Madeline Yeatts
Sustainability Manager, Allegheny College
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I have worked in sustainability in higher education since 2021, holding sustainability roles at Ohio University, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and Allegheny College. My work includes designing surveys to assess campus sustainability efforts, conducting annual greenhouse gas inventories, grant writing, STARS reporting, and compiling reports and data visualizations detailing progress toward institutional sustainability goals. I also work on educational projects, collaborating with faculty and students on research, education, and experiential learning design. I was the 2024-2026 Co-Chair of the Big Ten and Friends Sustainability Network and currently serve on the STARS Steering Committee and AASHE Advisory Board.
I hold a Master of Science in Environmental Studies along with a graduate certificate in Environmental Change Management and Leadership and a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Science.
Institutional Leadership Through the Carnegie Elective Classification for Sustainability
The Carnegie Elective Classification for Sustainability is designed to recognize and celebrate higher education institutions that demonstrate a commitment to sustainability and climate action as integral to their academic missions. The inaugural application cycle is now underway with applications due December 4, 2026. The application is a self-study, set apart by a narrative voice and sections that capture the distinct opportunities at different institutional settings. Throughout, there is a deep focus on inclusivity, sustainability as rigorous academic inquiry, workforce development, community partnerships, and planning for a resilient climate future. In this session, participants from the pilot cohort and the host institution, University of Colorado Boulder, will share learnings and tips for current applicants who are working to finalize their application and maintain momentum on campus.
Seeding Change: Leveraging Campus Ecosystem Management for Learning and Engagement
The progression of Allegheny College’s campus ecosystem management has been driven by a belief that campus is the ideal site for hands-on learning. By connecting sustainability goals to the mission of student learning, Allegheny College has overcome barriers and turned sustainable ecosystem management into one of its defining features. Presenters will discuss how students, faculty, and staff have fostered a culture of collaboration by focusing on place-based and hands-on solutions to ecosystem challenges. From using courses to develop a campus garden; to adopting an integrated pest management plan researched and drafted by a student intern; to installing a permaculture food forest proposed, designed, budgeted, and planted by a student group; to the creation of a Campus Ecosystem Working Group to guide decisions; this session will offer inspiration for how other campuses can transform the management of campus grounds while creating unique learning and engagement opportunities for students, faculty, staff, and the community.
Collaborative engagement in campus ecosystem efforts have resulted in rain gardens to manage stormwater runoff; native ornamental beds to replace turf; an organic production garden with an orchard, renewable energy greenhouse, and beehives; bat and bird boxes; sustainable forestry management including control of invasives and strategic horse logging; and many other student- and faculty-led research efforts. Since 2001, Allegheny College has been composting on-site, a practice that has since expanded into an organic turf management policy and a campus garden that grows over 2,000 pounds of organic produce annually. The garden also serves as an outdoor laboratory for faculty to teach about sustainability agriculture and for paid student worker positions to gain hands-on gardening experience. Partnership with campus dining allows garden harvests to be served at dining halls as herbal tea, hot sauce, salsa, and more. Garden harvests are also used for co-curricular events, such as jewelry making, bouquet pop-ups, textile dyeing, and creating skincare products infused with garden-grown botanicals.
This session will be of particular interest to attendees who work with their campus ecosystem, but it will also be applicable and engaging for any attendee who is interested in embedding sustainability into curricular and co-curricular programming to advance sustainable campus ecosystem management and reproduce the success of these programs.
Emphasizing the Overlap: Links between Experiential Learning, Mission, & Sustainability Programming
In higher education, aligning sustainability work with institutional mission can help reinforce and support university goals. As colleges and universities increasingly seek to offer real world, hands on learning experiences for their students, sustainability programs have a powerful opportunity to position their existing applied learning and living laboratory work as a direct contributor to those priorities. By making these connections explicit, sustainability professionals can better situate their work within broader institutional conversations about teaching, learning, and the student experience. This session explores how sustainability offices at Tufts University, Northeastern University, and Johns Hopkins University have connected their work to experiential learning. Presenters will share how these connections were developed, the kinds of experiential learning opportunities they support, and practical strategies others can use at their own institutions.
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