The Open University

Faculty Member, Communication and Systems

Lecturer in Environmental Information Systems

About

I promote, facilitate and design systems for social justice and ecological sustainability. Major recent projects include:

    * the production and presentation of courses in systems thinking and practice. These courses are the basis on which I carry out my research in the field of education for sustainability.
    * researching community-based natural resource management. The most recent manifestation of my contributions are through the COBRA project: http://projectcobra.org/

Background

After attaining a BSC in Ecology, an MSc in Nature Conservation, and a Ph.D. in Geography, I concentrated the first years of my career in undertaking extensive fieldwork and research within Brazil, Italy and Vietnam, heading the development of decision support systems for environmental management. I am currently involved in research within Brazil, India and Guyana.

I aim to engage with environmental and social justice issues not only as a teacher and researcher, but also as part of a family, a local community member and an activist.

I'm currently chairing the Open University Development and Environment Society and I also actively engage in discussions with systems alumni on systems-place.org.

At a local level, I am part of the Transition Town movement, and in particular, spearheading the establishment of an Allotment Association to promote local self-reliance, adaptability and resilience.

I am a supporter of CND, Friends of the Earth,  Tradecraft, Avaaz.org, FairShares, the New Economics Foundation, the UK Green party, Triodos Bank, myc4.com, Scientists for Global Responsibility, the co-operative movement and Amnesty International.