POTSDAM -- Julia Walsh, founder of Frack Action, will hold a talk titled “What the Frack” Wednesday, Feb. 20 at 7 p.m. in the Clarkson University Student Center Multi-purpose Rooms.

Walsh is a community organizer, motivational speaker and political strategist who has worked on progressive issues and campaigns since 2001.

In 2010, she started Frack Action. Soon after its founding, Frack Action played a role in the New York legislature’s passage of a fracking moratorium which has halted fracking in the state thus far.

This lecture will explain to participants what fracking is, why this happened from a political and economic perspective, how fracking impacts the potential for a renewable energy future and how students can get involved in the Frack Action campaign.

Prior to starting Frack Action, Walsh served as an elected official on the Village Board of New Paltz from 2003 to 2007. During her time in office she was involved in passing environmental legislation, as well as organizing New Paltz’s high-profile, politically charged same-sex marriages in February 2004.

For the past nine years, Walsh has been an NGO Representative to the United Nations on behalf of children’s rights and indigenous rights organizations.

The event is sponsored by the Clarkson student group Spectrum.