As keynote speaker for the 2026 Academic and Creative Excellence (ACE) Festival, Lawrence told a crowd gathered at Lehman Auditorium on Wednesday morning about the year she spent researching plant-animal interactions on the tropical island.

She was tasked with walking a specific route through the forest, starting at dawn, recording every animal she observed and noting what it was doing and eating. She recalled listening to gibbons sing in the mornings, watching macaques leap from tree to tree in the evenings, and seeing her first orangutan in the wild. 

Lawrence, who holds a BA in anthropology from Harvard University and a PhD in botany from Duke University, said she had arrived at college three years earlier “pretending to be a pre-med major so I would have something to say when asked,” but still unsure what she wanted to do. When she returned from that year in Borneo, she discovered a newfound sense of purpose: to save the rainforest. 

“The rainforest had held me for a year, giving me a place to learn about nature and about myself,” she said. “What a gift.”

In the years since, she has devoted much of her life to understanding the human connection to nature and the consequences of actions like deforestation. Her research has taken her around the world to forests in Cameroon, Costa Rica, Mexico, and East Africa, as well as North Carolina and Virginia.

Lawrence spent more than 25 years as a professor of environmental sciences at the University of Virginia, where she focused on global forest systems and climate dynamics.

In addition to her academic career, she served as a science advisor to the U.S. Department of State’s Office of Global Change, supporting climate policy and international negotiations. She played a key role in establishing SilvaCarbon, a U.S. interagency program dedicated to forest carbon measurement and monitoring.

For the past four years, Lawrence has worked as chief scientist at Calyx Global, a carbon credit rating agency. At the startup, she leads efforts to ensure the scientific integrity of greenhouse gas ratings. She also directs research and analytics for nature-based solutions and engineered carbon dioxide removal.

“I still do science every day, but my target is different,” she said. “I think of it as the flip side of academic research. I used to study nature’s climate solutions—how forests and land can alter the climate. Now I study how those solutions get put into action, bundled up, and sold as carbon credits. And my job is to make sure [corporations] are delivering the climate impact that they promise.”

In her address, Lawrence spoke about the wonders of photosynthesis—“It takes something you cannot see and turns it into something you can touch and eat”—and the glorious splendor of spring. “Life is simply bursting out all around us, and it’s an amazing thing,” she said.

She recognized her feelings of eco-grief, the sadness she feels about the loss of ecosystems and living beings, and the increasing rate of extinction. “[T]he earth is more than just a place where we live,” she said. “It’s a place we love. We would not feel sadness if we felt no love. So I just want you to remember that. If you are feeling sad about what’s going on in the world, you’re also feeling love.”

Lawrence said she had been encouraged to read Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer six years ago but hadn’t found the time. Having recently read the book, which is EMU’s Common Read for 2025-26, she expressed appreciation for its wisdom. 

“Trying to know something is a way to love it,” she said. “That’s what I wish for all of you while you’re here in college. Study something deeply. It will change the way you view the world, including yourself, including nature.”

EMU’s ACE Festival continues Thursday with a full day of student presentations and performances, an authors’ reception and award presentation, and the first-ever ACE Fest Career Fair. For a full schedule of events, visit .

Watch a video recording of the address below!

Thanks to the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, the Daniel B. Suter Endowment, and the Center for Interfaith Engagement for collaborating with ACE Festival and the Provost’s Office to bring Dr. Lawrence to campus.

“Ankle Deep in Reality Tour: Christ, Compassion and Climate, A Call for JUSTpower,” a speaking tour on the issue of climate change and global warming is coming to campus Monday and Tuesday, Nov. 9-10.

Rev. Lusama Tafue, from the island nation of Tuvalu, will speak about the moral imperative of Christians to be active on the issue of climate change 3:45 p.m. Monday, Nov. 9, in room 104 of EMU’s Suter Science Center. Admission to the presentation is free.

Rev. Tafue and those travelling with him will also speak in several classes and meet with Earthkeepers recycling group and members of the university’s Creation Care Council during their time on campus.

