Through an intensive two days of presentations, exercises, discussions, reflection, and planning, participants will become familiar with the philosophy of change in higher education developed through the Ponderosa Project at Northern Arizona University and adapted at Emory in Piedmont Project. Readings and organizational materials are provided.

Participants will:

1. ·         experience a range of workshop strategies,
2. ·         hear local experts,
3. ·         enjoy outdoor place-based activities,
4. ·         dialogue with faculty from around the country
5. ·         adapt the Piedmont/Ponderosa model to their own campuses
6. ·         reflect on their own roles in the transformation of higher education.

About the Facilitators

The workshop will be led by Peggy Barlett of Emory University and Geoff Chase, former Provost at California State University Channel Islands and former Dean at San Diego State University. Together, Peggy and Geoff co-edited Sustainability in Higher Education: Stories and Strategies for Transformation (MIT 2013) and Sustainability on Campus: Stories and Strategies for Change (2004). Peggy and Geoff have also led AASHE workshops for over ten years, helping more than 600 faculty around the country take steps toward curriculum innovation in their universities and colleges.

Dr. Peggy Barlett, Goodrich C. White Professor of Anthropology at Emory University, is a specialist in agricultural anthropology and sustainability in higher education. A leader in bringing Emory to its current commitment to a sustainable future, her work has focused in recent years on faculty development, curriculum, sustainable food, and culture change. She has written on the challenges of transforming higher education in recent articles in Current Anthropology, American Anthropologist, and Liberal Education and has led workshops on curriculum development on many campuses. 

Dr. Geoffrey Chase has served as Provost at CSU Channel Islands, Dean of Undergraduate Studies and the Director of the Center for Regional Sustainability at San Diego State University and Vice President of the WASC Senior College and University Commission (WSCUC). At San Diego State, he played key roles in establishing the Weber University Honors College, the Center for Regional Sustainability, and programs supporting undergraduate research, assessment of student learning, academic scholarships, community-based service learning, and faculty development aimed at increasing student completion, success, and achievement. He lectures widely on improving graduation rates, sustainability in higher education and offers workshops on institutional change, leadership, and sustainability.

Location – Conrad Prebys Aztec Student Union on the Campus of San Diego State University

The workshop will take place at the San Diego State University at the Conrad Prebys Aztec Student Union a LEED Platinum-certified building which, when completed, was the only LEED Platinum-certified student union in the California State University. The facility then earned its second LEED certification for Existing Building Operations and Maintenance just two years after opening. The campus is a 15-minute ride from the San Diego International airport (SAN).