Click on the PDF icon below to view the SPIEL 2025 Full Agenda with detailed session descriptions and speaker biographies. 

SPIEL 2025 Abbreviated Schedule

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*Note that Sewanee is on Central Standard Time. Unless otherwise indicated, all times listed are on Central Time.​​​

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FRIDAY, OCTOBER 10th

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Red Wolf Tour – For conferencegoers coming in from points East, North, and South, join us for a tour of the red wolf captive breeding facility at the Chattanooga Nature Center from  2-3:30pm Eastern Time/1-2:30 Central Time. We will see red wolves, the Southeast’s extremely rare and endemic apex predator. Only 18 known red wolves survive in the wild today, and the conservation of the species will be explored in two panels at SPIEL. 400 Garden Rd, Chattanooga, TN 37419.

 

Friday Evening Welcome Social - As you arrive to town on Friday evening, please join us for a social gathering upstairs at local pub and restaurant Shenanigans from 6-9pm. After 9pm, enjoy the bar downstairs as late as you like. Shenanigans, 12595 Sollace M Freeman Hwy, Sewanee, TN 37375. Food and beverages are available for purchase at the bar.

 

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SATURDAY, OCTOBER 11th

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7:00 am    (6: Spencer-Harris Commons, a.k.a. Spencer Hall atrium)

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Registration –  Upon arrival, all attendees must check in at registration and collect their name tags. All volunteers must sign in and out and wear a volunteer badge. If you require a community service letter, please let us know. Attendance is free for students and Sewanee faculty members; please be prepared to provide your college ID. If you have not already paid your conference fees online, please complete payment at the registration table. A QR code linking to our secure payment portal will be available onsite; online payment is preferred. Cash and checks are also accepted. At the registration table, you may:

• Register and pay on-site

• Reserve a spot on one of the two field trips

• Visit the organization-tabling area

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Wake up Yoga (Lawn in next to Spencer Hall-  Get the brain and body going before sessioning with Anna Lynn McCurdy.  Anna will start at 7 and continue until 8.  Drop by and join in at any time the session is going on!​

8:00-9:15 am

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     I.            Legal Ethics Update [CLE session] (6: Woods-Blackman auditorium)

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Meg Parish, Senior Attorney, Environmental Integrity Project, CO

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Haley Lewis, Attorney, Environmental Integrity Project, AL

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      II.          Public Lands Forest Watch Basics (4: Gailor auditorium)

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Davis Mounger, Co-Director, Tennessee Heartwood, TN

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9:30-10:45 am

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      III.         Defending Life in the Country from Landfills, Quarries, and CAFOs [CLE session] (4: Gailor auditorium)

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Elizabeth L. Murphy, Attorney and Land Use Specialist, Private Practice, TN

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Scott Banbury, Conservation Director, Sierra Club Tennessee Chapter, TN

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       IV.          Water Quality Testing Training    (6: Woods-Blackman auditorium)

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Justinn Overton, Executive Director, Coosa Riverkeeper, AL

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Davis Mounger, Co-Director, Tennessee Heartwood, TN

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11:00 am - 12:00 pm -- KEYNOTE ADDRESS/PLENARY SESSION

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Public Interest Lawyering [CLE session] (6: Woods-Blackman auditorium)

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John Bonine is one of the pioneers of environmental law in the United States and an Emeritus Professor at the University of Oregon School of Law. He was Associate General Counsel for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency before joining the University of Oregon in 1978, where he has created or co-founded numerous institutions: the world's first environmental law clinic (now the Western Environmental Law Center); the Public Interest Environmental Law Conference; the Environmental Law Alliance Worldwide; and a network of environmental law professors worldwide. He is co-author of two textbooks, The Law of Environmental Protection and Human Rights and the Environment. In recent years, his scholarship has focused particularly on public participation and access to justice in environmental decision-making. Bonine taught Administrative Law, Comparative Environmental Law, Constitutional Law, and Environmental Law, Human Rights and Environmental Law, International Environmental Law, and the LL.M. Seminar.

