ARISE Roundtable Series
Welcome to our virtural roundtable series! As part of the ARISE project, these conversations feature esteemed leaders from Kansas and beyond. Join us quarterly to share experiences, make connections, and gain skills in community engaged research (CEnR).
ARISE Community-Engaged Research Roundtable
May 5, 2026
3:00 – 4:00 pm
Register for Zoom Link
Speaker: Dr. Myles Lennon, Dean's Assistant Professor of Environment and Society and Anthropology, Brown University
Topic: At this virtual roundtable, Myles Lennon will share findings from his book Subjects of the Sun: Solar Energy in the Shadows of Racial Capitalism. Come learn how the energy infrastructure intersects with equity and power. Through a historical lens, this conversation will focus less on abstract idealizations of sustainability and more on how people actually make sense of and respond to environmental challenges within the structural constraints of their day-to-day lives.
About the Speaker: Dr. Myles Lennon is an environmental anthropologist and a former sustainable energy policy practitioner. His research explores how rooftop solar, “resiliency” microgrids, and other climate mitigation infrastructures simultaneously reinforce and upend entrenched structures of power as they materialize across long-standing race and class divisions in New York City. His research has been supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation, the Ford Foundation, and the Wenner-Gren Foundation.
Dr. Lennon’s scholarly and teaching interests include the anthropology of energy, environmental intersectionality and the co-production of race and nature, multispecies ethnography, climate justice and environmental justice, science and technology studies, affect theory, and the epistemological politics of climate mitigation efforts. He holds a B.A. in Development Studies from Brown University and a combined Ph.D in Anthropology and Forestry & Environmental Studies from Yale University. His research and scholarly objectives are informed by my experience as a sustainable energy practitioner in New York for eight years prior to beginning his Ph.D.
Past Roundtables
FEB 26, 2026
Rapid Reactor Panels: Best Practices for Real-Time Feedback in Community-Engaged Research; Speakers: Jill Peltzer, PhD, RN, CTN-A, FAAN, Associate Professor, Associate Dean for Graduate Programs; Hope M. Krebill, MSW, BSN, RN, Executive Director, Masonic Cancer Alliance; and Sarah F. Kessler, PhD, MPH, Professor, Family Medicine and Community Health Kansas City Medical Center
NOV 18, 2025
Topic: Maintaining Momentum and Celebrating Wins; Panelist: Cherayla Haynes, Community Partner Project Manager for Frontiers at the University of Kansas Medical Center; Mariana Ramírez, Director of the JUNTOS Center for Advancing Latino Health at the University of Kansas Medical Center; and Alej Martinez, ARISE Project Program Coordinator for Education and Community Engagement, University of Kansas.
JUN 25, 2025
ARISE Roundtable Panel Discussion discussion about “Adapting in a Changing Political Landscape,” with a panel of speakers discussing various themes: Impact on Research/Researchers; Impact on Communities; Implications for Future Funding; Strategies and Approaches To Address Challenges.
MAR 27, 2025
Stormwater Infrastructure Resilience and Justice (SIRJ) Lab at the University of Maryland. Speaker: Lab Manager
DEC 12, 2024
Community equity-driven work in the Liberal area through the Liberal Area Coalition for Families (LACF), including what social equity means in your work today and how it has historically impacted your community. Speaker: Sarah Mersdorf-Foreman, Director, LMSW Coalition for Families, Liberal, Kansas.
SEP 19, 2024
Tools and Storytelling by Jomella Watson-Thompson, Professor of Applied Behavioral Science at the University of Kansas, and Dola Williams, Research Project Coordinator for KU's Center for Community Health and Development.
JUN 20, 2024
Equity as praxis with Alej Martinez (KU), Gabriela (Gaby) Flores, Associate Vice Chancellor of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and Chief Diversity Officer at Metropolitan Community College; Cherayla Haynes, Community Partner Project Manager of the Frontiers Clinical & Translational Science Institute at the University of Kansas Medical Center; and Rumana Sharmin, Graduate Research Assistant at the University of Kansas.
FEB 29, 2024
How the KU Medical Center is promoting health equity in Kansas with the COPE project: Communities Organizing to Promote Equity.
NOV 16, 2023
“Stepping Stones to Community Success” with Jaime Menon, State Program Leader for Community Vitality through K-State Research and Extension, and Tim Steffensmeier, director of the K-State Office of Community Engagement.
JUN 15, 2023
Come Dance with Us & the Environmental Finance Center (EFC) at WSU, Tonya Bronleewe and Jeff Severin.
JAN 26, 2023 - Community as Expert: Learning from the community and understanding the continuum of community engagement
DEC 15, 2022 – How to use Community Toolbox and Community Checkbox
*NOV 17, 2022 - Understanding Community Engaged Research: Reflections from the CEnR CITI Modules Training