About the speakers

Rev. Tafue is the chair of the Tuvalu Climate Action Network (TuCAN) and and program secretary of the Department of Peace & Justice, Christian Church of Tuvalu. Accompanying Rev. Tafue are Amber Collett and the executive director of “Restoring Eden,” Peter Illyn.

Restoring Eden is a network of people working to become a grassroots movement within the church. The parachurch ministry is dedicated to encouraging faithful stewardship of the natural world as a biblical, moral, and wise value. Specific efforts focus on nature appreciation, environmental stewardship and public advocacy.

Tuvalu is a Polynesian island nation located in the Pacific Ocean midway between Hawaii and Australia. It is one of those places on earth that is most vulnerable to the affects of global warming. The threat of sea level rise may bring complete disaster to the 10,000 Tuvaluans residing on nine extremely low-lying coral atolls.

Meaningful dialogue about climate change

“This speaking tour is a way for Rev. Tafue and his colleagues to reach out to fellow Christians, educate them and provide meaningful dialogue about climate change,” said Tara L. Kishbaugh, associate professor of chemistry. “It is particularly important for Christians to be involved in the discussion on how best to care for God’s creation and the world’s poor who will be most directly and severely affected by climate change.”

“Our belief and hope is that this presentation will open hearts and minds and will offer an opportunity for individuals to take further action on the issue,” Dr. Kishbaugh added.

The visit is sponsored by the Shenandoah Anabaptist Science Society (SASS), an organization of faculty, scholars and community members concerned with science and religion and their impact on life and faith. For more information on the presentation, call 540-432-4400.

Anna K. Behrensmeyer, Ph.D.

Anna K. Behrensmeyer, long-time research curator at the National Museum of Natural History (the Smithsonian) in Washington, D.C., will speak on “Climate Change and Human Evolution: Evidence from the Fossil Record of East Africa,” 4 p.m. Friday, Mar. 20, in room 104 of the Suter Science Center at EMU. Read more about Dr. Behrensmeyer…

Much of Dr. Behrensmeyer’s career has involved paleontological and geological research in the field and laboratory, with a particular focus on the ecological context of human evolution in East Africa.

Her presentation will link patterns of climate change to events in human evolution, using accurate geological age determinations and careful assessment of all available evidence.

Behrensmeyer received her doctorate in vertebrate paleontology and sedimentology from the department of geological sciences, Harvard University, in 1973. After post-doctoral positions at several major universities, including teaching for the Earth Science Board at the University of California at Santa Cruz, she joined the National Museum of Natural History staff in 1981.

In 2002, “Discover” Magazine named Behrensmeyer as one of the 50 most important women scientists in the U.S.

“On-land fossil records from different regions of Africa, together with better climate data from marine deep-sea drill cores, are strengthening understanding of climate change over the past six million years have affected the ecology and behavior of our earliest ancestors,” said Roman J. Miller, Suter Endowed Professor of Biology at EMU.

Refreshments will be served 15 minutes before the presentation. Admission is free.

For more information, contact Dr. Miller at 540-432-4412; email millerrj@emu.edu.

Are Christians to blame for ecological crisis and climate change?

Luke A. Gascho, executive director of the Merry Lea Environmental Learning Center of Goshen (IN) College, will reflect on that question in a presentation 4 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 6, in the Suter Science Center Auditorium.

Dr. Gascho will explore how biblical faith and value systems call Christians back to a connection that strengthens understanding and practice of earth care. He will include a focus on the meaning of responsible stewardship with examples ranging from personal actions, to green buildings to efforts such as the Evangelical Climate Initiative and the Association of College and Universities Presidents Climate Commitment. (Read more about EMU’s efforts to be green.)

Merry Lea Environmental Learning Center is a natural sanctuary located near Wolf Lake, Ind., and operated by Goshen College that provides a natural sanctuary for northern Indiana’s plants and animals, a vigorous educational program that interprets the significant biological and geological features and a setting for re-creating opportunities that benefit the human body and spirit while not exploiting the land or disturbing its ecosystems.

Gascho is a 1974 EMU graduate. He has been director of Merry Lea since 1997.

The program is sponsored by the Shenandoah Anabaptist Science Society. Admission is free.