don Wilhite is a professor emeritus in Applied Climate Science at the School of Natural Resources. He joined the faculty at University of Nebraska - Lincoln in 1977. During his tenure at UNL, Don founded the National Drought Mitigation Center in 1995 and served as its director until 2007 when he was appointed director of SNR. He was one of four authors of the UNL climate change study published in 2014 and organized eight sector-based roundtables on climate change in the fall 2015. Don is passionate about the urgent need to develop and implement adaptation and mitigation strategies in response to current and projected changes in our climate and the implication of these changes on Nebraska, our nation and the global community.
Bruce Johnson
Bruce Johnson is Professor Emeritus of Agricultural Economics, University of Nebraska—Lincoln where his primary teaching and research focus areas were resource and environmental economics. As a native Nebraskan with farming roots, he has always held a deep appreciation for the rich land and water resources of this state—and the responsibility for wise conservation and stewardship of that endowment. With the challenges of climate change, he believes more than ever that sound climate action today is not only a moral obligation to humanity, but also is economically-doable and prudent for current and future generations alike. He and his wife keep close ties to the land by owning and operating a small commercial vineyard as well as overseeing a local community garden.
Charles Francis
Charles Francis is professor emeritus in the Agronomy and Horticulture Department, UNL, and Visiting Professor of Agroecology, NMBU, Norway. He is an agroecologist and futurist, formerly focused on plant breeding and agronomy, and is currently engaged in study of future farming and food systems. He has taught courses in plant breeding, agroecology, organic farming systems, and land grabs in the Global South. He plans to spend most efforts in future food system design. His professional work has been in Philippines, Colombia, Norway, and Nebraska, and he has consulted and traveled in over 50 countries and continues learning and encouraging others to think broadly about challenges facing our environment and all its inhabitants.
Rick Schneider
Rick Schneider is retired from the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission where he served as the director of the Nebraska Natural Heritage Program from 1996-2019. The Program collects and manages scientific information on at-risk species and natural communities and provides that information to land use and conservation decision makers to help protect Nebraska’s biodiversity. Rick was also the co-chair of the Nebraska Natural Legacy Project from 2002-2019. The goal of the Project is to develop and implement, with multiple partners, a State Wildlife Action Plan – a blueprint for conserving the state’s native flora and fauna. During his tenure at the Commission he also served on the Midwest Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies’ Climate Change Technical Committee and lead the team addressing the impacts of climate change on ecosystems and wildlife for the UNL sector-based climate change roundtable in 2015. Prior to working for the Commission, Rick worked as an ecologist for The Nature Conservancy in Minnesota and the U.S. Forest Service in Montana. He earned a B.S. degree in biology from the University of Idaho and a Ph.D. in plant ecology from Duke University.
Ron Roeber
Retired University of Nebraska educator and administrator with roles in public education and outreach at local, state, and national levels. While at the University, Ron was the recipient of several teaching and team education awards. After retiring from the University, he took up a a second career in technology sales at Dell and then Microsoft. Work experiences included: youth education, agriculture education, information technology support, technology team building, university administration, and business to business sales. Ron is currently retired serving on the boards of the Nebraska Wellbeing Initiative and the Nebraska Sustainable Agriculture Society in addition to his work with the Nebraska Climate Elders.
Education: PhD in Agricultural Economics, MS & BS in Agronomy.
