Dr. Sarah Fortner is a leader in sustainability and environmental justice with a passion for interdisciplinary education and community engagement. As the Director of Sustainability at Carleton College since 2022, she guides and supports the Sustainable Futures Framework, Carleton’s shared vision for advancing sustainability and environmental justice through education, operations, and partnering to expand solutions especially in our community where sustained collaboration advances resilience and environmental justice. This work calls for collaborative leadership to integrate sustainability into all that we do. Sarah provides strategic insight, develops and supports initiatives in sustainability across the curriculum, and deepening student experiential opportunities. This includes collaborating with faculty, staff, students, and local partners from many disciplines, often to link between education and campus-community climate action opportunities.
Sarah brings two decades of experience in research, education, and community engagement focused on engaging undergraduates in climate literacy and climate and environmental justice solutions. She served as the former Director of Environmental Science at Wittenberg University. From Wittenberg, Sarah deepened engagement to advance evidence-based sustainability education through professional development with the grant funded Science Education Resource Center at Carleton. She has led and collaborated on grants from agencies including NSF, USDA, PBS, state funding, and foundations. She has contributed significantly to open education and educator community building in sustainability, climate, and environmental justice education. Students working with Sarah have presented at meetings, published in scholarly journals, and developed projects advancing climate resilience and environmental justice.
Sarah networks and supports leadership in broader climate education and action. This currently includes: serving on the steering committees for the Upper Midwest Association of Campus Sustainability and roles on the Committee to Advise the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGRP) and US National Committee for Geological Sciences.She on the Academic Council and as faculty for the Juneau Icefield Research Program. Sarah holds a bachelor’s degree in Geology and Geophysics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a master’s and doctoral degree in Earth Sciences from The Ohio State University. Her graduate work was completed in affiliation with the McMurdo Long Term Ecological Research Program and the Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center.
At Carleton since 2021.
