Mitch Thomashow devotes his life and work to promoting ecological awareness, sustainable living, creative learning, improvisational thinking, social networking and organizational excellence. He is engaged in teaching, writing, and executive consulting, cultivating opportunities and exchanges that transform how people engage with sustainability, ecological learning and the arts.
Experience
Thomashow was the chair of the Environmental Studies program at Antioch University in New England from 1976 to 2006 and the president of Unity College in Maine from 2006 to 2011. From 2011 to 2015, he was the director of the Presidential Fellows Program at Second Nature, a US-based organization that works with post-secondary institutions to help make the principles of sustainability fundamental to every aspect of higher education.
Thomashow is currently a Sustainability Catalyst Fellow at Philanthropy Northwest in Seattle, Washington.
His three books have influenced environmental studies education significantly. Ecological Identity: Becoming a Reflective Environmentalist (MIT Press, 1995) offers an approach to teaching environmental education based on reflective practice. Bringing the Biosphere Home, (MIT Press, 2001) is a guide for learning how to perceive global environmental change. The Nine Elements of a Sustainable Campus (MIT Press, 2014) provides a framework for advancing sustainable living and teaching in a variety of campus environments.
Education
1986
Ed.D
University of Massachusetts
1976
MST in Environmental Studies
Antioch New England Graduate School
1973
MA in History
State University of New York, Stony Brook
1971
BA in Urban Problems
New York University