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12:00-1:10 pm -- Lunch

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Lunch – We recommend sampling the convenient, diverse, quality dining options at the  McClurg dining hall at Sewanee, but off-campus dining options also exist on and around University Avenue.

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Caucuses – Meet in the dining hall or in designated campus classrooms for self-organized discussion groups, mini-presentations, strategy sessions, or to launch new projects or coalitions. To promote a caucus at the conference, inquire at registration.  See the whiteboard by Registration to learn about caucuses you can attend.

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1:10 – 3:40 pm -- FIELD TRIP

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Old Growth Forest Ecology and its Implications for Forest Management – A Field Discussion (Sign up and learn where to meet up at registration -- because space is limited and demand is high, only those who did not attend last year’s field trip may attend)

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Jonathan P. Evans, Ph.D., Professor of Biology, Sewanee: The University of the South, TN

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1:10-1:55 pm

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      V.      (Un)exceptional Events? Regulating Air Pollution from Southern Prescribed Fires Under the Clean Air Act’s Exceptional Events Provision [CLE session] (6: Woods-Blackman auditorium)

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Brian Gist, Senior Attorney, Southern Environmental Law Center, GA 

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      VI.      Interactive EPA ECHO Training: Tracking Clean Water Act and Clean Air Act Violations and Enforcement Data (4: Gailor auditorium)

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Matthew Hepler, Environmental Scientist, Appalachian Voices, VA

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2:10-3:25 pm

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      VII.      Greenlighting Gaslighting: Seven County, Regulatory Retrenchment and the Future of the National Environmental Policy Act  [CLE session] (6: Woods-Blackman auditorium)

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Robert Wiygul, Attorney, Partner, and Co-Founder, Waltzer Wiygul & Garside, MS

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      VIII.      Pellets, Pollution, and Power: Environmental Justice in Mississippi (4: Gailor auditorium)

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Danna Smith, Executive Director, Dogwood Alliance, NC 

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3:40-4:55 pm

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       IX.       Zombie Mines and National Forest Crimes: Confronting Coal’s Toxic Legacy in Appalachia (6: Woods-Blackman auditorium)

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Mary Cromer, Attorney and Deputy Director, Appalachian Citizens Law Center, KY

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Willie Dodson, Coal Impacts Program Manager, Appalachian Voices, NC

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Andrew Young, Attorney, Allegheny-Blue Ridge Alliance, VA

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Claire Horan, Senior Attorney, Appalachian Mountain Advocates, VA

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       X.       Green Waters, Gray Areas: Nutrient Pollution and Clean Water Act Permitting [CLE session] (4: Gailor auditorium)

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Albert Ettinger, Attorney, Private Practice, IL

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Ashley Wilmes, Attorney and Executive Director, Kentucky Resources Council, KY

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Eva Dillard, Attorney, Black Warrior Riverkeeper, AL

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Meg Parish, Senior Attorney, Environmental Integrity Project, CO

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5:10-5:55 pm

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       XI.       Law, Science, and Community Mobilization: The Trifecta of Discipline-Diverse Watershed Advocacy for the Duck River [CLE session] (6: Woods-Blackman auditorium)

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Grace Stranch, Attorney and CEO, Harpeth Conservancy, TN

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Elise Karpinski, Attorney and Director of Clean Water Protection, Harpeth Conservancy, TN

 

       XII.     Orphans, Zombies, Strippers, and Deadbeats: Abandonment Issues in the Oil & Gas Industry  (4: Gailor auditorium)​​

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Mark Patronella, Attorney, Center for Biological Diversity, DC

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6:00-8:00 pm

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Dinner –You can sample the convenient, diverse, quality dining options at McClurg dinning hall at Sewanee (the dining hall is open 7am-8pm), but off-campus dining options also exist along University Avenue.

