Experience & Course Development

In each course I teach, I aim to integrate community connections, real-world problem solving, and professional practices.  For example, in UW-Madison's Geography 309: People, Land, and Food, I supported students to design food system solutions for local challenges and launch communication campaigns to share their findings with the campus community. For Environmental Studies 600: Capstone Experience, I co-developed a pair of courses where students worked with community partners on sustainability projects, such as reducing food waste or advancing consumer-driven sustainability efforts. 

In many classes, I try to help students form their own “living laboratories” in which they learn, connect, and strive to create lasting impacts in their communities. I model the classroom and projects on professional expectations, which affords students an opportunity to develop interpersonal communication and collaboration proficiencies while trialing them in a supported environment.  Overall, this approach of experiential learning in a professional context acknowledges students' diverse experiences and skills and allows them to contribute in ways that celebrate these differences.   

Full courses

·       Enviro St. 600:  Solutions for Food Waste Reduction. Proposed, developed, and instructed a new special topics capstone course on local to global solutions to food waste reduction. Spring 2016. 

·       Geography 309: People, Land, and Food.  Developed and delivered 4 weeks of new lectures, discussions, and assessments as a special instruction TA (funded by UW Office of Sustainability) for classes of 60 and 95 undergraduate students. Spring 2015 & Fall 2016. 

·       Enviro St. 600:  Consumer-driven sustainability. Co-designed and co-taught a new environmental studies capstone section focused on campus food connections.  Spring 2014. 

·       InterEgr 160: Introduction to Design.  Led weekly lab instruction and assessment of 15 undergraduate students and developed a supplementary training curriculum for technical skills. Fall 2008, Fall 2009, Fall 2010, Spring 2010, Spring 2011. 

Guest lectures:

·       “Introduction to Food Waste: Causes, Consequences, and Disposal Alternatives” in Geography 309: People, Land, and Food.  Annually, April 2018-2025. (slides)

·       “Diets and Food Supply Chains” in Geography 309: People, Land, and Food.  Annually, April 2018-2025. (slides)

·       “Consumer Waste and Solutions” in Geography 309: People, Land, and Food.  Annually, April 2018-2025. (slides)

·       “Assessing impacts from agricultural land-use change.” in Soil Science 575: Assessment of Environmental Impact.  February 2023, 2025.

·       “Biofuels and Land Use: Opportunities, challenges, and insights for sustainability” in Engineering Physics 602: Energy Policy.  December 5, 2022 (lecture recording)

·       “Land use change, GHG emissions, and federal policy” in Geography 339: Environmental Conservation. Dec. 6, 2021; April 25, 2022; April 26, 2023

·       “From Grasslands to Grains: An exploration of America’s changing landscapes” in Environmental Studies 417: Sustainability Science, Technology, and Policy. March 12, 2020. (lecture recording)

·       “Biofuels and Land Use:  Opportunities and challenges for sustainability” in Engineering Physics 602:  Energy Policy.  April 2, 2018. (lecture recording)

·       “Jatropha as a biofuel source in less-developed countries” in Interdisciplinary-L&S 100: Sustainable Bioenergy. October 15, 2012.

·       “An integrated bioenergy stove and landscape restoration plan” in Interdisciplinary-L&S 100: Sustainable Bioenergy. October 6, 2010.