Session: Strengthening Skills for Sustainability 

Gary Kass 

Gary Kass is Visiting Professor of Sustainability Policy and Practice at Royal Holloway, University of London and Visiting Professor in the Centre for Environment and Sustainability at the University Surrey. He is an environmental and sustainability scientist and knowledge broker, with over 35 years’ practice, working at the interface of science and policy, with keen interests in decision-making under uncertainty, fostering inter-and transdisciplinary approaches, and promoting futures, systems and values thinking. Gary started his career as a government air quality scientist before moving to private practice as a consultant, working on a wide range of projects for clients in the UK and overseas. He joined the public sector in 1995 as Head of the Environment and Energy programme at the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology and became Head of Public Engagement with Science and Technology within the UK Government. Gary joined Natural England in 2007 served as Deputy Chief Scientist between 2014 and 2022 and Defra deputy Chief Scientific Adviser in 2016; and most recently served as Deputy Director for Foresight and Innovation. He has recently been appointed as a member of the Office for Environmental Protection College of Experts and as a member of the Natural England Science Advisory Committee Social Science Expert Panel. Gary has also worked widely in academia, including serving on the Natural Environment Research Council’s Innovation Advisory Board and the Research Excellence Framework Geography and Environmental Studies sub-panel in 2014 and 2021, focusing particularly on impact and policy relevance. Gary held a Fellowship at the University of Cambridge Centre for Science and Policy and is currently a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, a Vice-President of the Institution of Environmental Sciences (IES) and Chair of the IES’s External Policy Committee.  

Curriculum design and Education for Sustainable Development in Practice

Dr D. Theresa Nicholson

Theresa is a Reader (Higher Education and Pedagogy) in Department of Natural Sciences at Manchester Metropolitan University. Theresa is a geoscientist specialising in earth surface processes and geohazards and she contributes to teaching on the university’s Geography programmes. Theresa is also one of the department’s carbon literacy champions and leads on embedding Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). Theresa is a Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and was awarded an AdvanceHE National Teaching Fellowship in 2020 for her work around developing inclusive and innovative curricula. She has 28 years experience in UK Higher Education and is a University Innovation Scholar at Manchester Met, responsible for driving implementation of transformative active learning at the heart of the institution's education strategy. Linked to this, Theresa is also co-leading a programme of staff development for embedding ESD across all programmes. Theresa is a Teaching and Learning Associate for AdvanceHE, an expert reviewer for AdvanceHE Teaching Excellence Awards, an accredited mentor and facilitator for the Association of Learning Design and ESD (ALDESD), and an Editorial Advisory Board member for the International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education. Theresa’s current research is exploring synergies between ESD, employability and active learning pedagogies.

Session: Communicating Environmental Science

Dr Simon Dickinson

Simon Dickinson is a lecturer in Geohazards within the School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences (SoGEES) at the University of Plymouth. Simon teaches into the Geography, Environmental Science, Environmental Management & Sustainability, and Geosciences programmes within SoGEES and is the South-West Doctoral Training Partnership (SWDTP) Geography Pathway Lead. Simon’s research interests include; the live-streaming of extreme environmental events, citizen-generated media in disaster contexts, virtual disaster hubs/information spaces, social change in the disaster landscape (either DRR or recovery), community engagement and participation in disaster recovery and emergent community/non-government organisations. Simon will provide a presentation which, explores communicating environmental sciences at the University of Plymouth by showcasing examples from their students enrolled onto the communication module.