My Personal Statement

The following is the personal statement I submitted as a part of my application:

Myself in relation to my proposed doctoral studies:

From the desert of Saudi Arabia to the farmland of Illinois, from the woods of Maryland to the grandeur of California, the natural environment has been at the core of many of my oldest and best memories.   I am blessed to have been raised by parents who prioritized community, nature, and a holistic lifestyle.  My father built greenhouses when I was young and now manages open space for Columbia, Maryland.  My mother is a massage therapist, photographer and active volunteer.   At their encouragement, my childhood was largely spent playing outside and as a result I developed a deep and lasting connection to the Earth and its many inhabitants.

My early education was in Friends and Montessori schools, which helped instill me with a love of learning. As a result, I have always excelled in academic pursuits and sought to learn as much as possible about the world - both in and out of the classroom. Some of my favorite elementary school memories are of playing among the roots of a large tree on the edge of the playground and of a science project in which we made a close study of all the life contained in a two foot square plot of grass.  In contrast to these earliest educational experiences, my middle school had no windows in the classrooms and there is little that I recall from these years that resonated with my young spirit.  By the time I reached high school, I felt that classes were being taught to the lowest common denominator and the emphasis was on rote memorization for test achievement.   I had a few remarkable teachers, but was largely uninspired and frustrated.  In tenth grade I approached my parents about leaving the public high school and enrolling in a home school program so I could complete my course work at the local community college.  They supported the idea and it was one of the best decisions I have ever made.

While attending Howard Community College (HCC), a family friend came to live with us after he was critically injured in a car accident. His name was Joe Allen.  Before his accident, Joe was the president of his university’s environmental club and avid outdoor enthusiast.  As his recovery progressed, Joe was able to enroll in courses at HCC and I became his support system as he tried to navigate school with multiple physical handicaps.  To help Joe reengage his passion for environmental conservation, I helped him co-found HCC’s Environmental Club.   As a result, I became more deeply involved with environmental issues, helping the college to begin a comprehensive recycling program and completing the University of Maryland’s Master Gardener certification, through which I learned a tremendous amount about organic agriculture.  After completing my Associates degree as an honor student in HCC’s Rouse Scholars Program, I was accepted into the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) to continue my undergraduate education.  Joe passed away my first week at UNC, a tragedy that further affirmed my commitment to continuing our shared passion for environmental activism. 

In the absence of a dedicated environmental major at UNC, I developed my own academic plan that provided me with a well rounded curriculum in environmental studies by coupling a Biology major that emphasized ecological systems with an International Studies major that focused on trade, economics and the environment.   To help create a community of similarly minded people at my new school, I became very active with environmental extracurricular activities such as the Student Environmental Action Coalition and the Outdoor Club.  I was assigned to the school’s arboretum for a work-study program and continued to develop my horticultural knowledge with a focus on edible and native species.  I spent the summer between my junior and senior year in Salzburg, Austria in a UNC study abroad program that focused on environmental risk analysis and was enthralled by the sustainability principles ingrained into the design of this gorgeous city - from the highly used public transportation system and the pedestrian-only downtown, to the daily farmer’s market, and the abundance of green spaces.  Inspired, during my senior year I wrote an honors thesis investigating the opportunities for creating sustainable communities in Latin America using Alan Weisman’s study of a remote Columbian community called Gaviotas as a benchmark for what is possible.

After graduating with academic honors and awards for community service, I accepted a full scholarship to continue my studies at UNC in the Environmental Science and Engineering Master’s program.   My graduate coursework was heavily science based, but also afforded the opportunity to take courses in “triple bottom line” sustainability at the Business School and to conduct my thesis research on a project my advisor, Dr. Pete Andrews, had funded through the Department of Public Policy.  This research, as a part of the National Database on Environmental Management Systems, was the beginning of my investigation into the use of voluntary programs to achieve environmental goals which has continued to be a unifying thread in my career.  In addition to this research assistantship, I was also awarded a teaching assistant position with the newly formed Carolina Environmental Program, which offered undergraduate environmental degrees.   Through this experience I found that I have a love for teaching.  Designing and leading field experiments, both at the local biological reserves and in Salzburg where I went back to co-teach the study abroad program, was particularly fulfilling.  Helping people to connect to and appreciate the amazing ecosystems that make human life possible is deeply rewarding for me.

