Leadership, Liberal Arts, and the Common Good

Panel 2: Sustainable Living

What role should Swarthmore College and liberal arts education play in producing the leadership that will help develop and shape policy — and how can the College as an institution model practices — that will strengthen the will of the nation and the world to forge pathways to sustainable living that might ultimately save the planet and all of mankind?

Moderator

Carr Everbach is professor of engineering and co-chair of the Sustainability Committee at Swarthmore. His research interests include acoustics, biomedical ultrasound, environmental engineering, and sustainability. Everbach holds a B.A. in the Division of Applied Sciences at Harvard University and an M.S. and Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from Yale University.

Panelists

Anne Renee Kapuscinski '76 is the inaugural Sherman Fairchild Distinguished Professor in Sustainability Science at Dartmouth College. Previously, she was a professor of fisheries and conservation biology at the University of Minnesota and the founding director of the university's Institute for Social, Economic, and Ecological Sustainability. Her awards include a Pew Fellowship in Marine Conservation and a USDA Honor Award in Environmental Protection. She holds a B.A. in biology from Swarthmore and an M.S. and Ph.D. in fisheries from Oregon State University.

Christopher Laszlo '80 is co-founder and managing partner of Sustainable Value Partners, a management consulting firm helping Fortune 500 companies create business value through integrating sustainability and corporate social responsibility. Previously, Laszlo was an executive at Lafarge, a world leader in building materials. He is a visiting professor at Case Western Weatherhead School of Management and at the University of Virginia Darden School of Business as well as a visiting scholar at INSEAD. He is the author of several books; most recently, Sustainable Value: How Leading Companies Are Doing Well by Doing Good (Stanford University Press U.S.A. and Greenleaf Publishing UK, 2008). He holds a B.A. with honors in economics from Swarthmore, an M.A. in international affairs from Columbia University, and a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Paris.

Matthew Jacob St. Clair '97 is the first sustainability manager for the University of California's Office of the President, leading sustainability efforts across the 10-campus UC system since 2004. He has delivered lectures at numerous universities, been an invited keynote speaker at several regional and national conferences, and has advised the U.S. House of Representatives on the formation of an Office of Sustainability for the U.S. Capitol. Prior to his position at the University of California, he worked on international campaigns for Friends of the Earth Czech Republic and on renewable energy policy research at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. He holds a B.A. in economics from Swarthmore and an M.A. in environmental policy from the University of California — Berkeley. He is a LEED accredited professional.