To register for this event, please email mstewart@barry.edu.
Nadia B. Ahmad, JD, LLM
Nadia B. Ahmad is an Associate Professor at Barry University School of Law. Professor Ahmad’s research explores the intersections of energy siting, the environment, and sustainable development and draws on international investment law and corporate social responsibility. She has published over 30 scholarly articles and book chapters. In 2016, she was recognized by the Orlando Business Journal as a 40 Under 40 honoree for her leadership and community involvement.
Professor Ahmad was competitively selected twice to present at the Sabin Colloquium on Innovative Environmental Scholarship at Columbia Law School. She has presented her research on the law and policy of advanced biofuels in Abu Dhabi, Cairo, Cambridge, Doha, Denver, New York, and San Francisco. Prior to joining the Barry Law faculty, Professor Ahmad was the inaugural Visiting Assistant Professor of Environmental Law at Pace Law School. She also worked as a Legal Fellow with Sustainable Development Strategies Group on tax policy for natural resources, community development agreements, and mineral leasing rights for projects in Afghanistan, Mali, and Mozambique. At the Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment at Columbia University, she advised on offshore drilling laws for Sierra Leone. Professor Ahmad’s earlier experience included working for a multinational oil and gas company in the Denver-Julesburg Basin and in private law practice in Florida in the areas of land use, zoning, asset protection, and bad faith insurance litigation defense.
Professor Ahmad earned an undergraduate degree in Comparative Literature with language emphases in Latin and English from the University of California at Berkeley with high honors. Her undergraduate thesis examined representations of tradition and modernity in Indo-Anglian literature from 1947 to 1997. She completed her law degree (J.D.) from the University of Florida Levin College of Law, where she was a Virgil Hawkins Fellowship recipient. At UF Law, she served as executive editor of the Florida Journal of International Law and wrote about women’s property rights in Post-Partition South Asia. Later, she earned a masters of law (LL.M.) in Environmental and Natural Resources Law from the University of Denver Sturm College of Law, where she explored the legal barriers for the deployment of advanced renewable technologies in the Global South and worked on the editorial review of the Journal of Energy & Natural Resources Law.
She currently serves as Vice Chair of the ABA Section of Civil Rights and Social Justice’s Environmental Justice Committee, which was presented with the 2016-2017 ABA Committee Excellence Award, and the ABA Section of Environment, Energy, and Resources' Superfund and Natural Resource Damages Litigation Committee. She is an official expert for multilateral development organization, International Bamboo and Rattan Organisation (INBAR) Taskforce on Bamboo for Renewable Energy (TFB4RE), which promotes environmentally sustainable development using bamboo and rattan. She was previously Chair of the Younger Comparativists Committee’s Linkages and Engagement Advisory Group of the American Society of Comparative Law, Regional Chair of Mid-Florida for the Florida Muslim Bar Association, Chair of the Florida Bar’s Media and Communications Law Committee and a Board Member of the City and County of Denver’s Human Rights and Community Partnerships Advisory Board. Professor Ahmad is a member of the state bars of Florida and Colorado.
Professor Ahmad’s most publications and working papers may be found on Social Science Research Network.
REV. HOUSTON R. CYPRESS, OTTER CLAN (HE/THEY)
Rev. Houston R. Cypress grew up in the River of Grass region of the Greater Everglades – a place of refuge for his ancestors and the source of traditional plant medicines. He experiments with strategies for engaging communities and inspiring action around this World Heritage Site.
Art, conflict management, multimedia communications, gender diversity and spirituality are some of the disciplines & priorities that he contributes through his collaborations with the following organizations: Miccosukee Magazine TV; Film, Recording & Entertainment Council; Medicine Signs Spiritual Center; Natural Resources Leadership Institute; Miccosukee Environmental Advisory Committee; FIU’s Global Indigenous Forum; Florida Interfaith Climate Actions Network; Unity Coalition / Coalicion Unida; Sunkeeper Environmental Solutions; and the Love The Everglades Movement.
He finds inspiration for his contributions to the Cinema in the words of Patricio Guzman of Chile, who says, “A country without documentaries is like a home without photo albums.”
Houston is committed to supporting his society of clans by assisting in cultural preservation, environmental protection, community outreach, event and media production, business development, and strengthening sovereignty.
Rev. Houston R. Cypress is a Two-Spirit Poet, Artist, and Environmentalist from the Otter Clan of the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida. He resides on the Miccosukee Reservation located west of Miami, Florida; and he maintains a number of traditional villages located on tree islands scattered throughout Water Conservation Area 3A – the area known as the historic River of Grass, and called by his community: KAHAYATLE, which can be translated as “Shimmering Waters.”
He invites you to join him in creating portals between worlds.
Rabbi Katy Allen
Rabbi Katy Allen is the founder and rabbi of Ma'yan Tikvah - A Wellspring of Hope, which holds services outdoors all year long, and the co-founder and President pro-tem of the Jewish Climate Action Network-MA. She is a board certified chaplain and a former hospital and hospice chaplain and now considers herself an eco-chaplain. She received her ordination from the Academy for Jewish Religion in Yonkers, NY in 2005, and has an MA in Jewish Studies from Hebrew College, Newton, MA. She blogs at www.mayantikvah.blogspot.com and lives in Wayland, MA with her spouse, Gabi Mezger, who leads the singing at Ma'yan Tikvah.
Fr. Cristóbal Torres Iglesias, O.P.
Fr. Cristóbal Torres Iglesias, O.P. is a self-taught illustrator, painter, and University Chaplain at Barry University in Miami Shores, FL. Torres, who was born in New York and grew up in New Jersey and Florida, received his undergraduate degree from Rutgers University, a master’s degree in social work from New York University, and a second master’s degree in theology from Barry University. He is now pursuing his doctorate of ministry at Barry.
Although he felt the calling to become a priest at the age of 8, Torres worked as a public school teacher before joining the Dominican order. As chaplain at Barry, he oversees the liturgical life of the University, where he is highly sought after due to his inspirational preaching style.
When he is not preaching, Friar Cristóbal enjoys illustration, painting, music, and writing. His work in recent years has explored the fusion of image and narrative in the history of sacred art, and has such wide-ranging influences as Eastern and Western Christian iconography, Ibero-American and Afro-Cuban popular religiosities, and sequential storytelling in the comic book medium.
His iconographical work is in private collections and may be seen on display in places such as St. Albert the Great Priory in Irving, Texas, Notre Dame du Perpetuel Secours School in La Colline, Haiti, and the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, D.C., as well as the icon cross located within the Cor Jesu Chapel at Barry University.