Leadership
Dr. Peter Boger
Director for Engagement
Co-Leader, Sustain Penn State
Based in Undergraduate Education
Dr. Peter Buck
Director for Education
Co-Director, Local Climate Action Program
Co-Leader, Sustain Penn State
Based in Undergraduate Education
Corey Gracie-Griffin
Director for Fullers Overlook
Director for the Sustainability Experience Center
Based in Penn State Outreach
Dr. Meghan Hoskins
Based in the Office of Physical Plant
Sustain Penn State
Ilona Ballreich
Associate Director for Experiential Learning
Program Director, Sustainable Communities Collaborative
ixb20@psu.edu
(814)-865-2291
OPP Sustainability
Jack Rumery
Assistant Director for a Sustainable Workplace
Program Director, Penn State Sustainable Labs
Fullers Overlook and Sustainability Experience Center
Marianne Orlandini
Dr. Krista Bailey
Associate Director for Campus Sustainability
Krista Bailey came to Penn State with experience in teaching sustainability and leading campus and community sustainability initiatives.
Throughout their career, they have put their skills in sustainability research, writing, training, project development, implementation, and evaluation into practice. As a faculty member in the Sustainability Studies program, Bailey developed and taught courses for both undergraduate and graduate students, including graduate and undergraduate courses in Sustainable Food Systems and Leadership Strategies. Their engaging teaching style resulted in a Fellowship that recognized their innovative classroom design, research, and active learning approaches.
In addition to work in higher ed, Bailey worked as the city of South Bend, Indiana’s first Sustainability Coordinator under Mayor Pete Buttigieg. Community engagement work has included co-hosted local PBS programs, serving on a city bicycling committee, and working with the Food Access Councils.
In addition to sustainability work in South Bend, Bailey’s experience in community development and environmental education includes directing the Elkhart EnviroCorps AmeriCorps program in Elkhart, Indiana. Under Bailey’s leadership, it developed and implemented scores of environmental education, restoration, and volunteer projects in partnership with local organizations and The Nature Conservancy.
A lifelong learner, Bailey completed their Ed.D. in Instructional Systems Technology at Indiana University. Their interest in the nexus of health, wellness, and sustainability has focused their research on creating a holistic learning environment for all that will enable learners to put theory into practice.
Outside of work and school, Bailey teaches fitness classes, supports the Penn State Crew club, practices organic gardening, is an active bicyclist, and enjoys spending time with their two children and exploring and doing projects with their spouse.
Ilona Ballreich
Associate Director for Experiential Learning; Program Director, Sustainable Communities Collaborative
As the Director of the Sustainable Communities Collaborative, Ilona works closely with community partners and faculty to ensure meaningful, experiential student projects that are integrated into classroom learning and focused on the sustainability needs of the community. Student work empowers communities to make more informed decisions and often catalyzes next steps. Students gain real-world experience that encourages creative thinking and problem-solving skills.
To support faculty, Ilona founded the Community of Practice (COP) for Engaged Scholarship at Penn State which has evolved into the Provost Endorsement program, Experiential Learning and Sustainability: Curricular Engaged Scholarship for a Sustainable Future that provides in-person and online training and resources for faculty.
She is Penn State Sustainability’s representative to Penn State Global Programs and serves on the board of the international Education Partnerships in Communities organization, EPICN.
Prior to coming to Penn State, Ilona was the executive director of the non-profit organization. She has an MPS in Community and Economic Development from Penn State, a certificate in Project Management, and a BS in Industrial Technology from West Virginia State University. She studied sustainability via various online courses, including the UN Staff College Summer Academy, Columbia University, and Lund University in Sweden. She is trained in community development techniques, is a successful grant writer and administrator, and serves on numerous community organizations and boards.
Dr. Peter Boger
Director for Engagement, Co-Leader of Sustain Penn State
Peter Boger is responsible for helping Sustain Penn State articulate and implement its vision for engagement, connecting the university’s sustainability initiatives to the needs and goals of community and campus partners throughout the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to help Penn State advance its land-grant mission while also contributing to student success through engagement opportunities that advance their sustainability journeys.
