Associate Professor Greg Cronin, Applied Ecologist in the Department of Integrative Biology, co-organized (with Spiritual Leader Miguel Saguethe, a Taino Behik) a special session "Decolonization: Healing the Spirit, Mind, and Land" at the International Interdisciplinary Conference on the Environment over the summer. Cronin was elected Vice President of the Interdisciplinary Environmental Association at the conference and will serve as President of the organization after his two year term as VP concludes.

After spending a week in Puerto Rico with Mr. Sague, visiting Taino sites and holding ceremony, Cronin traveled to Haiti to continue his decolonization scholarship. Taino spiritual and environmental leaders joined Cronin in Ayiti, Haiti, holding a Full Moon Ceremony at Vilaj Mozayik. They also visited Caracol Bay, where Columbus encountered Taino in 1492, where the Santa Maria ran aground, and where Columbus built his first fort in the New World. Caracol Bay is part of Three Bays Marine Park, a marine protected area that Goldman Environmental Prize winner Jean Wiener, Cronin, and other Haitian colleagues helped establish in 2013. Now that the Taino Resurgence Movement is active in Haiti, Cronin will promote Indigenous values, traditions, and stewardship with his applied ecology work in Haiti.