Our Health& Sustainable Travel
The act of travel is often associated with broadening one’s horizons through cultural, historical and culinary immersion and may be more financially accessible to the public now than ever before. However, despite the remarkable personal benefits, our current travel habits — locally, regionally and globally — are starting to show the long-term risks and costs that previously were hidden.
Join the Our Health& series as we take a deeper dive on your questions around the future of travel — from the economic policies and constraints at a community level to the current and trending environmental health impacts to how COVID may have changed travel behaviors for the better. Join OSU faculty and staff from the College of Heath’s Environmental and Occupational Health program, OSU Cascades’ Sustainable Tourism Lab and the OSUAA’s Group Travel Program for a robust discussion around the complexities of sustainable travel and how it will take a lift from us all to preserve a fundamentally positive human experience for generations to come.
Speakers:
Perry Hystad | Associate Professor at Oregon State University
Perry Hystad is an associate professor in the College of Health and leads the Spatial Health Lab at OSU, which examines the connections between place and human health and well-being. He received his doctorate in epidemiology from the University of British Columbia and his research focuses broadly on environmental exposure assessment and epidemiology — with applications to air pollution, healthy built environments and climate resilience.
Todd Montgomery | Director at OSU Sustainable Tourism Lab and Board Chair at Visit Bend
Todd has worked in the international travel and tourism sector for over 25 years, initially with Hyatt, Starwood, and PROS Software. He is the Robin and Curt Baney Endowed Professor at OSU-Cascades and founded the Hospitality Management Program at OSU. He specializes in analyzing labor, sustainable tourism and automation technology trends in the industry. His research has been featured in several media outlets, including USA Today, a PBS documentary called Tech Trek and the OPB radio program Think Out Loud. His most recent project is modeling community carrying capacity of tourism across the U.S., Asia/Pacific and Central America.
Kate Sanders | Director of Academic Enrichment and Alumni Group Travel at OSU Alumni Association
Kate Sanders is the director for academic enrichment and Alumni Group Travel at the Oregon State University Alumni Association, where she is responsible for the travel program as well as the alumni association’s signature events and educational programming. Kate joined the alumni association in 2013 after planning presidential and university-level events at Oregon State University and has a professional background in project management, event planning, writing and environmental education. Travel and tourism have always been part of her life, from family trips when young, to living abroad in Australia, to work and personal travel today.