Wall named founding director of CSU’s environmental college

DENVER – Choosing the state’s largest economic development agency as a venue, Colorado State University President Larry Penley on Tuesday announced the creation of a new university college that will serve as a center for “green” workforce development.

Penley unveiled the School of Global Environmental Sustainability at the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce with business leaders from the Denver Metro Economic Development Corp. and other economic development officials and researchers looking on. He also introduced world-renowned environmental researcher Diana Wall as founding director of the school.

“As a national leader in addressing the global challenges related to sustainability, Colorado State University is taking the next logical step: Using a campus-wide approach to help solve these challenges through environmental research and educational opportunities,” Penley said. “Under Dr. Wall’s leadership, the school will ensure that students leave CSU with the creative critical-thinking skills needed to solve the globe’s greatest environmental problems and successfully contribute to the emerging green workforce.”

Over the next year, Wall will form advisory committees to help create curriculum and programs for the school, which could start offering new courses as early as 2010.

The school will act as a clearinghouse for the hundreds of CSU faculty members in all eight colleges already studying the environment in areas such as atmospheric science, environmental politics, wind engineering, agricultural economics, green building, wildlife biology, ecotourism, forestry, ecology, sustainable entrepreneurship and public policy.

Studies suggest the renewable-energy job market nationwide could create 40 million new jobs by the year 2030.

Wall will involve faculty and leaders from such areas as business, environmental agencies and nongovernmental organizations in developing courses that help meet the needs of what Gov. Bill Ritter calls the state’s “new energy economy.”

“CSU is currently producing some of the most groundbreaking environmental and energy research in the world,” Ritter said in a prepared statement. “And as a partner in the Colorado Renewable Energy Collaboratory, CSU is a crucial part of our new energy economy.”

Wall is a professor in CSU’s Department of Biology and senior research scientist at the Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory. Her research explores how soil biodiversity contributes to healthy, productive soils. She has completed 18 research seasons in the Antarctic “dry valleys” examining how ecosystem processes respond to global change.

“Environmental problems are expansive and require expertise in all disciplines to ensure that sustainable solutions are developed and implemented,” Wall said.

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