Upon completion of my Master’s degree, I was hired by the global consulting firm ICF International in their Energy, Environment and Transportation division based in Washington, DC.  My initial work was focused on evaluating the success of the Multilateral Fund for Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer, followed by an evaluation of the World Bank’s Global Environment Facility, which funds international environmental treaties that don’t have internal funding mechanisms.   After these projects were complete, I had the opportunity to take a personal and professional leap by moving to California to design and implement a program for Southern California Edison focused on improving the energy efficiency of residential new construction.  This was the impetus for the development of my expertise in residential energy efficiency and green building, which I have now focused on for the past five years.   I currently manage the team supporting the USEPA’s ENERGY STAR for New Homes Program and the Baltimore Gas and Electric ENERGY STAR for New Homes Program, which provides a balance of national policy development and direct, local implementation.

The work I have done as a consultant over the past seven years has been professionally rewarding.  However, it has also become very focused on managing residential energy efficiency programs.  To help expand this focus to broader green building principals and quench my life-long thirst for learning, I have earned numerous professional certificates including the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design accreditation by the US Green Building Council.  I completed the Permaculture Design certificate in 2008 as a way to learn more about an area I am deeply passionate about: hands-on, nature-based, community-level sustainable development.   I have not yet been able to incorporate these interests fully into my consulting work, but since my husband and I moved back to Columbia, MD, the town where I spent most of my youth, I have thoroughly enjoyed volunteering my time in support of developing a community driven vision for the future of our village that is based on the principals of sustainability.

The birth of our first child in late 2009 has deepened my commitment to the creation of sustainable communities in which there are ample opportunities for children, and others, to connect with nature.   A tremendous amount has changed in the relatively short time since my childhood. Per Richard Louv’s book, I feel that I may very well have been the “Last Child in the Woods.” Children don’t spend their free time engaged in “free play” outside in the environment with their peers – free time is now largely consumed with video games, texting, and surfing the virtual environment.  The educational system has moved further towards an emphasis on standardized testing that leaves little room for the arts, physical education and experiential learning around nature.   I believe that it is imperative for children to reconnect with nature for their own well-being and because if they do not have an appreciation for and relationship with the natural world they won’t be as compelled to be stewards of the Earth as adults. 

Going back to school to earn my PhD in Sustainability Education will allow me to recalibrate my life’s work to focus on these most near and dear issues and to have more time to focus on being a mother, which is the most challenging and rewarding job I have ever had.   The emphasis of sustainability education on the realization of human potential and the interdependence of social, economic and ecological well being to achieve locally and globally sustainable communities is the exact work my life experience has prepared me for and is at the core of what is most important to me. 

Learning Goals: What Do I Want to Learn and Do and Who Do I Want to Be

I believe that I truly am a sustainability synergist and want to expand my knowledge and experience to be a teacher, designer, and urban farmer.   I want to learn how to create opportunities for children to engage with nature both as a part of their education and as a part of their daily lives.  I want to learn how to design beautiful, accessible spaces in which people can connect to their local ecosystems and food systems. I want to learn how to visually articulate and communicate the visions of beauty and sustainability that I have in my mind’s eye.  I want to learn how to identify opportunities for change through sustainability education and empowerment.  I want to learn cutting-edge techniques and design practices for bringing multiple stakeholders together around a common vision of environmental, economic, and social sustainability.  I want to learn methods for expanding perspectives to a more long-term holistic view of prosperity and human development.  I want to learn how to harness my academic and professional experience to achieve the highest and best for myself and the communities and organizations that I am dedicated to.

I want to earn a living by doing something tangible, meaningful, and that has a local yet broad impacts.  I want to actually create and design a more sustainable future by working in collaboration with schools, communities, and local governments.  I want there to be a visual, hands-on component to this work.  I want to become well known and respected for what I do.  Not because those are valuable goals in their own right but rather because I think that would be a good litmus test for whether I have created a life’s work that I am passionate about and dedicating myself to fully.  I want the opportunity to teach and to travel as a part of a diverse career that I can integrate into a life that has ample focus on my family.