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7:00-8:30 pm

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Environmental Film Screening – (6: Woods-Blackman auditorium) Please join us for a special screening of Southern Exposure Films, short documentaries from the Alabama Rivers Alliance and their partners throughout the Southeast. In this collection, we meet Alabama’s salamanders like you’ve never seen them before, and fall for their undeniable charm. We wind through the Tallapoosa River, where our country's veterans find healing, community, and the joy of casting a line for red eye bass. We confront the environmental impacts and costs of artificial intelligence as massive data centers pop up across the Southeast, threatening to drain communities of precious water and energy, and we are invited in to witness a small town’s fight to protect its peace and health from the relentless blasts of a quarry next door. Stick around for discussion after about the films and this incredible award-winning program! See trailers of the films at https://alabamarivers.org/se-sewanee/ ​​

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8:30 pm – Late    

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Party – (11: Convocation Hall on the corner of University and Georgia Avenues) Join us for fun and refreshments with Chattanooga’s own Rock and Soul outfit The Dose!

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SUNDAY, OCTOBER 12th

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7:00 am     (6: Spencer-Harris Commons, a.k.a. Spencer Hall atrium)

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Registration –  Upon arrival, all attendees must check in at registration and collect their name tags. All volunteers must sign in and out and wear a volunteer badge. If you require a community service letter, please let us know. Attendance is free for students and Sewanee faculty members; please be prepared to provide your college ID. If you have not already paid your conference fees online, please complete payment at the registration table. A QR code linking to our secure payment portal will be available onsite; online payment is preferred. Cash and checks are also accepted. At the registration table, you may:

• Register and pay on-site

• Reserve a spot on one of the two field trips

• Visit the organization-tabling area

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8:00-9:15 am

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       I.        Keeping Wildlife First in the National Wildlife Refuge System (6: Woods-Blackman auditorium)

 

Desirée Sorenson-Groves, President & CEO, National Wildlife Refuge Association, VA

 

Christian Hunt, National Wildlife Refuges and Parks Program Director, Defenders of Wildlife, NC 

 

Ramona McGee, Senior Attorney and Wildlife Program Leader, Southern Environmental Law Center, NC

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       II.       Cultivating Aesthetic Awareness for Environmental Improvement (4: Gailor auditorium)

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Vickey Wheeler, Board President, The Friends of Big Canoe Creek, AL

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Tina Mozelle Braziel, Ecopoet and Author, AL

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Henry Hughes, Executive Director, Friends of Shades Creek, AL

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9:25-10:40 am

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       III.      Red Wolves, Science, Advocacy, and the ESA: a Case Study of the South’s Only Endemic Apex Predator and the Treatment of Controversial Megafauna under Federal Law  [CLE session ] (6: Woods-Blackman auditorium)

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Perrin de Jong, Attorney and Red Wolf Litigator, NC

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Ramona McGee, Senior Attorney and Wildlife Program Leader, Southern Environmental Law Center, NC

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Davis Mounger, Co-Director, Tennessee Heartwood, TN

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       IV.       The Rise of Mega-Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations and the Fall of Family Farms (4: Gailor auditorium)

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Craig Watts, Contract Grower Transition Program Director, Socially Responsible Agriculture Project, AL

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Charline Whyte, Staff Attorney, Socially Responsible Agriculture Project, AL

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10:50 - 11:50 am -- KEYNOTE ADDRESS/PLENARY SESSION

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Valley So Low: A Lawyer’s Fight for Justice in the Wake of America’s Great Coal Catastrophe (6: Woods-Blackman auditorium)

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Jared Sullivan is the author of Valley So Low, a tense nonfiction account of one of the largest environmental disasters in U.S. history—the 2008 collapse of a coal-ash pond inKingston, Tennessee that released more than a billion gallons of toxic sludge, devastating the surrounding area and exposing cleanup workers to hazardous materials. The book was awarded the 2025 Tennessee Book Award for nonfiction.  He is an investigative journalist who has written for The Atlantic, Garden & Gun, Oxford American, The New Yorker, and Time, among many other publications. He was formerly an editor for Men’s Journal and Field & Stream. He lives outside Nashville, Tennessee with his family.   

