By |Published On: January 10th, 2023|Categories: Ecological and Social Justice, Fielding News, Office of the President|

Dear Fielding Community Members,  

Welcome to 2023! To commemorate our 49th Anniversary, the President’s Sustainability Advisory Council has designated 2023 as our Fielding Global Ecological and Social Justice Service Year throughout the world. 

President Katrina S. Rogers, Ph.D.

The purpose of this designation is to collect stories of Fielding community members engaged in service in their communities. We know from scholarly research that it only takes a small number of people to create the conditions for positive social change. When people take collective action, their communities benefit.   

Fielding Graduate University is a community that acts to secure the sustainability of our biodiverse ecosystem, health equity, society, and culture. Our colleagues on the President’s Sustainability Advisory Council would like to inspire acts of kindness and service in the interests of social and ecological justice.  

Fielding is a higher education institution committed to the overall development of student-practitioners who have a raised awareness and consciousness of their kinship with all living and non-living entities of this earth. We will continue to center sustainability on the ethics of Indigenous knowledge and approaches to learning, relating, and collaborating with all environmental partners who have a vested interest in just and sustainable communities. This includes Indigenous Elders; diverse communities; artists; storytellers; researchers; students; and plant, animal, and mineral life. Our framework envisions a future where representation is broad and forward-thinking while honoring the past and building a just, equitable, and vibrant future. This encompassing view aspires to a more socially just and inclusive future for all.  

On March 10, the day of Fielding’s 49th Anniversary, we hosted a Global Call across the World to share our stories of service. Thank you to those who joined the call!  

What to do next:  

Whenever you volunteer in your community this year, send us a paragraph at media@fielding.edu about your experience. Please include photos. Stories will be posted on our website, social media, and other communications channels.  

Examples of service:  

  • Activities such as cleanup days, neighborhood bird counts (such as Project Feeder Watch), invasive plant removal, and creating a natural lawn.  
  • Volunteering for any nonprofit organization. Examples could include homeless shelters, animal shelters, food banks, literacy volunteers, organizations that focus on specific illnesses, local environmental groups, and so on.  

In solidarity,  

KatrinaRogers-signature

President Katrina S. Rogers, Ph.D.

Ecological & Social Justice Service Year

About the Author: Katrina Rogers

Katrina S. Rogers, PhD, is President of Fielding Graduate University in Santa Barbara, CA, a distinguished graduate school known for adult learners in the fields of clinical psychology, human talent and development, organizational leadership, and education. In the course of her career, she has served the international non-governmental and educational sectors in many roles, including executive, board member, and teacher. She led the European campus for Thunderbird School of Global Management in Geneva, Switzerland for a decade, working with international organizations such as the Red Cross, World Trade Organization, United Nations Development Program, and the European Union. She also developed externships for students at several companies, including Renault, Nestle, and EuroDisney (now Disneyland Paris). She has doctorates in political science and history. In addition to many articles and books focused on organizational leadership in sustainability, Rogers serves on the Boards of the Toda Institute for Global Policy & Peace Research and the Public Dialogue Consortium. She received a Presidential postdoctoral fellowship from the Humboldt Foundation and was a Fulbright scholar to Germany where she taught environmental politics and history. She is currently studying environmental values among leaders that have responsibility for improving sustainability practices in their organizations. These are leaders from the corporate, governmental, and nonprofit sectors. The purpose is to understand how people’s worldviews are brought to bear on the actualization of sustainability work.

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