This year’s Impact Accelerator is an immersive, interactive virtual program designed to equip you with change management tools to engage diverse campus stakeholders in today’s fast-paced, hybrid work environment and an opportunity to establish and strengthen relationships with your peers. 

Explore emerging topics in change leadership, build skills to advance sustainability and build buy-in across your institution, and recharge your battery as we cover topics such as:

• Transformative Leadership (Lincoln Bleveans, Meghan Chapple, Mick Dalrymple & Meghna Tare): Advancing the sustainability movement beyond incremental change – root cause analysis and leadership vision.
• Racial Justice & Healing (Erika Bailey-Johnson, Anthony Dandridge, Michelle Gabrieloff-Parish & Janika McFeely): Interconnections between truth, racial healing, transformation, and sustainability leadership in higher education.
• Change Management (Aurora Winslade, Matt Lynch): Change leadership skills to build buy-in, engage senior leaders, and create lasting systems for sustainable transformation.
• Activist Donors (Chris Bentley, Scott King & Dave Newport): How to coordinate and manage activities when your program receives substantial additional funding and staff support from a donor that is keenly focused on the same mission as the sustainability office.
• Achieving Zero Carbon (Andy Feick, Ron Gawer, Kira Stoll, Dano Weisboard & KyuJung Whang): Designing zero emission energy master plans that bring together electrification, heat recovery, and optimization to drive change.
• Scope 3 Emissions (Joey Shea, Moira Zbella & others): What is the overall strategy and applicability of scope 3 emissions in a university setting are we measuring everything we should be measuring.  
• Online Dashboards (Steve Mital & Aurora Sharrard): How to increase your program’s visibility & impact by sharing institutional progress via online dashboards.

Multiple tracks will offer options that appeal to diverse participants. A highly interactive format and creative use of virtual tools allows for building meaningful connections across geographies. 

Thank you to our Sponsor for your support!

Key Details

Registration Fees* 

* To check if your organization is a current AASHE member, please search the AASHE Membership Directory.

Discounts are available for group registration. A limited number of scholarships are available to individuals who need financial assistance to participate. Please apply two weeks before the program begins (i.e., 7/04/2022) to be considered for a scholarship for this workshop.

Registration Policies:

• Registration deadline is Friday, July 15.
• Payment is accepted in the form of Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Discover cards.
  If you need to pay by check or ACH, please contact us at least 5 weeks prior to the event start date. Registration using these forms of payment must be received 4 weeks prior to the event start date and full payment must be received by AASHE within 2 weeks of event start date.
• Cancellation Policy: A 20% processing fee applies to any cancellation prior to July 8, 2022. No refunds will be given after July 8, 2022.
• No substitutions are allowed.
• Registered participants will receive access to the recording after the live event.
• Review all Terms & Conditions.

Who Attends?

This event is intended for change leaders both new and experienced who are charged with playing a facilitative role in their organizations to catalyze change. If you are in a role where you are working relentlessly to engage your community in transformation, and you want to connect with others who are in similar roles, this event is for you. If you are unafraid to listen and share about your experiences and would like to deepen your skills to connect in meaningful ways, and help others to do the same, despite and even using the tools of the virtual environment we are working within, this event is for you. 

Program Design, Schedule & Speakers

Review Detailed Schedule & Speakers

The program will be comprised of the following elements:

    ●   Interactive workshops and armchair conversations on cutting edge sustainability leadership topics
    ●   Use of immersive online collaboration tools to share ideas
    ●   Connecting activities that foster meaningful connections with peers
    ●   Optional Activities:
            ●   The Council on the Uncertain Human Future
            ●   Breathing and grounding exercises to deepening our sense of purpose

Facilitators and Program Designers

Aurora Winslade, Director of Sustainability, Stanford University; Faculty, Bard Sustainable MBA 
Aurora has nearly twenty years of experience in higher education and private sector sustainability and clean energy work. She is passionate about equipping leaders with the tools to lead successful organizational change and build healthy, just, and resilient communities, and has been leading and facilitating professional development workshops since 2008. She co-created AASHE’s first sustainability officers retreat in 2011 and has led statewide and national workshops in California, Hawaii, New York, and Taiwan. Aurora recently became the Director of Stanford University’s Office of Sustainability and she is a faculty member in Bard College’s Sustainable MBA program, where she has taught Leading Change in Organizations to working professionals since 2017. She previously served as Swarthmore College’s Director of Sustainability from 2015-2021, where she launched and co-led the development of the Roadmap to Zero Carbon, an energy infrastructure plan that will eliminate 98% of Swarthmore’s Scope 1 & 2 greenhouse gases by 2035, launched the award-winning Carbon Charge program, and co-founded and taught in the President’s Sustainability Research Fellowship program. Aurora previously founded new sustainability programs at the University of California Santa Cruz and the University of Hawaii. She also worked for Leidos Engineering as the Market Transformation Manager for Hawaii Energy, the state’s energy efficiency program, and worked with MA’O Organic Farms, a non-profit social enterprise that serves at-risk youth in Hawaii, and the University of Hawaii West O`ahu to launch a B.A. program in Sustainable Community Food Systems. She has a B.A. from the University of California, Santa Cruz and an M.B.A. from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business.

Matthew Kamakani Lynch, System Sustainability Director, University of Hawaiʻi
Matt is the founding Director of Sustainability Initiatives for the ten campuses of the University of Hawaiʻi, which include 7 community colleges, two regional 4-year institutions an land, sea and space grant R-1 campus.  He currently serves as teaching faculty on Harvard’s Executive Education for Sustainability Leadership program.

After surviving a 10-year career in mortgage banking & real estate finance, Matt has worked to replenish his karmic bank accounts by participating in a broad range of community-based sustainable development projects in the Asia-Pacific region.

Matt’s core work is focused upon 1) creating conditions to catalyze institutional transformation; 2) developing new business models which restore ecological systems and planetary life support systems that our existing business models have so badly damaged; and 3) creating authentic human connections and beauty in the face of accelerating environmental degradation, technological advances and social unrest.

See All Guest Speakers

Testimonials from past participants

“I loved addressing the deeper levels of our work. While also providing options for other professionals to take different content. I liked seeing others (especially our older white men) being challenged to step into a more feminine, listening role.”

“I loved the deep well of knowledge and experience that the facilitators brought to the discussion. Your willingness to share lessons from your experiences really added a lot of depth to the event for me. “

“This event honestly turned me around from the brink of quitting and burning out to a feeling of renewed purpose, energy, excitement, and solidarity. I’m committed to making this an annual tradition for myself to attend. The benefits cannot be overstated.”

“I experienced significant personal and professional growth. Fun and emotional, great ways to come to terms with our climate situation.”

“ Not what I was expecting (not really sure what I was expecting) but, loved it! This was actually the best thing for me at this time. Thanks!”