Flagstaff College Faculty
Sandra Lubarsky, Ph.D.
Sandra Lubarsky, Ph.D. has spent most of her years as a university professor and administrator bringing sustainability into the curriculum and into campus activities. She founded one of the first graduate programs in sustainability, the M.A. in Sustainable Communities, at Northern Arizona University and chaired the Department of Sustainable Development at Appalachian State University. She has been an innovator in higher education, integrating theory with hands-on education, making the community the classroom, creating transdisciplinary courses, and introducing beauty as a subject of importance. She has written several books and dozens of essays on inter-religious dialogue, higher education, sustainability, and aesthetics. Sandra serves as President of Flagstaff College.
Marcus Ford, Ph.D.
Marcus Ford, Ph.D. was one of the first professors in the country to teach courses in sustainability and develop an Environmental Humanities program. Since early in his teaching career, Marcus has held that the most important thing we can learn is how to live sustainably and justly within the bounds of the natural world. He has taught sustainability studies at the undergraduate and graduate level and is an advocate for education that prepares people to actively participate in shaping their communities. He is the author of the groundbreaking book, Beyond the Modern University and many articles on higher education. Marcus is the Founder of Flagstaff College.
Kim Curtis, Ph.D
Kim Curtis, Ph.D. is a leader and program innovator in community-based civically engaged learning in higher education. A political theorist by training, her teaching and scholarly work are dedicated to the reenchantment of democratic public life. Extensive grassroots community organizing informs her teaching of the "arts of democracy". In the constant movement between theory and practice, and between study of the world as it could be and engagement with the world as it is, students learn to form the relational and collaborative cultures so crucial to social change and the hopefulness it requires. Her scholarly work includes articles on democracy, sustainability and education, feminist theory, and the impact of border militarization and immigrant criminalization on civic life in the Arizona agricultural borderlands. She is also the author of Our Sense of the Real: Aesthetic Experience and Arendtian Politics.
Annette McGivney, M.A.
Annette McGivney is an award-winning journalist who has specialized in long-form narrative non-fiction for more than two decades. Through her work as a writer, educator and speaker she seeks to inspire others to connect with the natural environment and protect wilderness. Annette specializes in teaching narrative nonfiction writing and environmental journalism. As a member of NAU's Journalism faculty from 2004-2020, she helped students learn how to write about place in field-based writing courses, develop narrative and experiential writing styles, and apply investigative journalism skills to uncover the truth. Annette has been the Southwest Editor for Backpacker since 1996 and written dozens of features for the magazine about people and places in the Southwest, including many pieces on Grand Canyon. Annette won the National Outdoor Book Award in October 2018 for her book Pure Land. In addition to Backpacker, McGivney’s work has appeared in The Guardian, Arizona Highways, The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Outside, Runners World, Wilderness and numerous other publications.
John Lynch,
M.A., D. Arts Candidate
Guest Faculty
John earned his Master of Arts degree through the Sustainable Communities program at Northern Arizona University (NAU) and is currently completing his Doctor of Arts at Viridis Graduate Institute where he studies Ecopsychology and Environmental Humanities. He specializes in deep self-discovery and nature reconnection through the fields of ecopsychology, depth psychology, ecology, environmental humanities, and outdoor education & leadership. His professional background includes instructing at the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) and Outward Bound. He currently works as a nature-based soulcentric guide at Animas Valley Institute and is a faculty member in the Geography Planning and Recreation Department at NAU. He jointly received the Award for Excellence in Curricular Innovation at NAU for his part in helping to develop an outdoor education and leadership block semester in 2017. John enjoys helping students discover who they are and what they love while orienting themselves towards a future vocation.
John de Graaf Filmmaker
Guest Faculty
John de Graaf is a documentary filmmaker, author, teacher and environmental activist. He has produced more than 40 films, including 15 national PBS specials, among them the popular Affluenza. He has won more than 100 regional, national and international filmmaking awards. His books include the international best-seller, Affluenza: The All-Consuming Epidemic, Take Back Your Time, and What’s the Economy for Anyway? He co-founded the organizations, Take Back Your Time, And Beauty for All and The Happiness Alliance. He has been a consultant to the government of Bhutan, serves on the board of Earth Island Institute, has taught at the Evergreen State College and is a Fellow of the North American Academy of Leisure Sciences. www.johndegraaf.com
Judy Goldberg,
Guest Faculty
Judy Goldberg, Guest Faculty, is an educator and a media producer who has designed and facilitated programs for participants to craft authentic narratives as powerful tools for addressing pervasive social issues. Inspired by her belief that by presenting universal stories we strengthen community alliances, nurture dialogue and inspire activism, Judy initiated and implemented an interdisciplinary curriculum for rural youth, “Drawing from the Well: Connecting School to Community,” founded and directed the non-profit Youth Media Project (YMP), produced student-directed Audio Revolution! radio broadcasts, and produced and hosted Back Roads Radio, a narrative radio series featuring writers, tellers and community members. In 2015 she took the model of community storytelling and broadcasting to an international audience, co-producing Voces de Cañar, a bi-lingual and transnational audio exchange with Quechua/Spanish speakers in Ecuador and their national counterparts residing in New York City and at United World College-USA, mobilized The Storytelling Exchange. Judy holds a BA in Theater and has completed post-graduate studies at The Anthropology Film School. She has been a New Mexico artist-in-residence and adjunct faculty in Media Arts at the Santa Fe Community College.
Rachel Cox,
Guest Faculty
Rachel Cox is a documentary film-maker, social justice activist, and faculty member in the School of Communications at NAU. She developed the practice of “Place-Based Media Arts," the integration of media arts literacy with place-based education. As a teacher at Star School, she designed and implemented an innovative filmmaking curriculum for Native students and was a founding member of Outta Your Backpack, teaching indigenous youth how to film and edit their own movies. To honor the memory of her young son, she founded the ZAADII Foundation, promoting mindful driving. Rachel holds an M.A. in Sustainable Communities.
Eric Souders, Special Lecturer
Eric Souders is a Chartered Socially Responsible Investment Counselor and Accredited Wealth Management Advisor at Ascendant Financial Solutions in Flagstaff. With over 25 years in the financial services industry, Eric has dedicated the last 14 years to guiding clients through SRI and fossil fuel free investing. As a social justice advocate, Eric was instrumental in Flagstaff’s campaign to raise the minimum wage. Additionally, he is active in the community as a board member for Willow Bend Environmental Education Center, Townsite Community Land Trust, and Arizona Llama Rescue Association as well as a county 4H leader. He operates a small carbon sequestration project through raising camelids and extensive gardening.