Within Sustain Penn State, Peter supervises the communications, public programming, and lifelong learning initiatives, and also co-leads unit budget and staffing oversight. Peter serves as an initial point of contact for Penn State’s Commonwealth Campuses when working with Sustain Penn State and sits on the Faculty Senate Outreach Committee and the Outreach Division’s Sustainability Council.
Public programming initiatives he helps supervise include the Green Gov Council Sustainability webinar series and Sustainability Week in partnership with the Pennsylvania Green Gov Council; the Colloquium on the Environment in partnership with the Institutes of Energy and the Environment; Sustainability Showcases; and the Intersections film program he created that has drawn nearly 7,000 attendees over five years–working in partnership with WPSU, the Center for Global Workers’ Rights, and Penn State’s Water Council.
He is the Sustain Penn State lead catalyzing lifelong learning-focused sustainability programs. These include the Sustainability Coordinator Non-Credit Certificate workforce development program developed with Penn State’s Continuing Education program.They also include the K-12 Sustainability Summit and Community of Practice that train cohorts of Pennsylvania K-12 school systems to be prepared to add sustainability to their teaching and operations, developed in conjunction with Penn State Outreach’s K-12 Engagement Network.
Peter holds a Ph.D. in Environmental Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a focus on environmental media and history. He also earned an M.S. in Environmental Studies focused on environmental education from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, as well as a B.A. in History focused on environmental history from Princeton University. He was a Doris Duke Conservation Fellow and served as director of Tales from Planet Earth, at the time the largest free-admission environmental film festival in the U.S. Previously he has worked as Special Assistant to the Commissioner of New Jersey’s Department of Environmental Protection. In his spare time, he enjoys hiking with his dog (or, more accurately, standing around while his dog glares at rabbits and squirrels).
Peter Buck
Director for Education & Co-Director of the Local Climate Action Program, Co-Leader of Sustain Penn State
Dr. Peter Buck believes everyone who comes into contact with Penn State can become literate and competent in sustainability. To achieve that goal, he instigates our faculty, staff, students, and the public to imaginatively integrate sustainability into all we do. Whether working one-on-one with instructors, interns, or government leaders, teaching courses, serving the public, or communicating in the media, Peter’s goal is to support rich exposures, experiences, and expertise development for a just and sustainable world.
Peter catalyzes, communicates, and connects people for sustainability. Currently, he serves as a primary resource to assist two structural endeavors: the creation of a Program for Sustainability in the Interdisciplinary Schools (to open in Fall 2025) and the development of Penn State’s Sustainability Learning Outcomes. Peter supports these institutional goals through the Roe Fund for a Just and Sustainable Future, the Penn’s Woods Workshops, as well as consulting and teaching in first-year seminars, advanced climate dynamics, sustainable architecture, and beyond.
Since 2022, Peter has co-directed the Local Climate Action Program with Brandi Robinson (Associate Teaching Professor, Energy and Mineral Engineering). In partnership with the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, ICLEI, and Centre Region Planning Agency, the Local Climate Action Program (LCAP) is built on a simple idea: cooperation and collaboration can make Pennsylvania’s communities draw down carbon emissions and support the places we call home. The LCAP brings Penn State students, faculty, local governments, and experts from different fields together to attain the Paris Agreement’s goals to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius by supporting a thriving and prosperous future for all Pennsylvanians.
Peter also manages EnvironMentors, a college access program for underrepresented and underserved high school students. Created by the Global Council for Science and the Environment (GCSE), EnvironMentors provides high school students from underrepresented and underserved communities with rich experiences in structured environmental Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) projects. Their projects support equity and community-building while facing some of the world’s most entrenched and wicked socio-environmental challenges.
