• Community Recovery
• Hazard Mitigation
• Food Security
• Social Vulnerability
• Risk Analysis & Communication

Sustainable Connections hiring VISTA Volunteer!

Sustainable Connections Energy Program is hiring a VISTA volunteer for a one year term starting in August. Aplplicants will need to apply through the AmeriCorps website and send Alex Ramel a resume and cover letter by June 12. See the Jobs section at left for a fuller description.

 

Congratulatons to Ilyssa Plumer!

Ilyssa was selected for AmeriCorps NCCC (National Civillian Community Corps) program for next year (2009-2010). She will be touring the West Coast Region, which includes Hawaii and Alaska. She will start in Sacramento, CA this October. Ilyssa will be responding and preparing to disasters in the more vulnerable communities.

AmeriCorps NCCC is to strengthen communities and develop leaders through direct, team-based national and community service. In partnership with nonprofit organizations, state and local agencies, and faith-based and other community organizations, members complete services projects throughout the region they are assigned.

 

Congratulations to CJ Huxford!

CJ was selected to be the recipient for next year’s (2009-2010) IEME Emergency Planning Scholarship.

This is an annual scholarship that was established in 2006 by IEME to aid students studying emergency management planning at Huxley College. This scholarship is specific geared toward a Huxley College undergraduate student enrolled in the Planning and Environmental Policy – Disaster Reduction and Emergency Planning Emphasis major.

 

Congratulations to Jon Loewus-Deitch!

Jon was selected to be this summer’s Intern for Readiness Capacity Development, Disaster Services.  This is through the American Red Cross Presidential Internship in Washington, DC.

The American Red Cross offers exceptional undergraduate and graduate college students an engaging 10-week internship at American Red Cross National Headquarters in Washington, DC through the Presidential Internship Program. The interns are matched with a specific department at National Headquarters, have the opportunity to work on advancing critical projects for the respective units, receive professional development training and are offered many opportunities to meet with Red Cross senior leadership.

 

 

IAEM Call for Student Speakers

The International Association of Emergency Managers Student Council (IAEM-SC) in cooperation with the IAEM-USA Conference Committee is calling for students in emergency management and related fields to submit speaker applications for a special student breakout session at the 2009 IAEM Annual Conference in Orlando, Florida, October 29-November 6.

This will give you all a chance to give a 15-20 minute presentation followed by a question and answer session as part of a panel that are presenting their research during the breakout sessions.

For more information click here.

 

 

Slow Food and WWU!

In February, WWU took advantage of the opportunity to enter into an agreement with Slow Food. For more information click here. 
What does this mean?  Within 24 hours of the press release, already I had received e-mails from all over Whatcom county (as well as from the university) about “Well, what does this all mean?”

Here’s a start: This agreement is meaningful because

• it affirms Western Washington University’s commitment to sustainable and resilient farming and food cultures on campus, as well as in the larger community
• it ties together our work in risk reduction in food production systems with healthy eating
• it helps us to understand food security as a disruption of  usual and customary ways of growing and procuring food
• it highlights the importance of food appreciation and eating as a cultural as well as political act – all very important tenets of Carlo Petrini’s popular Slow Food.
• it brings together business interests (e.g., agritourism) and environmental studies under a sustainable food production umbrella, and poses some new possibilities for interdisciplinary work at Western in so many areas.

Slow Food in recent years, has reached out to universities. WWU now joins 135 other universities (including departments and centers) in forming a network of collaboration. WWU students, staff, and faculty are eager for such collaboration. Already at Western, there are numerous student groups centered around food issues, as well as active individuals, advocating for more food choice on campus – in terms of what I call global green (sustainable practices, worldwide) as well as true blue (local sourcing of food). This relates to ideas I’ve written about  “everyday farming” for example click here.

Student interest is huge. Look at the major commitment students and staff have put into the Outback, efforts to recycle food wastes and locally source food as evidenced by Seth Vidana’s WWU Office of Sustainability work, and other efforts on campus. In the fall, a new course I’m teaching, Ecogastronomy: The Art and Science of Food will use considerable materials and project ideas from Slow Food offices and cooperating universities. All other help, ideas, effort with, and participation in, this course is gratefully appreciated!

There are so many ideas for collaboration! I could rattle off any number of them, quickly…but we are then perhaps reminded of the Slow Food mascot  here, la piccola lumaca, the snail, which elevates slow plodding, and the importance of time.

It’s taken us a long time to get here, but the time is right to take advantage of the overwhelming student and faculty/staff interest and expertise throughout courses and projects in place. Forza!

For more information on Slow Food.

 

Congratulations to Megan Frazier!

Megan Frazier, DREP student, was accepted into the Disaster Research Center's REU program at the University of Delaware for this summer.

Attention: students and recent grads!

Check this website out!   Do Something.org is a website that has grants available.  These are $500 grants available to young people (those under age 25) in the U.S. and Canada who are interested in doing work on disaster preparedness or response.  This looks pretty neat!

