About me
With over a decade of experience as an educator, I combined my passions for education and sustainability by joining the team at the Green Schools Alliance, an international nonprofit that provides impact-driven tools and programs that empower schools (and their students!) to lead the transition to a sustainable future. My time at the Alliance has been invaluable, allowing me to work alongside some of the foremost leaders in school sustainability across the United States, including respected colleagues, school sustainability coordinators, built environment experts, and passionate teachers.
Now based in Sydney, I continue to work closely with the Green Schools Alliance, where I have spent four years as the START Program Director - collaborating with schools in the development of the first-ever Whole School Sustainability benchmarking dashboard, and developing toolkits, best practices guides, and resources to help schools build robust, comprehensive sustainability programs from the ground up.
My passion for sustainability and climate action was ignited by a deep dive into climate science, particularly the sobering reports from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (digestible summary here), which distill the findings of thousands of climate scientists and researchers worldwide. Exhaustive research makes it clear that the consequences of inaction—ranging from drought-induced food insecurity to the devastating impacts of extreme weather on supply-chains, economies and lives—are too dire to ignore. As someone who deeply values the expertise of professionals in their fields, I take these warnings seriously. This urgency is not mine alone; it resonates across instutitions and society at large, from the Australian government and financial institutions to consumers and students, all of which recognize the necessity of adapting to the greatest challenge— and opportunity —of our time.
The need to adapt our systems is urgent, and schools have a unique role to play in this transition. Schools are where students spend the most time outside of home. It’s where they learn the norms and expectations that shape our communities, where they develop knowledge and skills necessary to problem-solve in the 21st century. What happens in schools ripples far beyond their school walls. It ripples into the wider community as attitudes, behaviors, ideas and innovations. That’s why schools have both a profound opportunity and a responsibility to educate and empower their students to actively contribute to— and thrive in —a sustainable future.