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Purpose Prize

The Latest from CoGenerate

Event Recording: Book Talk: Cogeneration in the Age of AI

Event Recording: Book Talk: Cogeneration in the Age of AI

Simple question: Do you miss human connection when you use self-checkout at the grocery store? Complex question: How is cogeneration threatened by AI, profit-driven “efficiencies,” and automation — and what can we do about it? Allison Pugh, author of the book The Last...

Putting Two Things Together

Putting Two Things Together

On Friday, May 15, I had the great honor to address the 2026 graduates of Drew University, including the undergraduate College of Liberal Arts, the Theological School, and the Caspersen School of Graduate Studies. I'm very grateful to Drew's remarkable President...

Introducing the CoGen Voices Fellows

Introducing the CoGen Voices Fellows

Across the country, young people and older people are stepping up as civic leaders. But too often, they do this critical work with peers, in age-segregated spaces. Young people work without the benefit of older generations who bring lived experience, networks, and a...

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Shirley Caldwell-Patterson

Cumberland River Compact
Purpose Prize Fellow 2006

Enhancing the future of the Cumberland River watershed

In 1997, at age 79, Shirley Caldwell-Patterson attended a presentation by Victor Scoggins who showed a film of his swim down the Cumberland River in Tennessee and Kentucky. A long-time conservationist, Patterson was appalled at the condition of the Cumberland River Basin, which consists of 14 watersheds and provides water to 2 million people. Recognizing that, in effect, we all live downstream, Patterson created the Cumberland River Compact with a mission to improve the water quality of the Cumberland River and its tributaries. Today the Compact is one of Tennessee’s leading environmental education organizations. Its goal of creating a Watershed Outreach Program in each of the 14 watersheds is halfway to completion. More than 300 elected officials have been educated about their community’s water resources and officials in the states of Kentucky and Tennessee have signed a Principles of Agreement to work jointly to improve the water supply in the future.