For more information please check: http://www.dosomething.org/grants/disaster

 

Attention: Graduating Seniors!

The U.S. Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) is looking for graduating seniors who are interest in career opportunities with this organization. 

U.S. PIRG is a nation-wide network of state-based public interest advocacy groups.  This year they are hiring over 100 graduating college students to determine where this country is going: to solve our energy problems; to reform the campaign finance system; to safeguard individuals from identity theft; and make an impact on many other public interest issues. 

For more information about PIRG and job opportunities they are available at http://pirg.org/jobs/positions/

Tiffany Isaacs, West Coast Field Organizer, will be making a visit to campus on the evening of February 24th and be available during the day of February 25th to conduct interviews and to share information about the organization and job opportunities.

If you are interested in meeting Tiffany, please contact her to arrange a time. Tiffany’s email is tiffanyi@studentpirgs.org

 

 

A Timeline of Sustainable Development
Initatives at Western Washington Universiy
& Whatcom County. Compiled by Huxley
College of the Environment's Institute for
Global and Community Resilience,
Jon Loewus-Deitch & Dr. Rebekah Green 2/09.

Huxley College of the Environment’s Institute for Global and Community Resilience (IGCR) compiled and designed a timeline documenting sustainability at WWU and locally.  Its purpose is to document the past, present, and future of sustainability initiatives on campus, in the local community, and Westerns influence on the creation or development of initiatives in Whatcom County. This timeline will be used for the newly created Sustainability Academy, which was convened by an affiliation of staff and faculty throughout Western.The Sustainability Academy will use this timeline as a reference to further develop an inventory of existing sustainability classes; consolidate WWU’s library resources on the topic; host weekly brownbag discussions; & designs curriculum proposals towards expanded studies in sustainability. The timeline is available to view at the Huxley offices in Arntzen Hall or the Environmental Studies building. It will also be available online at the IGCR website or the Office of Sustainability website. For questions or comments contact Jon Loewus-Deitch or Rebekah Green.

 

 

At the request of the Washington State Emergency Management Division, students in Huxley’s ESTU 497R Practical Application in Emergency Management and ESTU 415 Planning for Sustainable Communities took on the topic of post-disaster emergency housing.  While ESTU 497R students developed local strategies for sitting, funding, and administering a post-disaster housing program, ESTU 415 planning students created housing alternatives that incorporated innovations such as rainwater catchment systems and retooling of shipping containers. Following Spring Quarter, Huxley College’s Institute for Global and Community Resilience helped transform the students’ hard work into a policy brief for state government. Gale, a part of Cengage Learning Press, recently contacted the Institute and plans to publish the policy brief in their upcoming introductory edition of Current Controversies: Disaster Response, edited by Debra A. Miller, showing that Western’s undergraduate in-class service learning can have global impacts.

 

 

Huxley College of the Environment’s Institute for Global and Community Resilience (IGCR) is teaming up with Risk RED, a non-profit organization dedicated to disaster prevention and education, to look at school disaster preparedness. Together they surveyed over 300 Los Angeles area schools regarding staff training, parental awareness, school supplies and plans for dealing with a major earthquake or other disaster. Institute is leading analysis efforts. Of particular importance will be differences between public and private schools, and between primary, middle and high schools. Results will be reported back to Los Angeles area school districts, regional organizations dealing with public awareness and preparedness, and to school safety advocates worldwide through independent international and United Nations-affiliated networks.

In November, IGCR research associate, Dr. Rebekah Green, and intern, Jon Loewus-Deitch, organized a large international team to observe school participation in the region’s largest coordinated earthquake drill ever, the Great Southern California ShakeOut. This work is being funded by the Southern California Earthquake Center and ProVention Consortium.

Huxley’s IGCR research associate, Dr. Rebekah Green, speaking with middle school staff during a region wide, coordinated earthquake drill.

 

 

Starting in 2009, the Institute for Global and Community Resilience will serve as editor of the newly formed Coalition for Global School Safety & Disaster Prevention Education Network. The network has grown out of an international, grassroots group of nearly 1000 activists, practitioners, academics, and agency members engaged in disaster risk reduction education and safe schools initiatives. The newsletter will compile news, announcements, events, initiatives, and highlights from network discussions and activities for the international community on a bi-weekly basis. The newsletter will serve along side the COGSS&DPE Network's new social networking website where lively discussions and work group activities are already under way.

For those interested in receiving the COGSS&DPE Newsletter, please sign up at
http://groups.preventionweb.net/scripts/wa-PREVENTIONWEB.exe?A0=COGSSANDDPE-NETWORK

The Network's social networking website can be found at http://cogssdpe.ning.com 

 

WWU's Huxley College of the Environment Awarded $140,000 USDA Grant to Research Methods to Keep Local Farms Viable