Contributors
Liz Sopdie, PhD, is the Operations & Program Development Director for the Rural and Metropolitan Physician Associate Program at the University of Minnesota Medical School. She received her doctorate in Organizational Leadership, Policy, and Development from the UMN College of Education and Human Development where her research focused on international service-learning in medical education. Her education and experience blends the practitioner and scholarly fields of organization development, evaluation, curriculum design and adult education, health professions education, and institutionalization of transformative change efforts in higher education. Liz also teaches a course on ecosystem health leadership in the University’s Grand Challenges Curriculum.
Paul Bates is originally from Greensboro, N.C. and earned his B.S. in Biology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. After completing his Ph.D. in Cellular and Molecular Biology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, he remained at UW, serving as a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Biochemistry and an Assistant Scientist in the Medical School. For reasons that are not entirely clear, he decided to obtain a K-12 teaching license and subsequently worked as a teacher at Edgewood High School and an Adjunct Professor at Edgewood College. Since 2008 he has been an Assistant Professor at the University of Minnesota-Duluth where he has taught several courses, including General Biology, Genetics, non-majors’ biology, and Coral Reef Field Studies in the Bahamas. He continues to live in Duluth with his wife and Springer Spaniel where he enjoys hiking, camping, boating, woodworking, and gardening.
At the time of writing, Dr. Bertossi was a professor of sustainability and environmental studies at UMD with over ten years of experience teaching undergraduate and graduate courses in environmental studies, sustainability, geography, geographic research, food systems, and connected learning curriculum in higher education. She has since moved to new challenges!
She strives to contribute to equitable educational change and building a more just and sustainable future through a socially and environmentally oriented lens. Her teaching approach includes interdisciplinary, applied, community-based, and student-centered learning that addresses important global and local issues.
Maggie McKenna, M.A., is honored to join the Institute on the Environment as the Program Manager of Affiliate Impact. In this role, Maggie leads strategic development and program implementation for IonE’s affiliated researchers and educators, totaling more than 250 people from all UMN campuses and colleges as well as external scholars and leaders. Through 3 affiliate tracks (Fellows, Associates, Educators), Maggie leads innovative, equity centered, interdisciplinary programming to build capacity, amplify impact, and deepen the networks of IonE’s Affiliates working to advance environmental justice both locally and globally. For over 15 years, Maggie has worked to lead initiatives that advance racial and environmental justice.
Joe Warren is a PhD student in Comparative and International Development Education and the IonE Educators’ Graduate Research Assistant. Prior to joining UMN he lectured in sustainable development and service learning to a variety of institutions, including Stellenbosch University’s School for Public Leadership and Stanford University’s Bing Overseas Study Program in Cape Town. He is formerly the Resident Director for CIEE Stellenbosch and lead faculty member on the Global Sustainability and Environment Program at CIEE Cape Town. Joe holds a BA, MPhil, and a PgDip all from Stellenbosch University. He loves dogs, nature, and writing haiku.
