Beth Mercer-Taylor is the sustainability education coordinator at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. She administers the Sustainability Studies Minor, an interdisciplinary, free-standing program with nearly 200 undergraduates enrolled. Her work involves recruiting and advising students, creating community-building activities, coordinating the efforts of the curriculum committee that oversees the minor’s academic program, and leading new initiatives related to sustainability on campus.

Lauren McCarthy is the Sustainability Studies minor adviser, as well as a scholarship coordinator for CFANS undergraduates. Lauren worked with scholarships, orientation services, and Honors students at the University of Iowa. She received her BA in Political Science and International Studies from the University of Iowa in 2006 and her MPhil in Latin American Studies from Cambridge University in 2007.

Carissa Schively Slotterback directs the Graduate Sustainability Education Network, a grassroots collaboration of U of MN faculty focused on enhancing sustainability education.  In addition, she is an Associate Professor in the Humphrey School of Public Affairs. She teaches courses in environmental and land use planning, participation, and sustainability planning. Her research is focused on participation in environmental and land use decision-making, environmental impact analysis, and planning processes and implementation, with a particular focus on how people use information to make decisions. Her current projects focus on collaborative environmental planning processes focused on landscape-scale forest planning in NE Minnesota and watershed planning to support biomass production and water quality in agricultural landscapes. In addition, she is working on a study of complete streets planning and implementation.  She also serves as Director of the Urban and Regional Planning graduate program.  She has faculty appointments in Conservation Biology; Natural Resource Sciences and Management, and Landscape Architecture. In addition, she is a Resident Fellow in the Institute on the Environment and Faculty Scholar with the Center for Transportation Studies.

Barrett is a curriculum developer and teaching assistant for “Can We Feed the World Without Destroying It?” a new undergraduate challenge course to be taught by IonE Director Jonathan Foley in Spring 2013.  Barrett is also a program associate for the Resilient Communities Project, and supports the Boreas Leadership Program and the Sustainability Faculty Network.  He has worked previously as a policy analyst, as well as a high school teacher outside Boston and in Washington, D.C.  Barrett has a masters in public policy from the Humphrey School of Public Affairs.

Kiley Bastian is a Sustainability Studies Minor Communications Assistant.  She has been with the Sustainability Education team since October 2011, working on various communications tasks, such as the newsletter, website, blog, and social media.  She is a senior pursuing a degree in Environmental Science, Policy and Management with an emphasis in Policy, Planning, Law and Society.  In high school, Kiley was voted “Most Likely to Save the World,” and she feels as though she is doing so by assisting in the advancement of sustainability initiatives at the University of Minnesota.  Outside of work and class, Kiley enjoys spending time with family and friends, cooking and baking, traveling, doing yoga, and cheering on her beloved Green Bay Packers.

Dominique is an undergraduate student assistant with IonE’s Sustainability Education program. She is a blog manager and website developer, and contributes to outreach, event planning and social media communication. Dominique is a junior studying bioproducts, marketing and management with a focus in residential building science technologies and a minor in sustainability. She has a passion for the environment and plans to work with renewable energy and sustainable building. She enjoys spending her free time volunteering at the Wildlife Rehabilitation Center and participating in the Indian Student Association.

Sima Sajjadiani joined IonE in September 2012 as a graduate assistant overseeing the logistics of sustainability education programs, including recruitment, registering and tracking students, running focus groups, administering student feedback surveys and supervising students using the Web and social media to communicate and market sustainability education programs and events. Sima is a graduate student in the Carlson School of Management. She holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering and an MBA. If time allows, she enjoys cooking, watching movies and traveling.