Overall Rating Silver - expired
Overall Score 46.98
Liaison Joanne Wong
Submission Date Feb. 27, 2015
Executive Letter Download

STARS v2.0

Mills College
AC-9: Academic Research

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 11.09 / 12.00 Mark Henderson
Assistant Professor of Public Policy
Public Policy
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Number of the institution’s faculty and/or staff engaged in sustainability research:
21

Total number of the institution’s faculty and/or staff engaged in research:
99

Number of academic departments (or the equivalent) that include at least one faculty or staff member that conducts sustainability research:
14

The total number of academic departments (or the equivalent) that conduct research:
22

A copy of the sustainability research inventory that includes the names and department affiliations of faculty and staff engaged in sustainability research:
Names and department affiliations of faculty and staff engaged in sustainability research:

Robert Anderson, M.D. Anthropology/Sociology
Lisa Urry Biology
Lara Durback Book Art
Kristina Faul Chemistry
Molissa Fenley Dance
Lorien Rice Economics
Roger Sparks Economics
Elizabeth Baker Education
Greg Tanaka Education
Kara Wittman English
Cornelia Nixon English
Déborah Berman Santana Ethnic Studies
Carol Theokary GSB / MBA Program
Bill Issel History
Dave Meader Management / MBA
Martin Benjamin Philosophy
Carol George Psychology
Mark Henderson Public Policy


A brief description of the methodology the institution followed to complete the research inventory:

A six-question survey using Google Forms was sent out to faculty members in November 2014 with an introduction from a faculty member. It asked for their name and department. It asked if their research included issues of sustainability, and if so, to briefly describe it. It asked if they taught any "sustainability classes" or "classes that include sustainability" and to list them. This enabled us to collect both quantitative and qualitative information.


A brief description of notable accomplishments during the previous three years by faculty and/or staff engaged in sustainability research:

Lisa Urry, Biology:
I ran a workshop at the National Association of Biology Teachers in Dallas TX 10/31 - 11/3/12 that surveyed faculty as to their inclusion of sustainability in their curricula. In fields of biology, there were many ways the concept was included, without being mentioned by name.

Lara Durback, Book Art:
Letterpress printing using only reused items; studio practice which considers reuse and energy saving; presentation on panel "What Does Sustainability mean to Printers?" at College Book Art Association conference hosted at Mills.

Kristina Faul, Chemistry:
Investigation of whether urban reservoirs serve as sources or sinks for contaminants to the SF Bay with a focus on acid mine drainage impacted Lake Aliso on the Mills Campus. Research funded by SeaGrant for two years.

Molissa Fenley (Dance) leads choreography classes in developing site-specific dances that are performed outside on campus. In presenting the dances, she says, “we are in conversation of our relationship to the outside environment: its beauty, our responsibility, our joy, the reciprocity.” Her current project, Water Table, is a response to freshwater issues including glacial melting and the use of spring water in coal extraction on the Black Mesa of the Hopi Nation.

Yulia Pinkusevich (Studio Art) works with reclaiming and recycled materials to make art, organized a field trip bringing students to the Recology “dump” (resource recovery and transfer station) in San Francisco, and lead a project around sustainability.

Roger Sparks (Economics) has studied the tendency of households and companies to require very high rates of return in order to make energy-saving investments, and has evaluated how the low carbon fuel standard will increase the diversity of fuel supplies and reduce the market power of a petroleum-based fuel sector.


The website URL where information about sustainability research is available:
Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
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