SUSSing Sustainability @ Stanford is a student-run blog.  The advisory board, consisting of faculty, instructors, and staff, provide guidance and assistance, mentoring the editors and the project.  Our advisory board members are:

Kristen Azevedo, Program Director, Public Service Organizations & Leadership, Haas Center for Public Service

Kristen provides support for more than 100 student service organizations at Stanford University. She also coordinates and facilitates public service leadership trainings and workshops for student leaders on campus. In partnership with Stanford Athletics, Kristen also coordinates the Cardinal for the Community program which connects Stanford student-athletes with nonprofit organizations to build sustainable partnerships and support the surrounding community.

Kristen earned a B.A. in English from Loyola Marymount University and an M.Ed. in Postsecondary Administration and Student Affairs from the University of Southern California.

Harry J. Elam, Jr, Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education

Harry J. Elam, Jr. is the Olive H. Palmer Professor in the Humanities, the Robert and Ruth Halperin University Fellow for Undergraduate Education, Director of the Institute for Diversity in the Arts, and the Freeman-Thornton Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education at Stanford University.

Professor Elam’s scholarly work focuses on contemporary American drama, particularly African American and Chicano theater. He is author of Taking It to the Streets: The Social Protest Theater of Luis Valdez and Amiri Baraka; and the Erroll Hill Prize winning The Past as Present in the Drama of August Wilson.

Mark Feldman, Writing Works

Mark Feldman was the founding director of SUSSing Sustainability @ Stanford.  From 2005-2102 Mark was a lecturer in PWR.  He now lives in Portland, Oregon where he works as a freelance writing and communications consultant (Writing Works). Mark’s interests are varied and include: environmental humanities, urban studies, contemporary art, public humanities, and ecocriticism.  Mark’s major current writing project is a trade book, Urban Ecology: New York City’s Visionary Urbanism, about how artists, landscape architects, and educators are reimagining New York City, greening the streets and changing perceptions of nature. A native New Yorker, this project stems from his long-standing fascination with this city and environmentalism.

Mark has published on late 19^th century American literature and culture; graphic novels; and ecological reimiaginings of New York City.  In 2009-10 he was a fellow at the Stanford Humanities Center, pursuing initial research for Urban Ecology.  In 2010-11 he was accepted in the Arts Writing Workshop, a partnership between the International Art Critics Association and the Creative Capital / Warhol Foundation that pairs each participant with a senior critic for one-on-one writing mentorship.

Christine Harrison, Director, Communications

Christine Harrison leads the communications team at the Stanford Woods Institute, directing media strategy and outreach, online constituency building, publications and other activities promoting the Stanford community’s environmental research, expertise and events. A veteran communications professional, Chris has worked in print and electronic news as well as university public affairs and non-profit environmental advocacy.  Christine is a board member of the Women’s Environmental Network of San Francisco and recently launched SF Green Communicators, a networking group for communications professionals working in the sustainability field.

Michael Kahan, Associate Director, Program on Urban Studies

Michael Kahan is interested in Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Urban and Social History; Street Life; and Urban Space.  He is the faculty advisory for Urbanter, a student urban studies blog.

Susan McConnell, Professor, Biology, Co-Chair, Study on Undergraduate Education at Stanford

Susan McConnell is the Susan B. Ford Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at Stanford University. She joined the Stanford faculty in 1989. McConnell studies the development of the cerebral cortex, the brain region that controls our highest cognitive and perceptual functions. The nerve cells of the cortex are generated during fetal life; once these cells are ‘born,’ they migrate over long distances before forming connections with other nerve cells. McConnell explores the mechanisms by which young neurons acquire an identity and establish specific connections. Her studies provide insights into the process of how the brain wires itself up during normal development.

Geoff McGhee, Creative Director for Media and Communications, The Bill Lane Center for the American West

Geoff McGhee specializes in interactive data visualization and multimedia storytelling. He is a veteran of the multimedia and infographics staffs at The New York Times, Le Monde and ABCNews.com. Geoff spent a Knight Fellowship year at Stanford in 2009-2010 researching data visualization, which resulted in the video documentary “Journalism in the Age of Data.”

John Peterson, Lecturer, Program in Writing and Rhetoric

John Peterson is a lecturer in the Program in Writing and Rhetoric at Stanford, where he also works in the Hume Writing Center. He teaches courses in popular culture, the rhetoric of art and commerce, and the rhetoric of liberal arts education. He has an MFA in Fiction from the University of Alaska, Fairbanks and was the founding publisher of Tahoma West, an undergraduate journal based in the Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences Program at the University of Washington, Tacoma. His current work includes an extended study of the rhetoric of improvisation called Free Speech? The Danger and Beauty of Speaking Off-the-Cuff.

Andrew Todhunter, Lecturer, Program in Writing and Rhetoric & Biology

Andrew Todhunter is the author of three books, including the PEN USA Literary Award-winning A Meal Observed, and dozens of articles for national publications including National Geographic, The Atlantic and The Wall Street Journal. He has worked on numerous film and new media projects, including productions for Lucasfilm and National Geographic Television. Todhunter teaches writing and creativity at Stanford University through the Department of Biology and the Program in Writing and Rhetoric.