I was surprised to realize that I haven't posted anything during these past 7 months, but I did want to dust off the blog to share that I am proud to know my previous work at Portland State still pays dividends.
Read moreTeamwork: Institute for Sustainable Solutions Impact Report 2016
At the beginning of this new year, we at the Institute for Sustainable Solutions would like to reflect on recent accomplishments of our students, faculty, and community partners, and offer inspiration as we look ahead to 2017.
Read morePortland State wins national award for community engagement
I'm very excited to announce that some of the programs that I lead contributed to PSU winning a national award for community engagement. Check out more below!
Read moreThe Organizational Spine: Supporting Community Engagement
I presented last week at the Coalition of Urban and Metropolitan Universities (CUMU) 2016 national meeting in Washington, D.C.
Read moreNew book provides toolbox for campus-community collaboration on sustainability efforts
Portland State’s motto, “Let Knowledge Serve the City,” speaks to the value the University places on engagement with its community and region. A recently released book by the same name describes the multi-faceted process of building sustainability programs at Portland State University—programs that rely on strong university-community relationships and a two-way pipeline of knowledge development and exchange.
Edited by PSU’s B.D. Wortham-Galvin, Jennifer Allen, and Jacob Sherman, with a foreword by President Wim Wiewel and chapter contributions by more than 25 PSU professors and staff, Let Knowledge Serve the City is the first book in Greenleaf Publishing’s Sustainable Solutions Series. It aims to share the University’s collective successes and challenges to help other colleges and universities develop programs that connect students and faculty with the needs of local communities to advance efforts around social justice, climate change, sustainable economic development, and more.
Read on for a Q&A with the book’s editors.
Read moreBeekeeping creates a "buzz" at Portland State University
Photo: PSU Institute for Sustainable Solutions
When National Pollinator Week happened during June 2016, exciting news broke about Portland State University hosting two new honeybee hives at our 49-acre urban campus.
Read moreJapan-U.S. Teacher Exchange Program for ESD
Reflections on a recent keynote lecture and workshop that I delivered on the history of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) and integrating ESD projects into the curriculum to twenty K-12 teachers from Japan and the U.S. who were participating in Fulbright Japan and the Institute for International Education's teacher exchange program in San Francisco, CA.
Read moreCatalyzing Research on Urban Air Toxics in Portland, Oregon
In February 2016, news broke about U.S. Forest Service research on moss that showed high levels of arsenic and cadmium in Portland's air, prompting calls for more oversight and a swift reaction to what lawmakers have identified as “a public health emergency.” Early on, I learned that Dr. Linda George wanted to conduct cutting-edge research on air toxics and heavy metals dispersion in Portland, but that to do so she would need a new piece of equipment for her laboratory—a bench x-ray florescence machine. My boss, ISS Director Robert Liberty, and I discussed this and agreed that it made sense to support Dr. George’s research capacity while also positioning the University to respond to a timely issue of great community concern.
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