The Cape Cod Commission has announced its speakers for the Aug. 23 and 24 OneCape Summit, including federal and state officials.
The annual OneCape Summit is a regional forum for collaboration, innovation and excellence across major policy issues and areas. Over the course of two days, sessions will cover strategies to address marine and freshwater quality, work to mitigate and adapt to climate-related impacts in the region, local and regional strategies to support housing needs, and building resilience within natural, built and community systems in a post-COVID economy.
To kick off the Summit, attendees will hear from Janet McCabe, Deputy Administrator for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Other plenary speakers include Ellen Dunham-Jones, Director of the Urban Design Program at Georgia Tech, who will talk about retrofitting suburban areas, and integrating issues of climate change, sustainability, affordable housing and others, into development and its form.
Dan Wolf (founder and CEO, Cape Air, former state senator) and Dorothy Savarese (President and CEO, Cape Cod Five) will return for a conversation about pandemic realities and the ability of the region to rise to address challenges. They’ll be followed by Rosalin Acosta, Massachusetts Secretary of Labor and Workforce Development, discussing economic recovery.
Jamey Tesler, newly appointed Secretary of the Massachusetts Department of Transportation, will participate in a panel discussion on “Building a Climate Resilient Transportation Network.” Katie Theoharides, state Secretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs, will provide the Summit’s closing keynote address.
Attendees will also hear from landscape architect Pamela Conrad, whose expertise lies in climate-friendly design, and Chris Gloninger, meteorologist and climate change reporter, in addition to many other local and regional speakers.
With news of increasing COVID-19 cases and the Delta variant and keeping in mind the safety and health of attendees, speakers and the community, the 2021 OneCape Summit has been shifted to a fully virtual format. For details and to register, visit onecape.capecodcommission.org.
