Colleen M. Scanlan Lyons will read from her new book, Running After Paradise, and local band Ambush will perform afterward. Come for the words, stay for the tunes!

Colleen is an environmental anthropologist who works for forest conservation and sustainable development in tropical forest regions of the world. Based at the University of Colorado at Boulder (CU), she serves as an Associate Research Professor in the Environmental Studies Department (ENVS) and the Masters of the Environment (MENV) Program, a Project Director for the Governors’ Climate and Forests Task Force (GCF Task Force), and a Research Associate with the Environment and Society Program at CU’s Institute of Behavioral Science. She teaches graduate courses on stakeholder engagement, runs a field course on integrated conservation and development in Brazil’s Amazon and Atlantic Forests with CU and Brazilian students and professors, mentors students, and conducts research on topics ranging from livelihoods and conservation in the Atlantic Forest to environmental governance and forest citizenship in the Amazon to artisanal mining in Peru and Colombia. She just completed a book on social movements in the global biodiversity hotspot of Southern Bahia, Brazil, Running After Paradise: Hope, Survival, and Activism in Brazil’s Atlantic Forest.

Ambush, anchored down by Russ Grabski (guitar/vocals), Chris Alaimo (keys), and Jeff Lyons (drums, back-up vocals), resides in Boulder, Colorado and has been fortunate to play in hallowed music halls with well-known musicians and dark alleys with homeless harmonica players. Rock, rap, blues, country, freestyle jams, jazz...we are music freaks who love it all.