Joseph Kennedy III
We invite Congressman Kennedy to offer a reflection on President John F. Kennedy’s exhortation “We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard.”
How do we channel the same spirit to trigger in us an urgency to tackle the great challenges of our world today? Framingham State University students will lead a conversation that focuses on climate change on topics that range from community resilience to global awareness, from climate refugees to climate justice, and from economic impact to policy action.
Facilitated by: Dr. Irene Porro
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Joseph Kennedy III has served as the U.S. Representative from Massachusetts’s 4th congressional district since 2013. Prior to being elected to Congress, Joe served the Commonwealth as an Assistant District Attorney in both the Middlesex County and Cape and Island’s District Attorneys’ Offices. Before that, he served as a member of the Peace Corps in the Dominican Republic. In January 2018, he delivered the Democratic response to the State of the Union address. Nationally, Joe has become a powerful voice for social justice, championing issues like transgender rights, marriage equality, pay equity and comprehensive immigration reform. He has been a vocal advocate for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education and vocational schools. As a member of the Energy & Commerce Committee, he supports legislation that fosters economic growth today while protecting the climate for generations to come.
Dr. Irene Porro is the Director of the Christa Corrigan McAuliffe Center for Integrated Science Learning at Framingham State University. A professional scientist with a deep commitment to social justice, in her work Dr. Porro combines research skills in physics and astrophysics with an interdisciplinary approach to education to promote equity and diversity in STEM fields.
Dr. Porro received her Ph.D. in Space Science and Technology from the University of Padova, Italy. During her doctoral program she was a researcher at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and then a post-doctoral fellow at the Max Planck Institut für Astronomie, in Heidelberg, Germany. She then joined the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where she became the Director of the Education and Outreach Group of the MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research. Dr. Porro is an alumna of the International Space University, an international education program specialized in training the future leaders of the emerging global space community.