Born in Walla Walla, WA, I spent the first seven years of my life on Guam. My family moved to the US mainland when I was seven, settling in a rural home-schooling community near Short Mountain, TN. Many childhood years were spent in a one-room cabin without electricity or running water. Winters were spent huddled around the wood stove where my family read The Education of Little Tree and listened to Prairie Home Companion on the radio. Summers were spent skinny dipping and camping. The daughter of an organic berry farmer and a natural foods business owner, the fundamentals of sustainability were simply intuitive. Quality food, lively community… what’s not to like?
It was not until years later that I could fully appreciate living so simply. After working in the fashion industry for 15 years, it was time for a change. After entering graduate school, I attended my first academic conference. I heard Natalie Chanin tell her story, an owner of a community-based, locally grown apparel business called Alabama Chanin. Natalie expressed her concerns about the apparel industry, characterized by runaway consumption and the subsequent impacts on society and the environment. Natalie asked, “How much fashion do we need?” I began to reconsider the impact of my own fashion consumption. Moreover, I began to research and brainstorm about how we might educate apparel and textiles students for this new reality. What I found was the Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) movement and the opportunity to rekindle my own roots. Sustainable development seemed an appealing framework as it supports development (like product development) that is socially equitable, environmentally healthy, and economically viable.
During my graduate years I completed projects to gauge student interest and concern about sustainability, evaluate apparel and textiles curriculum, and re-develop courses to reflect sustainable development. Today, I continue to conduct research on the topic in my role as an Assistant Professor at Oklahoma State University in the Department of Design, Housing, and Merchandising. I have published my work in the Fashion Practice, Journal of Sustainability Education, and the Journal of Teacher Education for Sustainability.
My philosophy is that sustainability is not a specialization, but a reality already embedded in every course, every discipline, every university – the issue is less about integration of the concept, and more about embracing what is already there, doing it in a creative way, and making it personal to the student. The critical learning outcomes that sustainability commands of us will not be achieved in a business-as-usual vacuum. Educators must be imaginative, passionate, resilient, and wise, challenging what has always been, inviting what could be, and taking action for a new way of being.
“In the end we will conserve only what we love. We will love only what we understand. We will understand only what we are taught” – Baba Dioum
