Summits & Horizons

Adventure Crew’s signature fall fundraiser

Thursday, October 30
5:30-8:30 p.m.
MEMORIAL HALL

Meet Our Keynote Speaker
Carolyn Finney

Carolyn Finney is a storyteller, author and cultural geographer who is passionate about interrogating our past and dreaming a future that is liberatory, just and green.

Dr. Finney is grounded in both artistic and intellectual ways of knowing – she pursued an acting career for eleven years, but five years of backpacking trips through Africa and Asia and living in Nepal changed the course of her life. Motivated by these experiences, Carolyn returned to school after a 15-year absence to complete a B.A., M.A. (gender and environmental issues in Kenya and Nepal), and a Ph.D. in Geography at Clark University (where she was a Fulbright and a Canon National Science Scholar Fellow). Along with public speaking (nationally & internationally), writing, media engagements, consulting & teaching (she has held positions at Wellesley College, the University of California, Berkeley & the University of Kentucky), she served on the U.S. National Parks Advisory Board for eight years under the Obama Administration. Her first book, Black Faces, White Spaces: Reimagining the Relationship of African Americans to the Great Outdoors was released in 2014.

She is currently working on her new book (creative non-fiction) that takes a more personal journey into the very complicated relationship between race, land & belonging in the United States, and a performance piece entitled The N Word: Nature Revisited as part of an Andrew W. Mellon residency at the New York Botanical Gardens Humanities Institute. She is involved with a number of documentary film projects; her family’s story appears in the HBO documentary, Trees and Other Entanglements in Fall of 2023 (Vermilion Films). She recently completed a three-year stint as a columnist at the Earth Island Journal and was awarded the Alexander and Ilse Melamid Medal from the American Geographical Society in 2022. Carolyn is currently a scholar/artist-in-residence in the Franklin Environmental Center at Middlebury College.

Join us
Schedule & tickets

schedule

5:00 p.m. Early admission for Speaker Social ticket holders
5:30 p.m. Social hour
6:30 p.m. Program in the theater, featuring:
Adventure Crew presentation with student stories
Keynote by Carolyn Finney
Paddle raise auction

Tickets

Speaker Social ticket — $125
Enjoy early admission for speaker meet and greet, heavy appetizers, and open bar. Have your copy of “Black Faces, White Spaces” (included with ticket) signed by keynote Carolyn Finney.

Ballroom ticket — $70
Socialize in the ballrooms for an hour before the presentation with heavy appetizers and two drink tickets.

Parkview ticket — $35
Grab a drink at the cash bar in the Parkview room before the presentation and keynote.

Thank you to our Summits & Horizons 2025 sponsors

Speaker Sponsor

Outdoor Equity Sponsor

Jim Crosset

Ballroom Sponsor

Anonymous

Summit Sponsors

Mark & Michelle Wherry

Bob & Lisa Harper

Wayfinder Sponsors