Thursday September 26 | Porter Hall, Room 103, PSU
6:00 pm Dr. Darren Botello-Samson
Darren Botello-Samson is an associate professor of political science in the Department of History, Philosophy and Social Sciences at Pittsburg State University, where he teaches courses in environmental politics and legal studies, including constitutional law, administrative law, and law and politics. He received his Ph.D. from Rutgers University, his M.A. from the University of Arizona and his B.A. from Benedictine College. He is the author of Regulatory Takings and the Environment: The Impact of Property Rights Litigation and has written articles and chapters on environmental law, regulatory takings and environmental justice.
7:00 - 8:00pm Vaughn Wascovich
Vaughn Wascovich received his BFA from Youngstown State University. After several years in advertising and working as a freelance photographer, he returned to school to earn his MFA at Columbia College in Chicago. He currently lives and works from Commerce, Texas where he is an Associate Professor of Photography.
8:00- 9:00 pm Artist’s Reception
Friday September 27 | Overman Student Center, Governor’s Room, PSU
9:00 - 9:20am Opening Remarks: Rhona Shand
9:30 - 9:50am Introductory Remarks
President Steve Scott
Click for Information Page about Dr. Steve Scott
10:00 - 11:30am Panel Discussion
Moderator Randy Roberts
Randy Roberts serves as Interim Dean of Library Services, Curator of Special Collections and University Archivist at Pittsburg State University, where he is also an adjunct professor of history, teaching courses in Kansas history and archives management. He received his M.A. in History from Pittsburg State University and his Masters in Library Science from the University of Missouri-Columbia. His recent books include Pittsburg (part of the "Images of America Series") and Pittsburg State University: A Photographic History of the First 100 Years. He has also published numerous articles and delivered presentations on local and University history, coal mining, race relations, women's history, and regional politics.
Participants:
Mr. Gene Bicknell, Mr. Ed Keheley, Dr. Alicia Mason, Mr. John Sparkman
Mr. Gene Bicknell
Mr. Ed Keheley
Ed Keheley received his Bachelor of Science Degree from the University of Utah and continued graduate work at Utah and the University of California at Berkeley. He worked for 13 years in the Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program as a Nuclear Engineer in the construction, refueling and overhaul of naval nuclear reactors on submarines and surface ships. Ed left the nuclear navy to accept a position with the U. S. Dept. of Energy (DOE) at the San Francisco Operations Office where he was responsible for nuclear and radiation safety programs at several government sites including the Lawrence Livermore Nuclear Weapons Laboratory, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, the Nevada Nuclear Test Site and Stanford University Linear Accelerator Center. He also spent several years in the design and development of a nuclear reactor for use in outer space. Ed served as a technical advisor to the United Nations in New York City in the use of nuclear power in outer space. Ed’s career continued in the direction of the design, development, testing and maintenance of nuclear weapons and high energy laser physics projects. He was a member of the DOE Nuclear Emergency Response Team and had a security clearance above the Top Secret level.
He was selected to the Federal Senior Executive Service in 1989 and was assigned as the DOE Site Manager at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, California. Ed retired and moved back to Oklahoma in 1997 where he and his wife, Irene, have a small cattle operation. He served on Oklahoma Governor Frank Keating’s Tar Creek Task Force-2000 as Co-Chairman of the Subsidence Evaluation Subcommittee.
Oklahoma Senator Jim Inhofe invited Ed to serve on the Tar Creek Subsidence Evaluation Team-August 2004 to February 2006 as a technical expert on the mining activities in the Picher mining fields.
He served on Oklahoma Governor Frank Keating’s Tar Creek Task Force in 2000 as Co-Chairman of the Subsidence Evaluation Subcommittee. Ed was asked by Oklahoma Senator Jim Inhofe to serve on the Tar Creek Subsidence Evaluation Team-August 2004 to February 2006 as a technical expert on the mining activities in the Picher mining field. He was appointed by Oklahoma Governor Brad Henry to serve on the Lead Impacted Communities Relocation Assistance Trust as Vice Chairman in 2006 to buyout the residents of Picher, OK and the surrounding area.
Currently, Ed is working under contract with the U. S. Department of Justice in Washington DC researching the mining history of the major mining companies responsible for the damage to the Picher mining field, which is now the Tar Creek Superfund Site.
Ed has published numerous papers and reports on the mining activities of the Picher mining field, and is in the process of writing a book titled, “The History of the Picher Mining Field.”
Dr. Alicia Mason
Alicia M. Mason is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication at Pittsburg State University. Mason's primary emphasis areas are in public health research related to risk/crisis communication. Dr. Mason’s work has been presented at several national and international conferences, and appears in top academic journals including: Communication Quarterly, Communication Monographs, Journal of Health Communication, & Journal of Intercultural Communication and was recently featured on NewsRx.com. Mason’s academic interest in risk/crisis communication spans corporate, public health, and environmental contexts. Mason is a contributor to the Joplin Area Advertising Federation, and the faculty point-person for the Bachelor's of Integrated Studies: Society, Sustainability and Resource Management [SSRM] program.
John Sparkman
John Sparkman founded the Tar Creek Basin Steering Committee, whose job it was to look into the Superfund site, which bought Picher, Cardin and surrounding area for the total cost of $50 million. He was appointed by Governor Brad Henry as Vice-Chairman of the state funded buyout of families with children 6 years of age and under. He is a member of the Picher-Cardin Board of Education, and of the Picher Mining Museum. He has served as Executive Director of the Picher Housing Authority since 1990.
11:45 - 12:15pm Vaughn Wascovich
12:30 – 1:10pm Lunch
1:10 – 1:30pm Dr. Jim Triplett
Dr. Jim Triplet is a professor at Pittsburg State University, he received his PhD in Systematics and Ecology (Aquatic Biology), University of Kansas in 1976, and been part of the PSU Biology faculty member since 1981, and served as Chair of the 1985 – 2008. He is the Chair of the Neosho Basin Advisory Committee, and served as Chair of Council of Basin Chairs from 1986 – 2007.
He is a member of the Spring River Watershed Restoration and Protection Leadership Team, and of the Executive Committee for Lower Shoal Creek Partnership. He is the President of the Grand Lake 'O Cherokees Watershed Alliance Foundation, Inc, and the Vice - Chair of the Grand Lake Watershed Council.
1:40 - 2:00pm Morgan McCune
Morgan O.H. McCune is the Cataloging Librarian at PSU's Axe Library. She has a Master of Library Science from Emporia State University (distance program: Portland, Oregon) and a Master of Fine Arts in Poetry from Washington University in St. Louis. She is a native Topekan, a poet, and artist working with oil, acrylic, pastel, and watercolor.
2:10 - 2:30pm Dr. Steve Ford
Dr. Steve Ford is a biology professor at PSU. One of his specialties is wildlife ecology and land management. He grew up scampering around the coal fields of western Indiana, and that apple didn't fall far when he came to southeast Kansas. He helps manage the Biology Department's three country properties, most of which are old coal-mined areas, and lives on a strip pit lake.
2:40 - 3:00pm Kyle McKenzie
Kyle McKenzie is a painter from Webb City, Mo. He received a Bachelor of Arts in studio art and literature from Missouri Southern State University in 2004, a Master of Arts in painting and drawing from Pittsburg State University in 2006, and a Master of Fine Arts in painting and drawing from the University of Arkansas in 2009.
He currently teaches in the art departments of Pittsburg State University and Missouri Southern State University. In the summer of 2011, he apprenticed on the Joplin Community Mural and in 2012 led the Webb City Farmers Market Community Mural. His paintings have been exhibited throughout the region.
3:30 – 3:50pm Dr. Xiaolu Wu
Dr. Xiaolu Wu is an Assistant Professor of Biology at Pittsburg State University. She received her PhD. from the University of Illinois at Chicago. Her specialties lay in cell and molecular biology, and virology.
4:00 – 4:45pm Open Discussion
4:50 – 5:00pm Closing Remarks