In August, five visitors from Australia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Timor-Leste, and Vietnam arrived in Pensacola as part of the International Visitor Leadership Program titled Land Rights: Protecting Communities and their Rights. They met with City Council Executive Don Kraher to discuss the city’s history and environmental issues, and took a site visit to Project Greenshores with Environmental Technician Mollie Taylor of the Escambia County Marine Resources Division who explained how her division serves as the nexus of land rights and ecosystem sustainability. Dr. Wade Jeffrey, Director of the Center for Environmental Diagnostics and Bioremediation, invited the group to the University of West Florida to discuss the effects of the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill, and Environmental Specialist Zachary Schang of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) gave an overview of the role of the FDEP in coastline preservation. Afterwards the group visited a shoreline project managed by the FDEP and participated in a volunteer activity there.
Attendees at our August offering of the International Speaker series had a special treat when the expected speaker, the visitor from Australia, spoke on environmental issues and then opened his time to the rest of the group, leading to a sharing of perspectives from all five visitors.
The learning continued at a community coffee, an event that continues to be popular with guests and locals alike. The event is a combination of speed networking with casual conversation. Those in attendance included Salma Ashmawi, Jim Crowe, Terry Crowe, Eden Davenport, Liam Holiday, Vivian Lamont, Eben Posey, Terry Preston, Pam Schwartz, John Richard Smoak, Kathleen Smoak, Chas Stauffer, Michael Thomin, John Toole, Robert Turpin, and Jeannine VanReeth.
For their final appointment, the visitors attended the annual gathering of the Gulf Coast Citizen Diplomacy Council Young Professionals where they shared their interests with the group before continuing on their IVLP journey to Tucson, Arizona.
