President of National Environmental Group to Explore "Green Thinking" at Colorado State University April 17

The president of an internationally known environmental organization will speak at Colorado State University on April 17.

Anthony Cortese, president of Second Nature, will discuss "Greening Our Thinking: Paradigms for a Planet in Trouble" from 4:10-5:45 p.m. in Room A103 Chemistry Building on the Colorado State campus. The event, free and open to the public, will include refreshments.

As president of Second Nature, a national, non-profit organization, Cortese works to help higher education prepare future professionals for increasingly complex environmental and social challenges. He also serves as managing director of the Consortium for Environmental Education in Medicine, which advocates environmental health as a central part of medical education and practice.

Cortese leads the charge for Second Nature, working with hundreds of colleges, universities and medical schools in the United States and abroad. He hopes to reach thousands of faculty members and to produce students with knowledge, skills and values to operate their lives in an environmentally responsible fashion.

Cortese, former commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection and consultant to the United Nations Environment Program, has won numerous leadership awards in the environmental and public health arenas. He directed the Center for Environmental Management at Tufts University, where he became the first dean of environmental programs.

At the lecture, Colorado State’s Center for Teaching and Learning will present the 2001 Campus Sustainability awards to students and staff. The awards honor the initiative, courage and vision of students and staff to move the Colorado State campus toward environmental sustainability. In announcing the awards, the center emphasizes that the campus is a learning laboratory and that decisions affecting campus design and management as well as curriculum need to reflect an increasing understanding of our shared responsibility for a healthy environment.

For more information about the event, contact Marie O’Neill at (970) 491-4697.