I want to explore the world to learn from different cultures and practices that seem to show much more wisdom than our own with respect to the Earth and use that knowledge to help create more sustainable human systems.  I want to help protect the plants and animals that we share the earth with and the complex ecosystems that we all depend on. I want to have a Permaculture family farm that is located in and actively connected to a vibrant community.  I want to be able to fundamentally survive without all the trappings of modern day life, but ideally would like to create a lifestyle that harmoniously blends both and serves as a learning laboratory for my local community and the broader region. 

 I want to continue to develop a community that is deeply supportive of one another and is working together to make a positive impact.  I want to grow and sustain friendships with people who are dedicated, passionate, creative, proactive, honest, hardworking, playful, ecologically and socially minded. I always want to keep learning and growing – intellectually and spiritually. I want to take time every day to just sit and breathe and give thanks. I want to cultivate a stronger relationship with my higher power – one that helps me to have greater ease and trust that there is a divine order both for my life and for humanity as a whole.

Merging Interests and Course of Study

My program proposal is tailored to expand my perspectives and knowledge base to allow me to be an agent of change and a catalyst for sustainability focused education and sustainable community design.  It is my intent to focus my doctoral studies on using eco-literacy and eco-design to create the conditions for sustainable communities, with a focus on the critical need to reconnect children with nature.  I am interested in utilizing permaculture design principles to investigate how to reinvent our communities to be places where there is the harmonious integration of landscape and people providing their food, energy, shelter and other material and non-material needs in a sustainable way.   I am very interested in the concept of creating bioregional learning communities where sustainability synergists can work together at a regional level towards specific sustainability goals and would love to take a leadership role in creating this sort of network in the mid-Atlantic region.

Readiness for Doctoral Study:

Earning a PhD has been a part of my life plan since high school.  The seven years since I was last in academia have been a period of tremendous learning and growth that have led to a clear vision of the area in which I want to develop deep expertise – using the principles ecological literacy and ecological design to create sustainable communities that help reconnect children to nature.   

I have always thrived on independent projects – from initiating early high school graduation by taking courses at the community college, to designing an environmental college curriculum and honors thesis.  In my current work as a consultant there is a mix of independent and team work.  I have spent the last three years working primarily from a home office while simultaneously managing residential energy efficiency programs and teams of staff operating at the national and regional level.  I enjoy having this balance and having a team of people that I can engage for thoughtful insight on the projects I am doing independently.  I have a predisposition to taking on projects myself and working them through to completion utilizing regular communication touch-points to engage my team or advisors as appropriate.  Especially in today’s highly connected world, independent study does not mean true isolation.  Feedback or insight from a colleague takes only minutes via email or a conference call and I have developed strong communication skills that will help facilitate successful independent study.

Furthermore, given how full my life is with family, work, and community volunteerism, I anticipate that I will relish the time spent on my PhD and find the pockets of solitude and focus to be rejuvenating instead of isolating.  One of my greatest joys is sitting down with a good book and a cup of tea and immersing myself in the topic at hand.  The content of the program’s foundational courses and the courses I have proposed is of deep personal and professional interest to me and the prospect of reading the books that have been beckoning to me for years within the framework of a rigorous program of study is truly exciting.

Based on the biographies of the faculty within the Prescott College PhD Program, I have no doubt that they will bring invaluable insight and guidance as I pursue my studies.  Having experienced educators and practitioners in the fields of sustainability education and sustainable community design to provide mentorship will be fundamental to the success of my educational journey.  Particular expertise I am seeking includes knowledge on how to create opportunities for children to connect with nature through environmentally focused curricula and learning gardens, design strategies for creating communities that  connect citizens with nature,  and effective approaches for community engagement including tools for visually communicating design concepts. 

I already own a substantial library of books on the topics related to my proposed program.  While I could potentially make the space in my life to read them all, I know that would not provide nearly the same level of learning, growth, and implementation of the principles therein as the discourse and collaboration that will come from my dedication to this PhD program.  I look forward to establishing life-long relationships with the faculty at Prescott College that lead to collaboration on projects or research long after my PhD program is complete.