EMS Sustainability Council: Student Committee. We are hosting an alumni panel on November 14th from 6:30 to 8:00 p.m. in Walker 112. We have invited alumni from the College of EMS to participate in a moderated panel discussion on their career trajectory within sustainability fields. This event is supposed to inspire and motivate students to think about sustainability in their lives and future careers. This is a great opportunity for students to not only meet other students who are interested in sustainability but also to network with our panelists. There will be some informal time at the end to eat pizza and mingle with each other.
John Lease:
John is a member of the GEMS Board of Directors, currently serving as Secretary. He is also the GEMS liaison to the College’s Sustainability Council and provides support and counsel for the numerous sustainability initiatives that are underway in the College. He graduated from the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences in 1976 with a B.S. degree in Earth Science. He remained at Penn State and obtained a master’s degree in Environmental Pollution Control from the College of Engineering in 1977, focusing on wastewater engineering.
Following graduation in 1977, he began his career at Alcoa in Pittsburgh, PA in the field of environment, health, and safety, working primarily at Alcoa’s global operating facilities, corporate headquarters, and the R&D laboratory to implement programs and systems to achieve Alcoa’s EHS goals and ensure regulatory compliance. His career encompassed several assignments at Alcoa operating facilities in the U.S., as well as travel to over 25 countries to support EHS program execution and management. John retired from Alcoa in 2016 after 38 years, and is now engaged as a consultant, providing EHS consulting services for business/industrial clients that include development and implementation of sustainable EHS programs, ongoing EHS management support of operations, and development of EHS compliance assurance strategies. He strives to develop and implement programs for EHS and sustainability that ultimately become ingrained into the day-to-day culture of the organization. In his free time, he enjoys traveling, golf, and volunteering for various organizations in the Pittsburgh area.
Mark Ortiz:
Mark Ortiz (he/him) is a community-engaged scholar of climate justice and youth politics. He is currently a Presidential Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Geography at Penn State where he directs the new Global Youth Storytelling & Research Lab. His research examines youth advocacy and the global politics of climate change and works to develop frameworks for intergenerational and international climate justice. Mark's work also has an emphasis on policy impact. He regularly shares research findings in policy fora like the United Nations climate negotiations and is currently working with the non-profit Globally on climate policy recommendations for the U.S. Government leading into this year's climate negotiations.
Bernadette Woods Placky:
Bernadette Woods Placky is an Emmy Award winning meteorologist and director of Climate Central's Climate Matters, a program that offers data analyses, graphics and other reporting resources to a growing network of more than 3000 local TV meteorologists and journalists to help them tell their local climate stories. Woods Placky develops partnerships with media organizations, nonprofits and academic institutions in her leadership role with Climate Central, and serves as an expert on the links between climate change and weather.
Before coming to Climate Central, Woods Placky worked for a decade as an on-air meteorologist in markets in Arkansas, Kentucky and Maryland. Woods Placky holds a B.S. in Meteorology and a minor in French from Penn State University. She carries both American Meteorological Society certifications—Television Seal of Approval and Certified Broadcast Meteorologist.
She is a newly named AMS Fellow, elected to the AMS Council, chairs the Penn State Meteorology Advisory Council, and is a former Penn State Graduates of Earth and Mineral Sciences Board Member. She serves on The Weather Channel’s Pattrn Advisory Committee and is also very active in her local community, serving on the board of trustees for the Watershed Institute, the Princeton Wrestling Club, and as a science advisor for C-Change Conversations.
Jasmine Fields:
Jasmine is the Sustainability Program Officer for the Department of Public Works in the Borough of State College. She is a sustainability professional with 5+ years of experience assisting local and regional governments with developing strategies and implementing programs that reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve community resiliency. She graduated from Penn State University with a bachelor’s degree in Geosciences where her studies focused on the impacts of anthropogenic activities on our natural environment. She is passionate about environmental conservation, equitable climate action and sustainability planning, and utilizing bottom-up approaches to develop solutions to solve climate and environmental sustainability issues.