Colleges and universities that advance the integration of sustainability and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) across the curriculum often struggle to expand their reach after engaging the faculty members who emerge as early adopters. College instructors have many competing demands for their time, and many do not immediately see the relevance or value of incorporating Education for Sustainability into their already challenging teaching responsibilities. In this session, the facilitators will draw on their experience “scaling up” faculty engagement in sustainability and SDG teaching to suggest several strategies that can help sustainability education professionals expand the network of faculty engaged with sustainability/SDG course integration at their institutions. This session will include specific examples ranging from big-picture initiatives to raise the profile of sustainability education on campus to targeted strategies that can help sustainability education leaders fill gaps in the reach of their initiatives. Participants will have opportunities to discuss challenges and strategies associated with expanding sustainability-across-the-curriculum with each other as well as with the facilitators.

Georgia Institute of Technology is one of the regional AASHE Centers for Sustainability Across the Curriculum. Centers host workshops and other professional development opportunities throughout the year. If you aren’t able to attend this event, please consider attending one of the other upcoming events organized by a Center.

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Presenters

Rebecca Watts Hull, Assistant Director, Faculty Development for Sustainability Education Initiatives, Georgia Institute of Technology

Rebecca Watts Hull is assistant director, faculty development for sustainability education initiatives in the Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) at Georgia Tech, with an adjunct appointment in the School of History and Sociology. Rebecca works with faculty to incorporate Education for Sustainability into their course design and teaching practices. She partners with other units to lead strategic initiatives related to sustainability education, including Sustainability Next’s Sustainability Education plan. Rebecca also works with other colleges and universities to advance faculty development and peer-to-peer learning that expands and enriches the integration of sustainability across the curriculum across the state of Georgia and beyond. Earlier in her career, Rebecca held sustainability and educational leadership roles in the public, private and nonprofit sectors with responsibilities that included science and environmental curriculum design and community-based environmental education and advocacy. Rebecca earned an M.S. and Ph.D. from Georgia Tech in History and Sociology of Technology and Science, focusing her research on social movements and organizational change, and she also holds an M.S. in Natural Resources and Environment from the University of Michigan. She has taught Sustainability Leadership at Emory University, Environment and Sustainability Studies at Agnes Scott College, and American Environmental History, Social Movements, Community Organizing, and Organizing for Social Change at Georgia Tech.

Jennifer Leavey, Assistant Dean for Faculty Mentoring, Georgia Tech College of Sciences; Principal Academic Professional, Georgia Tech School of Biological Sciences; Director, Georgia Tech Urban Honey Bee Project, Georgia Institute of Technology

Jennifer Kraft Leavey is Assistant Dean for Faculty Mentoring for the College of Sciences and Principal Academic Professional in the School of Biological Sciences at the Georgia Institute of Technology. She also coordinates the College’s educational programs related to science and sustainability including the Georgia Tech Urban Honey Bee Project and the Living Building Science Vertically Integrated Project Team, and serves as co-chair of Sustainability Next. She collaborates with faculty across diverse disciplines to expand teaching that incorporates sustainability and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). She holds a Ph.D. in Immunology and Molecular Pathogenesis from Emory University and a B.S. in Chemistry from Georgia Tech.

Valerie Thomas, Anderson-Interface Chair of Natural Systems, Professor, Georgia Institute of Technology

Valerie Thomas is the Anderson-Interface Chair of Natural Systems and Professor in the H. Milton School of Industrial and Systems Engineering, with a joint appointment in the School of Public Policy. Dr. Thomas’ research interests are energy and materials efficiency, sustainability, industrial ecology, technology assessment, international security, and science and technology policy. Current research projects include low carbon transportation fuels, carbon capture, building construction, and electricity system development. Dr. Thomas is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and of the American Physical Society. She has been an American Physical Society Congressional Science Fellow, a Member of the U.S. EPA Science Advisory Board, and a Member of the USDA/DOE Biomass Research and Development Technical Advisory Committee. She has worked at Princeton University in the Princeton Environmental Institute and in the Center for Energy and Environmental Studies, and at Carnegie Mellon University in the Department of Engineering and Public Policy.  Dr. Thomas received a B. A. in physics from Swarthmore College and a Ph.D. in theoretical physics from Cornell University.

Matthew J. Realff, Professor, Georgia Institute of Technology

Professor Realff is the David Wang Senior Faculty Fellow in the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Georgia Tech. Professor Realff joined Georgia Tech as an Assistant Professor in 1993. Professor Realff received his Master’s degree in Chemical Engineering from Imperial College London and his Ph.D. from MIT in the area of process systems engineering. He was an NSF program director 2005-2007 where he led initiatives in Resilient and Sustainable systems. He has fostered multidisciplinary research efforts at Georgia Tech through leadership positions in the Strategic Energy Institute and Renewable Bioproducts Institute. Professor Realff conducts research on carbon capture systems and has recently focused on Direct Air Capture system design, simulation and analysis. He collaborates with Professors Jones and Lively on this topic where his analyses help drive experimental work on materials and contactors for more effective system design. Professor Realff has served as a board member of GreenBlue since 2007 which is the parent non- profit for the Sustainable Packaging Coalition a multi-stakeholder organization with over 500 members dedicated to improving packaging sustainability. He has chaired standards development committees in the area of sustainability assessment across a broad range of products. He is the founding editor-in-chief of the Journal of Advanced Manufacturing and Processing part of the AIChE Journal family. He was elected as a Fellow of the AIChE in 2021.