Creating Eco-smart Communities & Policy
Friday, April 11 | 2:45-4:00PM |Cohen Commons
Mindy Agnew oversees zero waste initiatives and programs for Lincoln Elementary School’s parent-run PTO and is a member of the Oak Park District 97 Zero Waste Schools Group; Lincoln and six additional elementary schools were successfully awarded grant funding from the State of Illinois to implement recycling, zero waste strategies, and composting in the schools. Mindy is also very active in community sustainability and is a trained Master Composter through the University of Illinois Extension Master Composter program. Her sustainability management experience includes collaborative design and implementation of waste reduction strategies including the successful rollout of an organics-recycling program for local schools, businesses, and residences. Mindy lives in Oak Park, Illinois with her husband and two daughters.
Sarah McFarland Taylor is an award-winning author and an associate professor of Religious Studies, specializing in the study of religion and American culture, religion and environment, and in media, popular culture, and religion. Taylor also teaches in Northwestern’s American Studies Program and in the Program in Environmental Policy and Culture. She holds a Bachelor's degree from Brown University, a Master's degree from Dartmouth College, and a doctorate in Religion and American Culture (with additional Ph.D. emphasis in Women's Studies) from the University of California, Santa Barbara. Taylor has held an Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship, a Louisville Institute Fellowship, a Rockefeller Foundation Humanities Fellowship, a Wabash Center Fellowship, and a Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation Career Enhancement Fellowship. She was selected as one of the Indiana University Center for the Study of Religion and American Culture's "Young Scholars in American Religion."
Karen Weigert serves as Chief Sustainability Officer for the City of Chicago. She was appointed in 2011. As Chief Sustainability Officer Karen works to guide the City’s sustainability strategy and implementation, bringing innovative, practical solutions throughout the work of the city. Prior to her appointment Karen served as Senior VP of ShoreBank where she built a national consumer group that generated deposits to support environmental sustainability and community development. Earlier Karen was a consultant at McKinsey serving clients on topics including transportation, finance, energy, and land use. She began her career as an investment banker at Goldman Sachs and later served as an appointee in the Clinton administration focused on global environmental issues and agriculture. Karen is a producer of the documentary film Carbon Nation, which focused on solutions to climate change and she graduated from the University of Notre Dame (Phi Beta Kappa) and Harvard Business School.