Through his endeavors, Peter celebrates his diverse students, interns, and peers. Over the last several years, his interns have done so much. They have organized Penn State’s Student Sustainability Summit and hosted the Colloquium on the Environment with Dr. Robert Bullard. They have attended the climate talks at COP 28, interned in the City of Milwaukee’s Environmental Collaboration Office, and led the student chapter of Black Lawyers Association at the University of Cincinnati Law School. Today, they are designing systems at solar, green architecture, water resources, and biorenewable firms, coordinating programming at the Urban Institute and Brennan Center, serving in federal, state, and local government, and teaching in publicly funded schools.
Peter communicates extensively on sustainability and life in the Anthropocene. His scholarship has appeared in Springer’s Educating the Sustainability Leaders of the Future and Universities and Sustainable Communities: Meeting the Goals of the Agenda 2030, Routledge’s Teaching Climate Change in the United States, The Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, and more. He has also appeared in The Washington Post, on Democracy Works and Citizen’s Climate Radio, and spoke at TEDxPSU in 2018 with his talk “What’s the Future Hold? Ask a Metalhead.”
Leadership in professional, governmental, and civic organizations is important to Peter. Currently, Peter serves on the Pennsylvania Climate Change Mitigation and Resilience Network and the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay’s Local Government Advisory Committee. Locally, her serves on the State College Area School District’s School Board, the Centre Region’s Climate Action and Adaptation Plan Technical Advisory Group, and the Centre County Intergovernmental Solar Power Purchase Agreement Working Group.
Peter holds a Ph.D. in Educational Theory and Policy and an M.A. and a B.A. in Music with a minor in Creative Writing. He lives in State College with his wife Hilary and son Sacha. He enjoys single speed mountain biking, playing his electric guitar, eating inordinately spicy food, and writing fiction and creative non-fiction.
Katie Chriest
Associate Director for Strategic Communication
Based in northwestern Pennsylvania, Katie is the Associate Director for Strategic Communication for Penn State Sustainability (SustainPSU), while serving as SustainPSU’s liaison for campuses in western PA. She also serves as SustainPSU’s representative on Penn State’s Age-Friendly University Task Force. She initially joined the organization as part of the Sustainable Food Systems Program, spending six years leading an energized team of interns at Penn State Behrend in partnering with local entities who work to increase food access, literacy and justice throughout the region, while managing an expanding campus garden and operating an on-campus CSA. She is especially interested in the way diverse communities hear messages of sustainability, particularly those with less access to the types of personal choices being encouraged by sustainability advocates. She also works to incorporate understanding of disordered eating and other complicated relationships to food into broader conversations about the food system. In her free time, Katie is a freelance writer, editor and musician, and a compulsive cyclist, traveler, reader and gardener who can’t seem to stop planting fruit trees.
Corey Gracie-Griffin
Director for Fullers Overlook and Director for the Sustainability Experience Center
Corey Gracie-Griffin is the Director for Penn State Fullers Overlook and Director for the Sustainability Experience Center, as well as a Professor of Architecture. His own research focuses on how to make new and existing buildings healthier, more productive, and resilient while simultaneously reducing their environmental impact with a recent emphasis on carbon-storing structural materials including mass timber and hempcrete. With over thirty peer reviewed publications, Gracie-Griffin has secured over $1.5M in external funding from a wide range of sources including federal and state governments, national and local foundations, and industry partners. His teaching has been nationally recognized as a model for advancing sustainability in higher education and architectural practice by AIA, ACSA and Architecture 2030.
Dr. Meghan Hoskins
Director for Sustainability, OPP
Dr. Meghan Hoskins is working with Penn State operations staff, faculty, and students to improve the sustainability of Penn State’s operations. She is doing this by leading the Penn State Sustainability Team within the Office of Physical Plant that includes Krista Bailey, Jack Rumery, an Energy Savings Program Manager, and a number of highly talented student interns. Meghan co-chairs the Sustainable Operations Council (SOC), works to coordinate carbon emissions reduction efforts, support waste reduction activities, and supports operational units in meeting their sustainability goals.
Meghan earned her engineering degrees here at Penn State and worked for 10 years as a Research and Development Engineer at the Applied Research Laboratory. Outside the office, Meghan can be found outside in nature, tending to her honeybees with her husband, and hanging out with her two boys, several chickens, and dog.
