Highlighted events
Plenary session and Okanagan Charter signing
Time: 8:45 to 11:30 a.m.
Location: Recreation and Wellness Center, Beacon Room (second floor)
Breakfast provided
Our day began with the University of Minnesota making a concrete institutional commitment to the health of our planet, place, and people.
President Cunningham joined us to officially adopt the Okanagan Charter, an international charter for health promoting universities and colleges. The charter calls on institutions to embed health into all aspects of campus culture, and to lead health promotion action and collaboration locally and globally. Adopting the Okanagan Charter reinforces the University’s status as a health leader, and was a great way to kick off our campus-wide Climate Resilience Teach-In. Adopting the Okanagan Charter is outlined in Elevate Extraordinary 2030 as a priority within Strategic Imperative #1: Prepare students to be fully engaged and active in our state, nation and world.
Rooted Together: A Ten-Minute Welcome & Arrival Meditation
Rooted Together opened the Climate Resiliency Teach-In with a brief guided mindfulness and breathing practice designed by the Earl E. Bakken Center for Spirituality & Healing to support focus, steadiness and collective presence. Participants were invited to settle, reset and arrive through simple and accessible techniques that promote nervous system regulation and clarity. This grounding experience established a calm and connected foundation for thoughtful dialogue, collaboration and action throughout the day.
Keynote speaker: Karen Diver
Karen is currently serving as the inaugural Senior Advisor to the President for Native American Affairs at the University of Minnesota. She was also an appointee of President Obama as the Special Assistant to the President for Native American Affairs as part of the Domestic Policy Council from November 2015 until the end of the administration. She served as Chairwoman of the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa from 2007–2015, managing a high capacity Tribal government and the second largest workforce in northern Minnesota. Learn more about Karen Diver
Keynote speaker: Bharat Balyan
Bharat is currently working in a dual role at the City of Minneapolis Health Department. On the Sustainability Team, he is the Resilience Hub Project Coordinator, working to support the development of a first cohort of three community-based resilience hub sites in Minneapolis. He is also a Project Coordinator with the City Trees team, where he is supporting community outreach to promote full-service planting programs to equitably improve the urban tree canopy on private property. Learn more about Bharat Balyan
IGNITE Luncheon Session
- Time: 12 to 1 p.m.
- Location: RecWell Beacon Room
- Host: Office of Sustainability
- Experience level: Beginner
- A highlight of this year’s programming was the IGNITE Luncheon, a fast-paced session designed to showcase climate resilience across teaching, learning, research, and environmental health initiatives. This session featured graduate students, undergraduate researchers, and scholars sharing their work in an engaging, high-energy format. It was a unique opportunity to connect with a cross-disciplinary audience and discover sustainability projects happening across the University. What is an IGNITE Presentation? The IGNITE format is designed to spark ideas and foster immediate conversation through concise storytelling.
The Format:
- Duration: 5 minutes per presenter.
- Visuals: 10 slides per presentation.
- Speed: Slides advance automatically every 30 seconds.
Goal: Highlighting key insights and innovations rather than granular technical data.
What to expect: Presenters share "big ideas," works-in-progress, and community impacts. The session concludes with informal networking and a provided lunch, allowing attendees to dive deeper into the projects presented.
IGNITE topics and presenters:
- Nick Kleese — Literacy for Earthlings: Toward Universal PreK-12 Climate Education
- Ellie Wachenheim & Peter Lark — Planetary Health Report Card Medical School Share-Out
- Angelica Walton — Environments of Care and the Feminist Frame for Planetary Healing
- Richard Graves — What is Regenerative Design?
- Amanda Farris (R2I2 National Office) — Empowering a Regional Resilience Innovation Network
Creative Conversation with the Tree Canopy: A Listening, Breathing, & Writing Walk
- Time: 2 to 3:15 p.m.
- Location: Weather permitting, participants will meet on the front steps of Walter Library off of the Northrop Mall. In case of inclement weather, the workshop will take place in the Upson Room at Walter Library.
- Host: Earl E. Bakken Center for Spirituality & Healing
- Experience level: Beginner
Together we will walk to selected nearby trees on campus to slow down, listen with our bodies, write from our direct experience and reflect. Along the way we’ll explore the tree canopy, not just as infrastructure, but as an interconnected living system that senses, responds and sustains ecological life.
This interactive session includes listening practices, simple breathing techniques, easeful creative practices, guided reflective writing and a short discussion about the importance of the tree canopy and climate resilience at the University of Minnesota.
All events (April 7, 2026)*
Climate Resilience Trivia
- Time: 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
- Location: Carlson Maroon Lobby (HMH 2-180)
- Host: Carlson Business Board
- Experience level: Beginner
This event will discuss climate resilience, especially as it relates to the business world, in a fun and engaging way. Students will play through the Kahoot platform and challenge themselves while learning about climate resilience.
Sound Bath
- Time: 12 to 1 p.m.
- Location: Mayo Meditation Space
- Host: Earl E. Bakken Center for Spirituality & Healing
- Experience level: Beginner
Stress negatively affects health in nearly 76% of adults, contributing to headaches, fatigue, anxiety and depression. Evidence shows that music-based interventions significantly improve both mental and physical stress outcomes. Sound baths support renewed calm, clarity and focus.
A sound bath is a full-body listening experience that calms the nervous system and invites deep relaxation. Focused on supporting mental health and wellbeing, sound baths are often combined with whole health practices such as journaling, mindful movement and meditation.
Sustain Studio: The Art of Adaptation
- Time: 4 to 5:30 p.m.
- Location: Bruininks Hall room 512A
- Host: Sustain Studio
- Experience level: Beginner
How do we grow our capacity to adapt—to change course, to stay grounded, to keep showing up for climate work over time? This experiential workshop offers a space to tend to creativity as a vital inner resource for resilience. Through a facilitated process that combines reflective writing, open-ended art-making, and small-group dialogue, participants will explore creativity as a practice of meaning-making, connection, and care. No art experience is required to fully participate.
Private Event: Daybreak Climate Game
- Held with a class
*All events are free and open to all students, staff, faculty and the general public unless otherwise noted.
The Climate Resilience Teach-In Honorary Recognition was established to celebrate impactful climate justice and adaptation work during the April 7th event. This visibility-based initiative will honor one individual — representing either faculty, staff, or students — who demonstrates excellence in interdisciplinary collaboration, community equity and moving climate ideas into tangible practice. Honorees will receive public acknowledgment at the Teach-In, a social media spotlight, and a commemorative certificate, reinforcing the institution’s commitment to a culture of resilience.
The selection process is designed to be simple and inclusive, utilizing a brief peer or self-nomination form reviewed by a small internal committee. This recognition serves to highlight the diverse roles contributing to climate solutions across campus while inspiring further innovation and engagement among the university community.
Campus partners
Thank you to our campus partners for their collaboration in making this year’s cross-campus event possible:
