Fall Speakers
Greg Barron-Gafford is a Biogeographer and Earth System Scientist who has been building the field of agrivoltaics - the co-location of an ‘understory’ of agriculture below an ‘overstory’ of renewable energy production. Greg began this work in the borderlands of southern Arizona to study the benefits across the food-energy-water nexus. More recently Greg has been working with food system leaders across Southern and Central Arizona to coordinate Climate-smart food transitions with Arizona farmers - utilizing best and new practices to grow regionally adapted foods that require less water. Working to develop science-based solutions to help people adapt to the increasing pressures that come from a changing climate is a personal and professional goal.
Jesús M. García was born and raised in Magdalena de Kino, Sonora, México. he has been associated with the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum Since 1991. Jesús is a Desert Ecologist and Ethnobotanist and serves as a Conservation Research Associate, teaching natural history and cultural programs throughout southern Arizona and northern Mexico. He holds two bachelor degrees, one in Elementary Education and another one in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology with a minor in Cultural Anthropology. He has been Director of the Kino Heritage Fruit Trees Project for almost 20 years. He is also a vice-chair board member and collaborator of Friends of Tucson’s Birthplace and the Mission Garden for over a decade. Jesús has been interpreting Ethnography, Natural History, and Culture of Indigenous, Spanish Latin America and Spain for over 30 years. His many interests include conservation biology, art, cultural ecology, regional languages, music and desert gardening.