Environmental stewardship and preservation of natural habitats will likely be topics covered by visiting speaker Robert F. Kennedy Jr. during his keynote address for the Frost Foundation Lectureship Series for Global Issues presented by the Center for International Studies: TCU Abroad.

Jane Kucko, director for the Center For International Studies: TCU Abroad, wrote in an e-mail that the Frost Foundation Lectureship on Global Issues provides the university with the opportunity to invite speakers like Kennedy, adding that his topic has been a focus of the university.

“The Center for International Studies: TCU Abroad, like the rest of the university, has been exploring ways we can foster meaningful experiences for the TCU community that focus upon sustainability,” Kucko wrote.

According to Kennedy’s Web site, his legal expertise and education have allowed him to enact legislation in many other environmental efforts. Such efforts have led to protection of the New York City water supply and provided assistance to indigenous tribes in Canada and Latin America in establishing protection of their homeland. A well-known environmentalist, Kennedy has also played a major role in restoration of the Hudson River.

Time magazine named Kennedy one of its “Heroes of the Planet,” for his work to restore the Hudson River, and Rolling Stone named him one of its “100 Agents of Change” in 2009.

Warren Lord, a senior environmental science major, said he is required to attend the lecture as a part of his environmental stewardship class.

“It pertains to stewardship since part of stewardship is how people in public positions use power and influence to affect the environment,” Lord said.

Kennedy is the son of civil rights activist and former U.S. Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and his wife, Ethel Kennedy. He is the nephew of former President John F. Kennedy.

According to the Center for International Studies Web site, the Frost Lectureship for Global Issues series began in the mid 1990s, after a donation from the Frost Foundation. The foundation was named in honor of Edwin Ambrose Frost and Virginia Chapelle Frost and supports education and charitable and religious activities.

Past speakers at the event include Dayna Baumeister, co-founder of the Biomimicry Guild, and Erik Peterson, senior vice president at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Center for International Studies: TCU Abroad Frost Lectureship Series

When: 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. tonight

Where: Brown-Lupton University Union