Meet our Amazing GPSEN Team!
We are committed to creating a progressive, egalitarian governance model that reflects our values, supports collaboration among our partners, identifies committee structures and pathways that facilitate engagement and implementation of our strategic goals, distributes authority and decision-making across the network, and honors the efforts of our Executive Director, Board Members, staff, and volunteers.
Jonathan Ostar
Executive Director
Jonathan is an attorney and environmental justice advocate with over a decade of non-profit management experience. He is a member of the Oregon State Bar and used to practice plaintiff’s employment and Civil Rights law. Jonathan co-founded OPAL Environmental Justice Oregon, where he served as the founding board chair and then as executive director, and he taught courses on environmental justice and sustainability as an Adjunct Professor of Law at Lewis and Clark Law School and other local institutions. Jon has experience in public administration, operations, and consulting, and is passionate about cooperative economies and sustainability education centered in equity.
Owen Rudloff
Board President
Owen Rudloff has extensive research experience in climatology, geology, environmental remediation and environmental justice. He has worked extensively on Portland Harbor Superfund remediation projects, stormwater and groundwater monitoring.
Serena Dressel
Vice President
Serena Dressel is the Portland State University (PSU) Student Sustainability Center’s Interim Coordinator and former Board President of GPSEN. Serena is pursuing her Master’s in Public Administration with a specialization in Global Leadership and Management, as well as a certificate in Postsecondary Adult and Continuing Education at PSU. Serena support’s GPSEN’s College Network.
Giang Nguyen
Secretary
Kim Smith
Co-Founder / RCE Liaison
Kim received her Ph.D. in sociology from Indiana University, specializing in environmental sociology and social movements. She has taught sociology at Portland Community College (PCC) since 1996 and is Co-Founder of GPSEN. She represented the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) at the United Nations Rio+20 Earth Summit and the UNESCO World Summit on ESD. She is committed to working with non-profits in our communities to increase our collective impact and serves as a community liaison for GPSEN.
Michelle Larkins
Board Member
Michelle is the Director for a Sustainable Society at Pacific University. Her research and teaching focuses on the intersection of society and the environment, particularly food and environmental justice. She works with faculty to bring a sustainability lens to a diverse array of courses at Pacific, with students and staff to dream big on sustainability and social justice, and engages with community members and partners for collective impact. She helps support GPSEN’s Programs & Events Committee.
Jade Menchaca
Board Member
Jade is the Recycling Program Coordinator at Portland Community College. She created food security initiatives at the University of Oregon, coordinated events revolving around sustainability, studied sustainable development in Ecuador, and taught children about environmental education. She helps support GPSEN’s Programs & Events Committee.
Cameo Konfrst
Board Member
Cameo is the Director of Development and Communications for the Community Energy Project. Marketing, operations and fundraising background with extensive experience in product development, brand awareness and marketing/sales management. She helps support GPSEN’s Outreach & Communications Committee.
Tahira Abbas
Board Member
Tahira grew up in Quebec and has a Master of International Relations with a focus on ESD. Her work focuses on strengthening and amplifying multi-stakeholder transformative processes towards the implementation of the UN 2030 Agenda; including processes to mainstream values-based ESD in K-12 learning systems. She helps support GPSEN’s Research & Curriculum Committee.
Dave Weaver
Webmaster, Webaissance
Dave is committed to building communities, within neighborhood associations and networks, and online, through his Webaissance Web and Database Development Services.
Addie Robison
Communications Intern
Addie is currently a student at Portland Community College interested in doing anything she can to help create a more sustainable and simultaneously equitable future to live in. She has submitted many contributions to our GPSEN Regional Hub and social media efforts as our Communications Intern.
Senior Advisors
Frank Granshaw, PSU Geology Professor
Lin Harmon-Walker, Georgetown Law School
Charles Hopkins, UNESCO Chair
LeRoy Patton, PSU, Elders in Action
Roger Petry, RCE Saskatchewan, RCE Americas Advisor
Debra Rowe, President, US Partnership for ESD
Heather Spalding, CWU College of Education and Professional Studies
Judy Walton, Co-Founder of AASHE
Active Committees
Governance
Policy and Planning, Diversity and Equity, Grant Development, and Assessment
Outreach + Communications
Community Outreach, Partnerships, Advocacy, Social Media, Newsletter, and Website
Programs + Events
Symposium, Events, Workshops, Youth and College Networks, Civic Engagement, International Committee, and Networking Socials
Research + Curriculum
Research Projects, Think Tank, GPSEN Fellows Program, Curriculum Development, and Community Database
Years in Operation
SDGs
Global RCEs
Frequently Asked Questions:
How does GPSEN define sustainability?
What is Sustainable Development?
What are Regional Centers of Expertise (RCEs) on Education for Sustainable Development?
Each RCE has four core elements:
- Governance: addressing issues of RCE management and leadership
- Collaboration: addressing the engagement of actors from all levels of formal, non-formal and informal education
- Research and development: addressing the role of research and its inclusion in RCE activities, as well as contributing to the design of strategies for collaborative activities, including those with other
- Transformative education: contributing to the transformation of the current education and training systems to satisfy ambitions of the region regarding sustainable living and livelihood.
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Our bi-monthly newsletter contains the latest updates to the Regional Hub and GPSEN programs.