Macy Miskiewicz
Student Engagement Coordinator
Mia Ray
EnvironMentors Coordinator
Mia Ray is the Part-Time Program Coordinator for the Penn State EnvironMENTORS Chapter, an international high school environmental research initiative under the Global Council for Science and the Environment (GCSE). In this role, she supports the recruitment of high school mentees and engages undergraduate, graduate, and faculty mentors across multiple Penn State campuses. She develops and organizes training sessions, skill-building workshops, and community-building activities that prepare students and mentors to conduct environmental research and present their findings at the annual symposium. In addition to her coordination role, Mia has also served as a staff mentor within the EnvironMENTORS program.
Mia earned a bachelor’s degree in biology from Harrisburg University of Science and Technology, where she was awarded the HU Elite Scholarship. Her undergraduate capstone project examined the relationship between historic redlining practices and disparities in access to usable green space in Harrisburg.
Alongside her work with EnvironMENTORS, Mia is a Human Research Technologist at the Penn State College of Medicine. Her research interests focus on the impact of environmental exposures, such as radon and air pollution on human health.
Outside of her professional roles, Mia enjoys spending time in nature, listening to music, cooking, and reading.
Leslie Pillen
Associate Director, Farm and Food Systems
Leslie coordinates Penn State’s sustainable food systems minor and a student-centered experiential learning farm at Penn State, working with diverse stakeholders, including students, faculty, staff, community members, and alumni to advance both initiatives. She is very excited about developing new opportunities for Penn Staters to learn about sustainable food and agriculture.
She received her MS in Rural Sociology from Penn State in December 2013. Her thesis assessed opportunities and barriers for beginning farmer land access through land link programs in the Northeast US. Her BS is in Horticulture from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Prior to graduate school, Leslie managed a beginning farmer training program and incubator farm at a non-profit in Lincoln, Nebraska. There, she developed farm production and business curricula for beginning farmers, managed a multi-farmer CSA, oversaw farm site development and maintenance, and grew the program through community partnerships and financial development.
Grant Rowe
Public Programming Coordinator
Grant Rowe serves as a Sustainability Programming Coordinator for Penn State Sustainability. In this role, he advances sustainability programming, working with event attendees to further their exposure to, experiences with, and expertise in sustainability. Among the many programs in his portfolio, he helps lead the Intersections Film Series and Sustainability Showcase Series. Bringing his passion for sustainability to these events, Grant seeks to foster an environment where individuals can come together to educate themselves and develop the skills necessary to work toward creating a more equitable and sustainable future for all.
Prior to his time at Penn State, Grant served as a leader in sustainability at Susquehanna University, heading a variety of programs, including Earth Day events, climate change marches, single-use waste reduction campaigns, recycling initiatives, and electric vehicle charging infrastructure projects. Alongside this, he also served as a 2022-2023 fellow for the Rachel Carson Council, developing a podcast titled “Big World, Small Bites” that centered around ways everyday people could get involved in climate action.
Grant holds two undergraduate degrees from Susquehanna University, including a B.A. in Environmental Studies and a B.A. in Political Science.
Julius Camper
Student and Public Programming Coordinator
Jeanette Fornwalt
Administrative Assistant
Having relocated to State College from the UK, Jeanette Fornwalt provides administrative assistance to the Sustain Penn State team. She has a solid career in Executive Assistant roles, supporting industry principals within a diverse range of business sectors based in London. However, the role at Penn State provides Jeanette with opportunities to learn about working in a large educational setting and in an area that holds immense value for her personally.
As a lifelong supporter of organizations such as Earthwatch and the Worldwide Fund for Nature, Jeanette relishes being involved in an action-oriented environment that leads by example through education, engagement, collaboration and innovation. She is particularly passionate about effectively communicating the importance and relevance of putting sustainability at the forefront of individual minds, helping to create a firm foundation for survival of planet Earth as a thriving home for all living things.
