The Environmental Leadership Program (ELP) recently selected University of New Mexico Biologist Mimi Lam for a prestigious two-year fellowship. Lam, an emerging leader in the environmental field, was chosen for her design of meta-institutional, ecosystem-themed research curricula and her research into the epistemological convergence of evolutionary human cognition and traditional ecological knowledge.
ELP welcomed Lam as one of 24 talented leaders in a new class of 2005-2006 fellows from across the country.
“I am delighted to welcome this extraordinary group of fellows from across the nation working on issues from environmental justice, conservation, energy efficiency, education and the protection of threatened ecosystems,” said Paul Sabin, ELP’s executive director. “We are a new generation of activists seeking to create new models for leadership while working to redefine what it means to be an environmentalist.”
The national fellowship annually awards a select group of dedicated environmentalists the opportunity to expand their leadership skills and to be part of a national network of environmental leaders. The program is designed to unite environmental innovators across the country working towards a sustainable future.
Lam, an adjunct assistant professor in the Biology Department, is also a chemistry researcher and educational consultant with Northwest Indian College in Bellingham, Wa., and is waiting final approval from the Board of Governors for her appointment as adjunct faculty with the University of British Columbia Fisheries Centre. Lam explores the epistemological convergence of evolutionary human cognition and traditional ecological knowledge with her academic training in quantum and statistical mechanics.
Previously, she was a technical writer and business consultant for a start-up telecommunications company. Lam has taught and designed science and mathematics courses that weave traditional ecological knowledge, Native and western epistemologies and cultural influences in human cognition.
“Acceptance into the ELP Fellowship Class gives me national support and recognition for my design of culturally responsive, ecosystem-themed curricula, which I believe to be an educational paradigm that reconnects us with how we first learned as humans,” said Lam. “By creating learning environments that are community-based in natural settings, we give our Native students opportunity to contribute their traditional ecological knowledge and cultural history towards the design of bio-culturally diverse and coexistent futures.”
“The future of environmental leadership in the U.S. depends on the work of groups like ELP,” said James Gustave Speth, dean at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. “The fellowship prepares new environmentalists to work together across boundaries and provides the opportunity to take their visionary ideas and put them into practice.”
Since selecting its first class of fellows in December 1999, ELP’s national fellowship program has brought together an economically, racially and ethnically diverse group of 110 fellows from academia, government, business, and non-profit organizations. ELP currently supports two classes of active fellows and four classes of Senior Fellows working together to demonstrate how people with very different world-views, and working on disparate issues, can collaborate to solve critical environmental problems.
ELP fellows and their peers develop their leadership skills through comprehensive retreats that include training in diversity, communication, coalition building and political strategy. ELP Fellows have used the skills they gained in the fellowship program to redefine career paths, clarify goals, regain confidence and renew passion for their work. Fellows have been inspired by the opportunities for personal reflection fostered by ELP. Many have risen to new leadership positions since starting the fellowship.
Contact: Steve Carr, (505) 277-1821
Posted by scarr at March 24, 2005 11:11 AM