January 12, 2025

Media Contacts:
Marcine Miller, Executive Director, Public Information Office, 509-682-6582, mmiller2@wvc.edu

 

Wenatchee Valley College is pleased to announce the return of WVC Speaks, a lecture series that celebrates our faculty and staff’s expertise on a range of topics relevant to life in North Central Washington. Our speakers are inspirational members of our faculty, staff, and community.

These free lectures will be held in The Music and Art Center’s Grove Recital Hall on the Wenatchee campus and will be livestreamed. Each event will include a Q&A session at the end of the lecture.

WVC Professor Joan Qazi and Marlene Farrell, executive director of Sustainable NCW, will give the first lecture on Jan. 22 at 6 p.m. In “What Our Emissions Tell Us,” Qazi and Farrell will address where the greenhouse gas emissions in Wenatchee and Chelan County are coming from and what we can do about it. Our Valley Our Future and Sustainable NCW conducted the first ever greenhouse gas inventory for the City of Wenatchee and Chelan County to measure local and imported emissions. Qazi and Farrell will explain the findings and let participants know about community projects and WVC’s efforts that could help address them.

Dr. Kestrel Smith, the program chair of the American Indian Indigenous Studies (AIIS) program at WVC Omak, will present “Fish Wars: Tribal Rights and Resiliency in the Pacific Northwest” on Feb. 19.

Dr. María I. Morales-Sánchez, WVC’s director of El Corazón Center for Teaching and Learning, will discuss immigration and storytelling in her lecture, “Carrying Home:

Cycles of Arrival, Immigration, and Mexican Belonging in the Wenatchee Valley,” on March 12.

Art instructor Sarah Sprouse will present “Modern Craftsmen: Women, Ceramics, and Community in the Pacific Northwest” on April 23, and Ellie Camp, a WVC customer service specialist, will close out the 2025-26 series with “Founding the Hwarang: An Ancient History of Warriors, Artists, and Disciples” on May 21.

WVC Speaks began in 2015 and was held annually through 2019. Originally held in the afternoons, the series brought faculty, staff, and students together to develop an appreciation for a variety of disciplines and to share perspectives. The returning lecture series will build upon the foundation of the original series, with a goal of inviting the community to learn more about our faculty and staff and topics of interest to our community.

“As our community’s college, we are excited to share the breadth of knowledge we have here amongst our faculty and staff,” Dr. Faimous Harrison shared. “Bringing back WVC Speaks is an important opportunity for us to welcome our community onto our campus to learn, grow, and connect. We invite you to join us!”

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About Wenatchee Valley College

Founded in 1939, Wenatchee Valley College enriches North Central Washington and delivers relevant, innovative, and experiential educational opportunities for thriving and healthy communities. Learn more at www.wvc.edu.

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Wenatchee Valley College is committed to a policy of equal opportunity in employment and student enrollment. All programs are free from discrimination and harassment against any person because of race, creed, color, national or ethnic origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, the presence of any sensory, mental, or physical disability, or the use of a service animal by a person with a disability, age, parental status or families with children, marital status, religion, genetic information, honorably discharged veteran or military status or any other prohibited basis per RCW 49.60.030, 040 and other federal and state laws and regulations, or participation in the complaint process. Learn more at www.wvc.edu/publicdisclosure.