In addition to office work, Jeanette has previously been a Holistic Grief Coach, supporting those who are grieving to feel seen and heard, and to find meaning and personal growth from loss. She also spent two years working in ski resorts as a chalet manager. Jeanette is a life-long tennis fan, a devoted cat lover and dreams of one day living in the Rocky Mountains.
Jack Rumery
Assistant Director for a Sustainable Workplace
Jack is an enthusiastic advocate for sustainability and environmental education, and his passion is evident in his work at Penn State Sustainability. At SustainPSU, his primary focus is to foster education and collaboration among staff across PSU campuses, ensuring that sustainability resources are accessible and utilized effectively. He is particularly dedicated to nurturing existing programs like Green Teams and Green Paws, recognizing their significance as essential starting points for a greener future on campus at PSU and beyond.
More recently, Jack pursued further academic enrichment, earning his M.Ed focused on Science Education from the University of Washington. This included a transformative year with Island Wood’s Education for Community and Environment graduate program, where he further honed his teaching and leadership skills.
Elizabeth Smith
Sustainability and Climate Education Intern
Elizabeth is a first-year graduate student pursuing a Master of International Affairs degree with a concentration in Environment and Resources. She is currently working as a Sustainability and Climate Education Intern and is thrilled to participate in all of the ways that academic institutions are furthering sustainable goals. Her longtime passion for sustainability and the environment flourished during her service year as an AmeriCorps VISTA at the Oxford Community Market in Oxford, Mississippi. Here, she worked in the field of food security, viewed through the lens of the social determinants of health. She thoroughly enjoyed becoming deeply involved with Mississippi agriculture and food systems. Prior to her service in AmeriCorps, Elizabeth graduated from the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss) with majors in Economics and Chinese and Minors in Russian and Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages.
Outside of work and school, Elizabeth loves to hike, read, and play bass guitar. She is always open to practicing Mandarin and discussing philosophy!
Lucy Gustafson
Communications Social Media and Design Intern
Jake Hohner
Public Programming Intern
Jake is a senior majoring in Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, with a minor in Chemistry. He has been passionate about sustainability since he was introduced to it in his sophomore year of high school and has been an active member of Penn State’s EcoReps student sustainability ambassadors program since coming to Penn State. In EcoReps, he has been the Athletics Relations Assistant Programming Coordinator, where he worked to further the Zero Waste Initiative in the President’s box during football games as well as expand the initiative into other sporting events. As the Public Programming Intern at Penn State Sustainability, Jake helps to select films and speakers for public events and coordinate the logistics and promotion of Penn State’s public programming. Jake also works in a lab conducting research on cancer treatments and spends most of his free time rock climbing indoors and outdoors.
Justin Gardner
Sustainability Experience Center Intern
Hello! I’m Justin Gardner, a senior in the College of Agriculture, majoring in Community Environmental Development. I enjoy working in and learning about the environment. I spend a lot of time outdoors on the Student Farm, where I learn about sustainable farming practices and food systems. I am also involved with the Lions Pantry and PSEAS here at Penn State. My favorite experience by far is working with Penn State Sustainability, taking care of the MorningStar House and the pollinator garden. I hope to continue learning about the environment and how humans interact with it to create a better future. :)
Joseph Reno
Building and Grounds Supervisor
Joseph Reno is the Building and Grounds Supervisor at Penn State Fullers Overlook. He was born and raised in Archbald, Pennsylvania. Joseph attended St Thomas Aquinas Elementary School, Bishop O’Hara High School and graduated from the University of Scranton with a degree in Business Management. Joseph then went on to attend Georgia State University in Atlanta, Georgia, majoring in Sports Administration. He worked for the 1996 Olympic and Paralympic Games. He then went on to do an internship at Madison Square Garden in New York City in the facilities department. Upon completion of the internship, he worked in the Special Events and Group Sales Department for 10 years. Joseph also had part-time roles with the New York Knicks & Rangers.
Joseph then decided to take on a more active role in Real Estate Management, balancing his time between Brooklyn, Ny and Scranton, Pa. He managed numerous residential, commercial, and vacation rentals for private owners throughout northeast Pennsylvania and Brooklyn.
