A Bit About Who I Am & What I Do
My transdisciplinary passion in higher education and sustainability stems from the guidance and lessons of my Mexican and Eastern European parents - both emigrating to the United States at a young age for a better life, they have instilled in me the lessons of our past as peasant farmers deeply rooted in soil, ethic of care, and bio-cultural diversity. While they did not receive a formal education, I, as a first generation Mexican-Polish-Russian American and first generation college graduate - education was instilled as the core of my being. I do not imagine they would have ever thought that their daughter would be making her living advocating and educating for the very work they left behind - here's to education for an environmentally and socially just future....for all!
Current Academic Work
Currently, I am the founding director and assistant professor of the Educational Sustainability doctoral program in the College of Professional Studies at University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point. I graduated with my Ph.D. In Sustainability Education from Prescott College, Arizona with an emphasis in socio-cultural-ecological sustainability, transformative learning, and leadership sciences in higher education. Sustainability education is a new paradigm of thinking and taking action for social, environmental and economic change in the world through formal, non-formal and informal educational and leadership entry points. As an educator, I teach (online and in-person) courses in social justice, educational theory and philosophy, ecological thought, dissertation writing and seminar and research courses. As the founding director, I developed and led affiliate a scholar-practitioner program, designed student residency and writing workshop experiences, communicated with academic affairs on new policies, track governance processes for new policies and procedures, wrote curriculum, collaborated with faculty and affiliates, managed a cost recovery model budget, and led the marketing and recruitment plan.
Prior Academic Work
Prior to UWSP, I was the director and faculty member for the Environmental Science undergraduate degree program at the College of Santa Fe, New Mexico, for eight years. In my leadership role, I developed curriculum, administered the program operations, coordinated prior learning portfolios, advised undergraduate students, and collaborated with faculty and staff to ensure a smooth experience for our adult learning students.
I taught courses to include Environmental Science, Advanced Environmental Science, Introductory Geology, and Sustainability focused courses such as Biomimicry and Whole Systems Thinking, Green Building and Ecological Design, and Principles of Sustainability. Seminal projects were in my Advanced Environmental courses in which we designed real-world environmental solutions towards problems such as fecal-coliform reduction in produce, arsenic elimination in water and ecological design the built environment.
Independent Sustainability and Education Consultant
I am an independent consultant and presenter for sustainability curriculum and program development in higher education and community engagement programs. In my 15+ years teaching in higher education, I have specialized in content expertise and applied practice in environmental sustainability, water and food systems, and teaching and learning in adult, professional, experiential, and online program and course designs. My pedagogy is to design and educate for individual and societal transformative change and action to build sustainable (environmental, economic and socially just) institutions, organizations and communities.
Diversity in Experience
As an interdisciplinary educational practitioner, I have lived and taught English language in Japan for five years, taught Spanish and Japanese language and culture at a Montessori school in New Mexico for three years and developed and taught in an afterschool Japanese Language and Culture program in Colorado for five years. Close to my heart is sustainable food and water systems and practices from early lessons of my Russian grandmother. With no formal education, she embodied sustainability, teaching me about how harvesting water was, "food for our soil, food for our plants and food for our souls." I come to hold her lessons tightly as I went on to my own practice co-founding an intergenerational community garden and took my hand at being an owner and operator of a small sustainable café (Smiley Cafe) in Colorado and engaged in environmental consulting work on Environmental Impact Statements for small Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) at Lee Wilson and Associates in Santa Fe, New Mexico. I entangle my worlds of cultural sustainability from my background, world living (as opposed to just being a traveler), practices in environmental sustainability and scholarship in sustainability education.
From my published articles, one can see who I am is entangled in what I do.
Current Academic Work
Currently, I am the founding director and assistant professor of the Educational Sustainability doctoral program in the College of Professional Studies at University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point. I graduated with my Ph.D. In Sustainability Education from Prescott College, Arizona with an emphasis in socio-cultural-ecological sustainability, transformative learning, and leadership sciences in higher education. Sustainability education is a new paradigm of thinking and taking action for social, environmental and economic change in the world through formal, non-formal and informal educational and leadership entry points. As an educator, I teach (online and in-person) courses in social justice, educational theory and philosophy, ecological thought, dissertation writing and seminar and research courses. As the founding director, I developed and led affiliate a scholar-practitioner program, designed student residency and writing workshop experiences, communicated with academic affairs on new policies, track governance processes for new policies and procedures, wrote curriculum, collaborated with faculty and affiliates, managed a cost recovery model budget, and led the marketing and recruitment plan.
Prior Academic Work
Prior to UWSP, I was the director and faculty member for the Environmental Science undergraduate degree program at the College of Santa Fe, New Mexico, for eight years. In my leadership role, I developed curriculum, administered the program operations, coordinated prior learning portfolios, advised undergraduate students, and collaborated with faculty and staff to ensure a smooth experience for our adult learning students.
I taught courses to include Environmental Science, Advanced Environmental Science, Introductory Geology, and Sustainability focused courses such as Biomimicry and Whole Systems Thinking, Green Building and Ecological Design, and Principles of Sustainability. Seminal projects were in my Advanced Environmental courses in which we designed real-world environmental solutions towards problems such as fecal-coliform reduction in produce, arsenic elimination in water and ecological design the built environment.
Independent Sustainability and Education Consultant
I am an independent consultant and presenter for sustainability curriculum and program development in higher education and community engagement programs. In my 15+ years teaching in higher education, I have specialized in content expertise and applied practice in environmental sustainability, water and food systems, and teaching and learning in adult, professional, experiential, and online program and course designs. My pedagogy is to design and educate for individual and societal transformative change and action to build sustainable (environmental, economic and socially just) institutions, organizations and communities.
Diversity in Experience
As an interdisciplinary educational practitioner, I have lived and taught English language in Japan for five years, taught Spanish and Japanese language and culture at a Montessori school in New Mexico for three years and developed and taught in an afterschool Japanese Language and Culture program in Colorado for five years. Close to my heart is sustainable food and water systems and practices from early lessons of my Russian grandmother. With no formal education, she embodied sustainability, teaching me about how harvesting water was, "food for our soil, food for our plants and food for our souls." I come to hold her lessons tightly as I went on to my own practice co-founding an intergenerational community garden and took my hand at being an owner and operator of a small sustainable café (Smiley Cafe) in Colorado and engaged in environmental consulting work on Environmental Impact Statements for small Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) at Lee Wilson and Associates in Santa Fe, New Mexico. I entangle my worlds of cultural sustainability from my background, world living (as opposed to just being a traveler), practices in environmental sustainability and scholarship in sustainability education.
From my published articles, one can see who I am is entangled in what I do.