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11:50-1:00 pm -- Lunch

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Lunch – We recommend sampling the convenient, diverse, quality dining options at the  McClurg on-campus dining hall at Sewanee, but off-campus dining options also exist on and around University Avenue.

​

Caucuses – Meet in the dining hall or in designated campus classrooms for self-organized discussion groups, mini-presentations, strategy sessions, or to launch new projects or coalitions. To promote a caucus at the conference, inquire at registration.  See the whiteboard by Registration to learn about caucuses you can attend.

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12:30 – 3:00 pm -- FIELD TRIP

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Biodiversity of Upland Wetlands. – A Field Discussion (Sign up and learn where to meet up at registration) This will be a field trip on the Sewanee campus to visit different upland wetland habitat types found on the Cumberland Plateau, including a vernal pool, a plateau stream, an acidic seep and a waterfall spray field.  We will observe the rare and unique plant and animal species associated with these special habitats and discuss management considerations relating to their conservation. Trip will involve approximately 1.5 miles of relatively easy hiking.  Bringing food and drink is recommended.

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Dr. Grady Wells,   Department of Biology, Sewanee: The  University of the South

 

Dr. Jon Evans, Department of Biology, Sewanee: The  University of the South

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1:00-1:45 pm

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       V.       “I say you don’t need FEMA”: Emergency Management in the Age of Federal Retreat (6: Woods-Blackman auditorium)

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Ella Helmuth, Staff Attorney, Appalachian Citizens Law Center, KY

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        VI.       The Earth and Its Community of Life: Elevating Non-Human Animals in Justice, Ethics, and Law through Wilderness Protection [CLE session] (4: Gailor auditorium)

 

Katie Bilodeau, Legislative Director and Policy Analyst, Wilderness Watch, ID

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1:55-3:10 pm

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       VII.      20 Years Later: Reflections on Mountain Justice Summer 2005  (6: Woods-Blackman auditorium)

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Dave Cooper, Participant, Mountain Justice Summer, KY

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John Johnson, Co-Founder, Mountain Justice Summer, TN

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Corr de Joch, Organizer, Mountain Justice Summer, NC

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       VIII.      Won’t You Be My Neighbor? Increasing Public Engagement in Air Pollution Permitting [CLE session]  (4: Gailor auditorium)

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Caroline Cress, Senior Attorney, Southern Environmental Law Center, NC

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Byron L. Gary, Attorney, Kentucky Resources Council, KY

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3:20-4:35 pm

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       IX.       Stronger Together: Lessons from a Community-Led Approach to a Resilient, Affordable Just Transition Before the Kentucky Public Service Commission [CLE session] (6: Woods-Blackman auditorium)

 

Byron L. Gary, Attorney, Kentucky Resources Council, KY

 

Cassandra McCrae, Senior Attorney, Earthjustice, PA

 

Mary Cromer, Attorney and Deputy Director, Appalachian Citizens Law Center, KY

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       X.       The Shifting Sands of “Forever Chemical” Regulations [CLE session]  (4: Gailor auditorium)

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Elizabeth L. Murphy, Attorney, Private Practice, TN

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Daniel Firth, Ph.D., Chair, Sierra Club Tennessee Chapter Solid Waste Committee, TN

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Scott Banbury, Conservation Director, Sierra Club Tennessee Chapter, TN

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4:45-5:30 pm

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         XI.      Revolutionary Conservation: Reviving the Endangered Red Wolf Genome (6: Woods-Blackman auditorium)

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Bridgett vonHoldt, Ph.D., Professor of Evolutionary Genomics and Epigenetics, Princeton University, NJ

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5:45-6:15 pm

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Organizing Meeting for SPIEL 2026 – (6: Spencer-Harris Commons, a.k.a. Spencer Hall atrium) If you’re interested in helping to organize next year’s SPIEL conference, pop in to sign up and give your feedback on what went well and what could be improved from SPIEL 2024 as we look forward to next year’s event.

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