Robert & Mary Neher Global Institute Lecture Series

Bridging Science, Society, and the Arts in the Climate Conversation

The Neher Global Sustainability Lecture Series is the University of La Verne’s signature forum for bringing science, art, and community together to confront one of the most pressing challenges of our time: climate change. Each year, the series brings together voices from science, the arts, and public life to explore how people around the world are understanding, responding to, and living with a changing planet.

As we move further into the 21st century, we are called to approach complex problems in new ways. In the last century, progress often followed the model of the assembly line – each discipline focused on its own part, working in isolation, with the expectation that everything would come together in the end. Today, we recognize that the greatest challenges – climate change foremost among them – cannot be solved by partitioning them into separate pieces. They require us to build diverse teams around the problem itself, drawing on scientists, artists, policymakers, educators, and community voices to work side by side.

This lecture series embodies that shift. At its heart, it is about conversation and collaboration – creating a forum where multiple perspectives converge, where students see how disciplines complement one another, and where ideas can be tested, challenged, and reimagined. In honoring the Neher family’s vision, the series helps our university live out its mission: to be a Minority-Serving Institution that celebrates diversity of thought, prepares students for leadership in a complex world, and cultivates the kind of inclusive dialogue that real solutions demand.