YAKIMA – Yakima Valley College is currently presenting the Visiting Lecture Series featuring lecturers such as John T. Menard and Kristina Ernest. Admission is free and open to the community.

John T. Menard

The series started this month with YVC Instructor and local historian John T. Menard who spoke on Bert Grant and the Rise of Craft Brewing on February 19 and will give a second presentation at the Grandview Campus on March 2, 2020, at 6:30 pm in Workforce Education Center, Building 51, Room 199.

The U.S.’s first post-prohibition brewpub opened in Yakima in 1982 under the ownership of Bert Grant. Yakima Brewing & Malting Company, originally known as Grant’s Brewery Pup, operated from 1982 until 2005 and played a significant role in the development of the American craft beer industry. This lecture takes a critical look into Grant’s company, Yakima Brewing & Malting Co., and its place in the larger story of the rise of craft beer. Additionally, the lecture will address the oft-told myths and legends surrounding Grant and the company.

J. T. Menard is an instructor at Yakima Valley College, where he teaches courses in history, geography, and politics. His current project is a history of the Washington craft beer industry. Previously, he published a biography of Washington State University (WSU), President W. Glenn Terrell, with WSU Press in May 2019. His other work has appeared in Columbia Magazine and the blog of the Oxford Oral History Association. In 2015 he was awarded a prestigious National History Scholar Award from the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History.

Kristina Ernest

The lectures will conclude on March 10 when Kristina Ernest will be presenting her lecture Road Death & Road Life: Habitat Connectivity in Washington. The presentation will take place at 7:00 PM at Glenn Anthon Hall, Building 4, Room 215 on the Yakima Valley College campus.

Kristina Ernest will address how road infrastructure affects ecology in Washington State. She will describe how wildlife passages can help reconnect populations that are divided by roads. Focusing on the crossings (under and over) Interstate 90, Kristina will share what we’re learning about how passages are affecting pikas and other mammals.

Kristina Ernest is a Professor of Biology at Central Washington University. Her research focuses on population and community ecology. She is currently investigating the ecological connectivity of pika populations in the central Washington Cascades across Interstate 90.