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The 2025 IIN Sustainability and Social Innovation Research Conference was held on September 25 and 26 at the Holmes Student Center on the campus of Northern Illinois University.
The conference kicked off Thursday night, Sept. 25, with a screening and panel discussion of the Social Innovation Documentary: “What’s Left Behind,” including Ruby Mendenhall, Ph.D. (UIUC), Gina Grant, M.Ed., (CoreKind), and Tracie Pape, LCSW (Compass Health Center).
Opening remarks Friday, Sept. 26, included IIN Associate VP and Executive Director, Esq. Jeannette Tamayo, NIU Vice President for Research and Innovation Partnerships Richard Mocarski, Ph.D., NIU President Dr. Lisa Freeman and U.S. Rep. Eric Sorensen, Illinois 17th District. The keynote panel discussed how to drive Research & Social Innovation for Resilient Communities. The panel included Rachel Poretsky (UIC), Kristen Malecki (UIC) and Ashish Sharma (Discovery Partners Institute).
Two sessions of concurrent panels included various sustainability and social innovation research topics such as: Sustaining Infrastructure Systems, Sustaining Communities Through Climate Resilience, Public Health, Innovation and Sustainable Communities, and much more.
There also was a student poster competition highlighting various sustainability research topics, and an awards ceremony celebrating the Illinois Soybean Association SpringBoard Seed Funding Challenge winners and the most-recent IIN Social Innovation and Impact seed grant recipients.