Higher Education Sustainability Fellows Program
Sustainability Fellows are an important part of the national trend toward sustainability in higher education. Fellows spend about 5 hours each week working with a professional association and other related higher education associations, to support their sustainability efforts and working to accelerate higher education's capacity to provide the knowledge, skills, and training needed to transition to a sustainable society.
The inaugural group of Higher Education Sustainability Fellows have been chosen. See below the biographies from this impressive group of Fellows committed to advancing sustainability throughout the higher education sector and beyond.
AACC Fellows
Larry Eisenberg - Executive Director for Facilities Planning and Development for the Los Angeles Community College District (LACCD)
LACCD is the largest community college district in the United States and is currently implementing a $5.7 billion construction and renovation program under Larry’s supervision. In this capacity, Larry oversees all planning, facilities development, maintenance and real estate activities of the District. The hallmark of the LACCD program is its commitment to sustainability, making it one of the largest sustainable development programs in the world at the present time.
Larry currently serves on the sustainability advisory committees of several national organizations including the American College and University Presidents’ Climate Commitment, the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education, and The National Association of College and University Budget Officers.
Larry received a Bachelor of Science in Urban Studies from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a Master of Public Affairs from the LBJ School of Public Affairs, part of the University of Texas at Austin. Larry was born and raised in the San Fernando Valley. He attended North Hollywood High School. Larry is married and has a 29-year-old son, who presently lives in the Seattle area.
Larry's Project: Larry will be sharing his experince with implementing large scale sustainable development projects nationally.
Jennifer Hayward - Sustainability Coordinator, Lane Community College
Jennifer has been working in sustainability in community colleges for 9 years. She started as the Recycling Coordinator of Lane Community College in 1999 then became the Sustainability Coordinator in 2004. Jennifer works with employees and students across Lane Community College to implement sustainability into curriculum, student life, operations, and community outreach activities.
Lane is a signatory of the American College and University Presidents' Climate Commitment and the Talloires Declaration. Lane's awards in sustainability include:
- Recycler of the Year Award for an Organization from the Association of Oregon Recyclers, July 2005
- Campus Sustainability Leadership Award from the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education, October 2006
- National Recycling Coalition Award for Outstanding Recycling Program for a College or University from the National Recycling Coalition, October 2006
Jennifer has actively promoted sustainability in higher education including presenting at the:
- Los Angeles Community College District Summit 2008
- Whatcom Community College Opening Day 2008
- American Association of Women in Community Colleges Oregon Chapter 2007 Fall Conference
- North American Conference on Sustainability in Higher Education 2004
She has coordinated three conferences for community colleges on sustainability and she initiated and coordinates a monthly conference call of community colleges for sustainability.
More on sustainability at Lane can be found at www.lanecc.edu/sustainability
Jennifer has a BS in Chemistry from the University of Oregon, is a LEED Accredited Professional and a Sustainable Building Advisor.
Bert Jacobson, Ph.D. - Dean of Sustainability and Planning at Kankakee Community College/Project Manager of the Illinois Community College Sustainability Network
Bert Jacobson has been with Kankakee Community College since June, 2008, and brings over 25 years of leadership experience. Responsible for Sustainability, Planning and Research, Bert’s main focus is developing a grant-funded network of sustainanbility centers among Illinois community colleges.
While Bert's business background is primarily healthcare leadership, organizational development, and medical education, his training and experience cover a broad range of disciplines from leadership development to customer service, from the quantitative science of quality improvement and Six Sigma to the qualitative study of human systems and future creation.
Bert holds a Doctorate Degree in Cognitive Anthropology from Washington University, a Black Belt in Six Sigma, was a 2007 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award Examiner, conducts site surveys for medical education organizations, and teaches MBA leadership courses.
Pushpa Ramakrishna - Professor of Biology, Chandler Gilbert Community College
For eighteen years, Pushpa Ramakrishna has distinguished herself as an innovative biology faculty and leader on campus, the Maricopa Community College district, in the community, and around the nation in the areas of science reform, biotechnology, service learning, women in science, and global sustainability.
Ms. Ramakrishna is leading the Maricopa sustainability initiative and has been a Maricopa Institute of Learning Fellow, serving as a curriculum leader in the development of innovative science curriculum as co-principal investigator for the NSF project SyRIS. The SYRIS grant was awarded the prestigious Gustav Ohaus Award for Innovation in Science teaching from the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
In addition, Ms. Ramakrishna has represented the Maricopa District as a presenter at conferences on topics such as sustainability, biotechnology, service learning, and nanotechnology. She has been awarded the Maricopa Community Colleges foundation’s outstanding employee of the year in 2007. She was awarded the Exemplary service award for the CGCC Service Learning program in 2008. She was part of the team that won the Maricopa district innovation of the year award in 1994 for service learning. In addition she won the 1995 and 1997 CGCC innovation of the year for ‘revitalizing the science curriculum’ and for ‘Student learning and outcomes assessment’. Pushpa also serves as faculty advisor for the CGCC student environmental club HEAT.
