The 2011 Leaders in Sustainability (LiS) certificate graduates were honored May 26, 2011 at a reception held at the Anderson School of Management. This is the third cohort of students to graduate from this award winning graduate certificate program at UCLA.  The event brought together current students, graduates, and alumni in celebration of the program. 

Professor Magali Delmas, who co-directs the LiS certificate program with Professor Charles Corbett, introduced the event by describing the successful activities that marked the fourth year of the program: the LiS certificate has gained official UCLA status, the program received the prestigious Page Award for bringing sustainability into the curriculum, and the LiS certificate program now has more than 160 students enrolled.

Professor Keith Stolzenbach, the associate director of the Institute of the Environment and Sustainability (IoES), kicked off the event by speaking about the importance of the LiS certificate to the IoES mission to “educate the next generation of professional and scientific leadership committed to the health of the planet and drive interdisciplinary environment and sustainability initiatives on campus.” 

Next, Dr. Jack Sahl, the director for Environment and Resource Sustainability at Southern California Edison, the keynote speaker, gave an inspirational speech on the importance of sustainability and the type of training our students get by participating in LiS.

“It was great to hear from Dr. Sahl because he spoke from the experience of someone who has taken a traditional career path while managing to integrate in his own personal values of environmental stewardship and sustainability. Dr. Sahl inspired us to develop our interests outside of our main areas study and expertise, as hobbies and passions have a curious way of guiding career goals and choices.” said Ciara Remillard, a LiS student in Molecular Toxicology.  

This year’s graduates are moving on to do a variety of different jobs ranging from projects promoting sustainability through art, working for sustainability divisions of companies and corporations on projects such as product life cycle assessment, to academic research involving the built environment.   The interdisciplinary nature of the program has given graduates the tools and perspectives to be true leaders in sustainability in our society.

Published: Monday, June 06, 2011