CaSA Conversations: Campus Climate Resilience & Response

NC State University hosts CaSA Conversations: Campus Climate Resilience & Response on Tuesday, October 13, from 8:45 AM to 10:00 AM. It's the second session in the Climate and Sustainability Academy's (CaSA) Fall 2026 series, and the whole thing centers on how the university's Raleigh campus prepares for and responds to climate events.

The morning starts with coffee, breakfast, and networking from 8:45 to 9:00 AM, so if you're coming straight from home, there's a window to settle in and chat before the main event kicks off. After that, the session moves into a panel discussion with three people who handle different sides of how a campus actually holds up when the weather turns. Joe Darkoh is the Mission Continuity & IT Manager at NC State, Tom Skolnicki is the University Landscape Architect with Campus Planning in the Office of the NC State University Architect, and Barrett Smith is a Senior Service Hydrologist with the National Weather Service in Raleigh. Rebecca Ward, a Science Engagement Senior Research Scholar at CaSA, moderates the conversation.

Between them, you've got the IT and continuity side, the physical landscape and planning side, and the actual weather forecasting side. It's a good spread for a conversation about resilience: one person talking about keeping the systems running, another about how the grounds are managed, and a third who tracks the storms coming our way. If you've ever wondered what happens behind the scenes when a major weather event hits the campus, this is exactly where those pieces come together.

It's at 1017 Main Campus Dr in Raleigh. The session is free, though you'll need to register in advance. The whole thing runs from 8:45 AM to 10:00 AM, so you're in and out before the middle of the morning.