Pushpa's Project: Pushpa is developing a guidance document for college and university senior leadership on how they can be involved with reorienting curriculum to address sustainability.
ACPA Fellows
Dr. Steffes brings a outstanding combination of sustainability knowledge and experience, familiarity with traditional student affairs work, and connections across student affairs that will be incredibly helpful as a Fellow. In addition, she has experience integrating sustainability into a student affairs unit with much success. Dr. Steffes has demonstrated extensive leadership and expertise in the area of sustainability through outreach, education, and advocacy.
Dr. Agans has a good strong track record of sustainability work, with an emphasis on social justice/social capital that we in higher education struggle to incorporate fully. Her dissertation, Social Sustainability, Diversity, Higher Education and University Adaptation, is one example. Dr. Agans understands the need to imbed sustainability into the undergraduate (and graduate) curriculum. In addition, she has served as a technical expert on the Sustainability Tracking, Assessment & Rating System (STARS) program; STARS is a voluntary, self-reporting framework for gauging relative progress toward sustainability for colleges and universities.
ACUHO-I Fellows
Andrea J. Trinklein, Ph.D. - Executive Director, Residence Life & Housing Emory University
Nicholas J. Hennessy, Ph.D. - Sustainability Coordinator, Bowling Green State University
SCUP Fellows
Peter is a senior fellow at Second Nature, a nonprofit committed to the promotion of sustainability in higher education. His book Boldly Sustainable: Hope and Opportunity for Higher Education in the Age of Climate Change, co-authored with Andrea Putman, is forthcoming in Spring 2009. He is currently coordinating the Tompkins County Climate Protection Initiative, a regional effort involving education, business, government, and community leaders in the Ithaca area.
Bardaglio served as the provost and vice president of academic affairs from 2002 to 2007 at Ithaca College. A professor of history at Goucher College from 1983 to 2002, he was interim vice president and academic dean there from 2000 to 2002. His first book, Reconstructing the Household: Families, Sex, and the Law in the Nineteenth-Century South, received the 1996 James Rawley Prize from the Organization of American Historians for the best book published on the history of race relations in the United States. He received his Ph.D. and M.A. in History at Stanford University and his B.A. in History and English at Brown University.
Currently, Bardaglio serves on the Senior Council of the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education, the editorial board of Sustainability: The Journal of Record, and as a Higher Education Sustainability Fellow with the Society for College and University Planning. Among other local community activities, he is vice chair of the board of trustees for the proposed New Roots Charter High School, a member of the Cayuga Medical Center board of directors, and a member of the History Center in Tompkins County board of trustees.
Peter's Project: In addition to supporting the identified SCUP Fellows Projects, Peter will be promoting Boldly Sustainable and the Tompkins County Climate Protection Initiative.
John A. Ruffo - Partner, WRNS Studio, LLP
Nancy Tierney -
Associate Dean, Facilities & Planning University of Arizona, College of Medicine in partnership with Arizona State University
Ms. Tierney is responsible for planning the Phoenix Biomedical Campus (PBC) with representatives of the three public universities (UA, ASU and NAU) and City of Phoenix, under the direction of the Arizona Board of Regents. Ms. Tierney is the Immediate Past President of SCUP and the Past Chair of SCUP's Sustainability Task Force.
SCUP Projects: The SCUP Fellows have decided on three areas of focus that will support their constituents and can be shared throughout all of higher education.
1. Campus Sustainability Staff (Institutionalizing Sustainability)
The project associated with this issue would be the creation of a compendium of job descriptions and organizational charts that show different models and structures that are in use. SCUP would make them available on line. We could also develop some briefs on the topic, including devoting a future issue of Planning for Higher Education on the topic.
2. Campus Sustainability Planning Toolkit
The project associated with this issue would be the creation of a sustainability planning toolkit for underresourced institutions. A compendium of the basic tools, policies, and networks available for institutions with limited resources.
3. Community Partnerships
The potential projects associated with this issue would include the development of complimentary offerings such as a limited survey of institutions that are involved with municipalities and government agencies to see how they are addressing this issue and the development of webcasts to provide access to this current information.
NCSPOD Fellow
Bobbi Dunham-Carter, Organizational Learning Specialist at Nova Scotia Community College and Vice President, Publications of the Northamerican Council for Staff, Program and Organizational Development, was born and raised in Nova Scotia, Canada and is the proud mother of two. She studied Classics and International Business at Concordia University in Montreal, the University of British Columbia and Langara College in Vancouver BC. Bobbi is an avid traveler and has lived in and explored a number of countries in Europe, North America and the Middle East. Her top five strengths are futuristic, ideation, maximizer, achiever and activator.
Bobbi's Project: Bobbi is focusing on social media and how it can be effectively used to communicate sustainability.