NHPR By Degrees Climate Summit: Community Resilience

How do communities come together to face shared environmental challenges?

How can communities respond when environmental threats affect everyone?

The 4th annual By Degrees Climate Summit brings together journalists and community members to explore resilience in action. This year’s focus is water quality and environmental pollutants including PFAS and other emerging contaminants and how communities are addressing them through research, advocacy, and collaboration.

We’re excited to welcome investigative journalist Mariah Blake as our keynote speaker. Blake is the author of They Poisoned the World: Life and Death in the Age of Forever Chemicals, an investigation into the global impact of PFAS that was named one of the best books of 2025 by The Washington Post and Scientific American.

The program includes a solutions-oriented panel hosted by NHPR's Jason Moon featuring Mara Hoplamazian and their work on NHPR’s Safe to Drink podcast, followed by a live Q&A with Mara and panelists, Victor Davila, Community Organizer and Clean Water Director of Slingshot Vermont and Julia Varshavsky, MPH, Ph.D. , Assistant Professor of Environmental Health, Northeastern University.

Together, we’ll explore what resilience looks like when communities confront shared risks like PFAS exposure — and how collaboration can lead to meaningful, lasting change.

The event concludes with breakout sessions designed to help participants feel empowered to bring what they’ve learned back to their own communities.

Come learn, connect, and be inspired.

The By Degrees Climate Summit is made possible in part by our generous sponsors. We thank The Nature Conservancy, Norwich Solar, Capitol Roofing, Green Wave Electric Vehicles and League of Conservation Voters.