The Sustainability Faculty Fellows program has named its Fellows of the 2019-2020 academic year. The program aims to enhance UNCG’s sustainability by encouraging the integration of sustainability in innovative research, teaching, and service around sustainability across the campus. Sustainability Faculty Fellows (SFFs) will partner with the Academic Sustainability Coordinator (ASC), Dr. Etsuko Kinefuchi (Associate Professor of Communication Studies), to further academic sustainability in three areas: research, teaching, and/or leadership/outreach.
The positions are for one year and are renewable through re-application. Each Fellow is remunerated on an ad hoc basis in consultation with the faculty member’s department head and dean; remuneration (up to $3,500) may include a course release, funding for research or travel, graduate assistant support, or other mutually agreed upon non-financial resources.
UNCG’s 2019-2020 Sustainability Faculty Fellows:
Sarah Dorsey (Head, Harold Schiffman Music Library, associate professor in the
University Libraries, adjunct professor in the School of Music) will serve as a returning SFF. She
will continue to lead the highly successful UNCG Sustainability Film Series now in its 13th year.
Ms. Dorsey champions sustainability in many other ways. Her research weaves together music
and sustainability; she founded the Green Library Group, and she maintains SUSTAIN-L, the
campus-community listserv. She also co-organizes Green Drinks Greensboro to put together
programs to advance sustainability in Greensboro.
Dr. Olav Rueppell (Professor, Biology) leads the Rueppell Research Group at UNCG to study
the genetic traits, social behavior, aging, and health of honey bees. He is also co-founder and co-
director of the newly established UNCG Plant & Pollinator Center. As a new SFF, Dr. Rueppell
will seek to improve the pollinator friendliness of UNCG by identifying areas of improvements
in natural resources and land management and implementing educational and practical goals to
move UNCG towards a “Bee Campus USA” designation.
Dr. Meredith Powers (Assistant Professor, Social Work) will serve as a returning SFF to
continue the Climate Justice Program she proposed for the International Federation of Social
Work (IFSW). IFSW approved her proposal in January 2019 and appointed Dr. Powers as
Program Director. In this program, social workers who travel to conferences voluntarily pay a
small donation into the program fund hosted by IFSW to ease the ecological footprint they create
through travel. The donations will be used to fund climate justice projects around the world. Along with Dr. Michaela Rinkel, Dr. Powers is the co-editor of “Social Work, Promoting Community & Environmental Sustainability: A Workbook for Global Social Workers & Educators,” Volume I & Volume II.
Dr. Sarah Praskievicz (Assistant Professor, Geography) studies the environmental aspects of
river systems, including impacts of climate change on water resources. As a new SFF, she will
examine the ecological health of North Buffalo Creek. She will involve her students in The
Water Planet class in studying water quality and benthic macroinvertebrate assemblages among
tributaries to North Buffalo Creek with differing level of urban development and to create
educational and citizen-science initiatives that could potentially be implemented in public areas
of North Buffalo Creek, such as along the Greenway and in the Audubon Natural Area.