In his spare time, Joseph is the Head Girls Varsity Basketball Coach at Honesdale High School. He also coaches AAU travel basketball for NEPA Elite out of Riverfront Sports Complex in Scranton, Pa.
Joseph is very excited about his new role here at Penn State Fullers Overlook. The history of the property and the standards that have been set make it a unique opportunity. He looks forward to making it a special place for present and future generations to experience, while maintaining those high standards that the Fuller family have established.
Emily Weaver
Sustainability Experience Center Coordinator
Emily Weaver is the Sustainability Experience Center Coordinator and a part of Penn State Outreach. She has experience in community development and parks, most notably with the Rail Park in Philadelphia, a three-mile adaptive reuse project transforming former rail lines into public green space. There, she helped steward the physical park while leading environmentally focused research, volunteer programs, and tours.
Emily holds a bachelor’s from John Carroll University and Universidad del Pacífico and a master’s in Cultural Anthropology and Development from Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, where her fieldwork explored how access to nature in areas with limited green space shapes community relationships with environmentalism and sustainability. Outside the office, Emily enjoys working on handmade craft projects, teaching yoga, running, and trying out new vegan recipes.
Marianne Orlandini
Senior Administrative Coordinator, Penn State Fullers Overlook
Marianne Orlandini is the Senior Administrative Coordinator at Penn State Fullers Overlook, helping to coordinate all aspects of the site’s daily activities and long-term planning. She’s hoping to help more faculty and students make the trip to visit the site and knows it can offer their students a great research experience. She enjoys seeing the wildlife enjoying Fullers Overlook property as much as she does. A resident of South Carolina for 20 years prior to coming to Pennsylvania, she didn’t see this type of nature often and appreciates that every moment is to be enjoyed at Overlook.
Communications Social Media & Design Intern
Sustainability in the Workplace Intern
Jaida Copeland is a third- year undergraduate student at Penn State University, studying Corporate Innovation and Entrepreneurship with a minor in Sustainable Leadership. She is currently working as a Sustainable Lab Consultant and a Sustainability in the Workplace Intern with Penn State Sustainability, where she is learning about staff engagement and the new initiatives coming into PSU, while also assisting with creating green labs around campus. She is involved in a variety of clubs including Net Impact (sustainability consulting) and the Corporate Innovation and Entrepreneurship Society, where she hopes to gain experience in all of the fields that interest her.
Her passion for sustainability began in her freshman year of college after researching climate change for an entire semester to create deliverables for a professor she had, and her love for the environment has blossomed ever since! Her study abroad experience in New Zealand and Australia for business and sustainability helped guide her professional desires, and she hopes to eventually enter a consulting firm to foster sustainability initiatives internationally.
Athletics Sustainability Engagement Intern
Deylynd Grant is a graduate student at Penn State pursuing a Master’s in Recreation, Park, and Tourism Management (RPTM). He holds a Bachelor of Science in Sports Management and Finance from Florida State University. He has a dynamic background rooted in sports, business, and community engagement. He is passionate about creating equitable opportunities through sport, enhancing athlete branding, and driving impact through strategic partnerships.
Eco-Author Intern
Sustainability Career and Alumni Programming Intern
Communications Eco-Author Intern
Molly Graham is a Master of Public Policy candidate at Penn State University with a concentration in health and environmental policy. Her passion for sustainability grew through her research on the Cooperative Endangered Species Conservation Fund, where she analyzed how federal funding supports conservation and biodiversity. She is eager to continue exploring the intersections of health equity and environmental resilience through her graduate work.
Molly’s professional experience includes serving as a Program Assistant at Penn State’s Graduate School, an assistant manager in the service industry, and a congressional campaign intern. These roles strengthened her skills in communication, leadership, and policy research, and deepened her commitment to bridging policy design with practical implementation.
Prior to Penn State, Molly graduated from the University of Scranton with a double major in Political Science and Philosophy. Outside of school and work, she enjoys cooking, creating art, and spending time with animals.
