Speakers
2026 Speakers
Beth Bennett, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Sociology, Idaho State University
Dr. Beth Bennett is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Idaho State University. Her research focuses on how rural communities in the Intermountain West perceive and respond to demographic, social, and economic changes driven by increased high net worth ownership of ranchland. Recently, her work has focused on how residents of rural communities maintain their identity and find hope as their community changes. Beth is passionate about community engaged work that allows her to work closely with the communities that she studies. When she isn鈥檛 in the office, Beth can be found exploring the mountains of Idaho and Montana with her dog, June.
Lori G Byron, MD, MS
Board Chair, Montana Health Professionals for a Healthy Climate
Dr. Byron practiced pediatrics on the Crow Reservation for 27 years. A past president of the Montana Academy of Pediatrics, she has advocated for children her entire life. Concern for children鈥檚 health and their home-schooled daughters (a doctor and an engineer) compelled her and her husband to act on climate change. She earned an MS in energy policy and now organizes pediatricians from across the U.S. on climate change. She chairs the Montana Health Professionals for a Healthy Climate. She was a medical expert in Held v. MT. She believes acting on climate matters for our kids. A lot.
Cody Ferguson, Ph.D., AICP
New Market Lead, Houseal Lavigne
Dr. Cody Ferguson is a historian and sustainability scholar turned urban planner working with Houseal Lavigne, a leading national urban planning and geospatial services firm. His academic work explores democratic governance and how communities have addressed public goods challenges, including land conservation, toxic waste siting, water management, and the impacts of mining and energy development. He has authored several articles and the book, This is Our Land: Grassroots Environmentalism in the Late Twentieth Century (Rutgers, 2015) and co-authored several book chapters. Recently, he has shifted his focus from the past to the future. As a planner, he helps Western communities use data-driven tools to become more sustainable and resilient. Outside of work, he enjoys exploring Helena with his wife and two young children.
Nicole Jarvis, MS
Founder, Bee Haven Gardens
Nicole Jarvis is the founder of Bee Haven Gardens in Dillon, Montana an educational garden dedicated to teaching regenerative practices and fostering community engagement with agriculture. With over 20 years of experience in organic farming and living in rural Montana communities, Nicole brings a deep, place-based understanding of land, resilience, and interconnectedness to her work. She holds an M.S. in Regenerative Organic Agriculture and has been accepted as a Ph.D. candidate at Maharishi International University. Nicole weaves together regenerative land stewardship and transcendental awareness as she blends her passion for hands-on agricultural education with her commitment to nurturing the landscapes she calls home.
You can find her most recent work here:
Abigail McClaflin
Environmental Sciences
Abbey McClaflin鈥檚 passion is to continue building the bridge between land, livestock, and human health through regenerative agriculture practices. This May (2026), she will earn a B.S. in Environmental Sciences with a minor in Farm and Ranch Operations from the University of 黑料吃瓜网. Her Senior Thesis is exploring a variety of soil health benefits by increasing soil microbiome activity with a locally produced biological stimulant. Abbey also works for the Southwest Montana Sagebrush Partnership in Dillon, MT where she is collaborating with local ranchers to evaluate the ecological and economic benefits of virtual fence technology. She will continue this area of interest as she applies to graduate programs to study how an integrative approach to livestock management can positively affect rangeland plants and wildlife. During the summer months, you can join Abbey on a variety of horse packing trips in Yellowstone National Park, where she shares the history, beauty, and ecology of the natural world through her family鈥檚 business, Sunrise Pack Station.
Pedro Marques, MSc
Executive Director, Big Hole Watershed Committee
Pedro鈥檚 childhood dream of being a biologist died early in his first semester of college after a few weeks of heredity studies looking at fruit flies under a microscope. 3-years later in a religion course exploring the ethics of place, he realized he didn鈥檛 feel connected to any specific land or water, an epiphany that launched a 25-year career in ecology and conservation. From the hard concrete of West Oakland to the World Bank, the jungles of Panama and the Amazon to the rivers of Montana, Pedro has been restoring degraded lands and working with rural and marginalized communities making a living at the interface of natural systems. He has led the Big Hole Watershed Committee since 2019, a consensus-based conservation organization governed by local stakeholders whose livelihoods depend on the health of the Big Hole River. Leveraging partnerships and ecological sciences, he has put millions of dollars of restoration projects on the ground in the Big Hole and led the restoration of a Superfund site along the Continental Divide. He lives in Missoula with his wife and two kids.
Ted Montalvo
Environmental Sustainability
Ted Montalvo is crafting a portfolio that braids their interests in sustainable development with their artistic talents. Ted is a junior at the University of 黑料吃瓜网 pursuing a Bachelor of Science in environmental sustainability alongside three minors specializing in the arts and communication. In 2025 Ted was selected to be a Baucus Climate Scholar. They spent last summer designing science communication illustrations centered around water quality for the Henry鈥檚 Fork Foundation. In their free time, Ted is pursuing digital art or entertaining others through theater.
Coming from a town of 500 people 鈥� and inspired by their grandfather鈥檚 passion for sustainable agriculture and connecting communities 鈥� Ted wants to help broaden communication and education among neighbors to build a more resilient rural America.
Featured Performers
Illumindance Theatre
With music by the Sacred Earth Drummers and Djembe Aya
Illumindance Theatre is a collaborative performance project bringing together dancers, actors, musicians, farmers, and traditional healers to explore climate change through the lens of rural Montana. Rooted in the Indigenous philosophy of Mit谩kuye Oy谩s鈥檌艐鈥斺�渁ll my relations鈥濃�攁nd guided by the medicine wheel as a sacred hoop, the work follows a year in the life of a fourth-generation family farmer facing economic and environmental uncertainty. Through world rhythms, movement, storytelling, blessings, and flowing silks, Illumindance creates an immersive, embodied journey that honors connection, resilience, and the living landscape.
Sasha Chudacoff
Sasha Chudacoff has spent her life training in many dance/movement disciplines and approaches. As a community based, multidisciplinary dance artist, she explores body and land through dance, film and photography. Sasha finds inspiration in physical images, touch, somatic dance practices, Butoh, and the spirit of place. Integrating dance practices for all bodies has been a focus within her career in dance education and performance. As a culturally competent dance educator and artist, Sasha seeks and explores the larger social inequalities and privileges that shape the human experience and the natural world. Sasha is an MFA candidate in Interdisciplinary Arts with an emphasis in dance and performance studies at Goddard College. A transplant from the Bay area to Colorado, she is currently working with her own dance organization- Wild Hare Dance.
Her environmental dance films, MINE (2018), Life: Plastic Wrapped (2020), and Fragments of a Quarantine Dream (2020) have screened at film festivals across the U.S. and Canada. She danced professionally with Axis Dance Company (Oakland, CA), SoulForce (San Francisco, CA), Syzygy Butoh (Boulder), David Dorfman Dance (Denver), Alegria Samba Dance Company (Berkeley) and collaborated with 20 Moons Dance Theater.