Plenary Speakers

Title: Weaving Knowledge for Coastal Resilience: Co-Producing Science and Decisions in Coastal Louisiana.

Speakers:

Patty Ferguson-Bohnee

Patty Ferguson-Bohnee, J.D., is the Director of the Indian Legal Clinic, Faculty Director of the Indian Legal Program, Clinical Professor of Law, and Associate Dean of Inclusive Excellence at the Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law at Arizona State University. She is an Associate Justice of the Hualapai Court of Appeals and is Of-Counsel in the Indian Law Practice Group at Sacks Tierney, P.A. She is a member of the Pointe-au-Chien Indian Tribe. 

Patty has substantial experience in Indian law, election law, voting rights, environmental justice, and status clarification for tribes. She has been highly involved in the federal recognition process and religious freedom for nonrecognized tribal members. She also advocates for the rights of unrecognized tribes in response to environmental disasters. She has testified before Congress, the Louisiana Legislature, and the Inter American Commission on Human Rights regarding tribal recognition, climate displacement, and human rights issues. She successfully assisted four bayou tribes in obtaining recognition from the State of Louisiana. She recently assisted four Louisiana coastal tribes and an Alaska Tribe in preparing a complaint that was filed with the United Nations alleging human rights violations.”

Matthew Bethel

Matthew Bethel, Ph.D., is Associate Executive Director of Research at Louisiana Sea Grant, where he leads and supports transdisciplinary research addressing coastal resilience, environmental change, and community needs across Louisiana and the Gulf Coast. An applied geospatial scientist by training, his work has spanned remote sensing, GIS, coastal hazards, climate adaptation, and the co-production of knowledge with communities.

For nearly two decades, Bethel has worked in partnership with the Pointe-au-Chien Indian Tribe in coastal Louisiana to better understand and respond to land loss, sea-level rise, and other environmental changes affecting Tribal lands, livelihoods, and cultural resources. This long-term collaboration has brought together Traditional Ecological Knowledge, community priorities, geospatial analysis, and scientific modeling to support resilience planning, living shoreline design, and locally grounded decision-making. A central focus of his work is developing approaches that allow different knowledge systems to contribute meaningfully and equitably to environmental research and management. He has collaborated with Tribal knowledge holders, scientists, engineers, students, and resource managers to explore how Traditional Ecological Knowledge can be documented and included into data-driven planning while respecting Indigenous knowledge sovereignty, cultural context, and community authority.

Bethel has more than 25 years of experience in applied environmental research and previously worked in remote sensing and geospatial technology development at NASA’s Stennis Space Center. He holds a Ph.D. in Applied Environmental Science and Engineering from the University of New Orleans and serves as an adjunct faculty member and mentor to students and early-career researchers working at the intersection of coastal science, technology, and community resilience.