Greetings, fellow Greenovators! My name is Katherine Walsh and I am deeply honored to return to my hometown of Boston, Massachusetts to serve the Boston Public Schools as the Sustainability and Environmental Resources Manager.
I recently moved back from Berkeley, California after a 6.5 year career as Director of the Student Environmental Resource Center and Coordinator of The Green Initiative Fund at the University of California, Berkeley. In these roles, I focused on collaborative environmental projects and climate actions, empowering students as social change agents, and growing a resource center dedicated to sustainability leadership, innovation, and education. I also gained invaluable experience as an affiliated staff member of the Berkeley Food Institute and member of the Berkeley Climate Coalition and UC Carbon Neutrality Initiative. I feel most fortunate to be in a profession that blends my passions of sustainability and education.
My passion for sustainability first developed as a student at Boston Latin School, thanks to some inspiring teachers and classes like Biology II, Facing History and Ourselves, and AP Environmental Science. As a kid, I aspired to be a zoologist, but these classes shifted my understanding of people’s relationship with the environment. These classes also gave me the chance to delve into the intersection of the three E’s of sustainability: Equity, Environment, Economy. Therefore, I focused my Boston College studies and co-curricular experiences on urban ecology, environmental justice and activism, and higher education sustainability — experiences that led to a position at UC Berkeley.
Now working for BPS, I am most excited to partner with students in their efforts to “greenovate” the schools towards a vision of every BPS student attending a healthy and sustainable school. To paraphrase a fellow Climate Reality Leader, it is imperative for youth to know that climate change is not the biggest problem of our time, but the biggest opportunity of our time. It is a challenge that needs youth leadership, rather than a burden for youth to carry. Youth embody unbridled imagination, regenerative energy, collaborative focus, and values of justice — I hope BPS can be an incubator and educational resource for students’ leadership as they address the opportunity of our time.
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