Russel Barsh to talk at the Odd Fellows Hall

Published 1:30 am Wednesday, March 19, 2025

Russel Barsh, director of Kwiáht, a nonprofit conservation biology laboratory in and for the San Juan Islands of Washington state, will be offering a talk at the Odd Fellows Hall on Sunday, March 23, from 3-4:30 p.m. He will speak about the changing ecology of diseases (of wildlife and people) that their research has been exploring – from ticks to tropical mosquitos. The Kwiáht lab is working with new partners, including the State Department of Health, the State Fepartment of Fish and Wildlife and the Fred Hutch Cancer Center, to get ahead of shifting patterns in the ways people, pets and wildlife share viruses and other pathogens in our region.

Barsh studied at Harvard, taught at the University of Washington and worked for many years at the United Nations on indigenous peoples and their ecosystems before returning to the Northwest and organizing Kwiáht. With a background in human ecology, he is especially interested in cultural and economic factors influencing human impacts on the environment, the role of schools and adaptation of animals and plants to humans. He lives on Lopez Island.