Partners for a Prosperous Athens will hold final community meeting on Dec. 4
Partners for a Prosperous Athens, the initiative to combat persistent poverty in Clarke County, will hold its final community meeting Dec. 4 at 7 p.m. at Clarke Central High School. This will be the last opportunity for citizens to offer ideas and suggestions that could become part of PPA’s final recommendations.

PPA began holding monthly community meetings in March to gather citizen input on fighting poverty. Committees were formed to study six issues related to poverty, and the committees have spent eight months conducting research and gathering information. At the Dec. 4 meeting the committees will finalize their preliminary recommendations.

The PPA Steering Committee will review and prioritize the committee recommendations and draw up a set of final recommendations to present to the community in March.

UGA is one of five co-convenors of PPA. Many faculty, staff and students have worked on the committees, and the Fanning Center is providing primary administrative and staff support for the initiative.

Creative writing will host book reading
Author Elizabeth Hartley Winthrop will read from her work on Nov. 28 at 4 p.m. in Room 261 of Park Hall. Sponsored by the Creative Writing Program, the reading is open to the public.

Winthrop is the author of the novel Fireworks, the narrative of Hollis Clayton, a 39-year-old writer confronting a troubled marriage and the death of a son.

Praise for this debut novel includes a New York Times book review by Heidi Julavits who says the novel is “[a]s full of hilarious missteps as it is poignantly sad. Winthrop proves to be a bitingly intelligent writer.”

Born and raised in New York City, Winthrop graduated Phi Beta Kappa and summa cum laude from Harvard University in 2001. In 2004, she received her M.F.A. in fiction from the University of California at Irvine, and she was the recipient of the Schaeffer Writing Fellowship for the 2004-2005 academic year. She lives in Savannah.

Organizer of nationwide climate change educational initiative to speak at UGA
The organizer of a major initiative on climate change will speak at UGA on Nov. 27. Eban Goodstein, an economics professor at Lewis and Clark College, will discuss “Seen An Inconvenient Truth: Now What? Focus the Nation on Solutions to Global Warming” at 4 p.m. in the Institute of Ecology Auditorium.

Goodstein is organizing Focus the Nation, a global warming educational initiative that is coordinating teams of faculty, students and staff at more than 1,000 colleges, universities and high schools to participate in a nationwide, nonpartisan discussion on climate stabilization. The project also will include the participation of religious, civic and business organizations and will culminate Jan. 31 in a one-day symposium to be held simultaneously on campuses across the country.

“Focus the Nation could be a catalyzing event on par with Earth Day 1970 that could help turn the national conversation about global warming from fatalism to constructive engagement,” said Goodstein.

Goodstein’s current research focuses on the economics of global climate change. He is the author of college textbook Economics and the Environment, and The Trade-off Myth: Fact and Fiction about Jobs and the Environment. He serves on the editorial board of Environment, Workplace and Employment, is on the steering committee of the Center for the Applied Study of Economics and the Environment, and is a member scholar at the Center for Progressive Reform.

Goodstein’s visit to UGA is sponsored by the River Basin Center, the public service and outreach office of the Institute of Ecology.