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The 52nd annual Great Plains conference will explore the theme Healthy Great Plains: Wellness + Community + Healing. It will be held April 2-3 at Eugene T. Mahoney State Park in Nebraska.
Always an interdisciplinary event, The Great Plains Conference weaves together cutting-edge research, community knowledge, and creative expression covering all things Great Plains-related for a general audience. Scholars, practitioners, community members, leaders, and students of all levels are welcome.
We invite all who engage with the diverse peoples, cultures, and natural environments of the Great Plains to submit proposals:
Keynotes
Richard Louv is a journalist and best-selling author of ten books, including Our Wild Calling: How Connecting with Animals Can Transform Our Lives - And Save Theirs, Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder, and Noticing: Intimate Encounters with the Natural World. His books have been translated and published in 24 countries, and helped launch an international movement to connect children, families, and communities to nature. He is co-founder and Chairman Emeritus of the Children & Nature Network, an organization helping build the movement.
New York Times-bestselling author Cynthia Leitich Smith (Mvskoke Nation) is the 2027 American Indian Writers Award winner, 2026 Michael L. Printz Award for Excellence in Young Adult Literature winner, a two-time American Indian Youth Literature [Young Adult] Award winner, a two-time Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award candidate, a NSK Neustadt Laureate, and the author-curator of Heartdrum, a Native-focused imprint at HarperChildren’s. Leitich Smith has also been named to deliver the 2026 ALSC Children’s Literature Lecture. Recent titles include Here Come the Grandmas! Here Come the Aunties! Firefly Season, and Legendary Frybread Drive-In: Intertribal Stories.
Siobhan Wescott, MD, MPH, is director of the American Indian Health Program of the UNMC College of Public Health, where she also is an associate professor in the Department of Health Promotion. She leads the college's Nebraska HEALING Project, which stands for Nebraska Health, Education, Advocacy and Leadership across Indigenous and Native Generations. Prior to joining UNMC in 2021, Dr. Wescott was co-director of Indians Into Medicine at the University of North Dakota School of Medicine and Health Sciences, where she was an assistant professor in its Department of Family and Community Medicine and an assistant professor in the Department of Public Health at the North Dakota State University.