Sustainability Faculty Fellows

Adam Charboneau is Lecturer of Sustainability Studies at Stony Brook University and an urban and environmental historian whose research interests lie at the intersections of public policy and planning, sustainability, and uneven development. His scholarship focuses on social, economic, and environmental justice, gentrification, grassroots activism, and the production of space. Dr. Charboneau’s published work has examined appropriations of abandonment, the marketing and media representation of local reclamation campaigns, and the social and environmental consequences of neoliberal governance. His teaching includes courses on systems thinking and systems dynamics, sustainable planning and development, collective action and advocacy, and multiple disciplinary approaches. He is currently investigating urban renewal, redevelopment, and sustainability in Long Island, New York, using area case studies as a means of experiential learning for undergraduates. 

Whitney Crutchfield is a textile expert with a focus on weaving, dyeing, sustainable and low-impact production, and entrepreneurial and marketing strategies. She has been teaching textile practices at the college level since 2012. In addition, Whitney has industry experience as a Textile Designer with Aerie/American Eagle, and she is the founder of the Brooklyn-based educational textile studio, WE GATHER, which offers commission and site-specific interior textile works, hands-on workshops for private and corporate clients, and DIY weaving and dyeing kits for retail customers around the world.

Whitney brings her passion for textiles, their stories, and their ubiquitous global influence to the FIT community. She has special research interests in circularity and waste mitigation in the textile industry, advanced woven structures, and bio-fabricated and electronic materials for weaving. Whitney is the current faculty advisor for FIT’s Natural Dye Garden. 

Neyda V. Gilman is an Associate Librarian at Binghamton University in Binghamton, New York. She is the Assistant Head of Sustainability & STEM Engagement, co-founder of the Sustainability Hub and Seed Library, and Librarian for the School of Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Sciences and departments of Physical Therapy, Occupational Therapy, Speech Language & Pathology, and Environmental Studies. As a librarian she curates information, assists students and faculty with their research, and provides information literacy instruction. She has always valued sustainability, integrating it into personal and work life including all library positions, as well as through campus, professional association, and volunteer work. She created and facilitated the Library Sustainability Committee at Colorado State University, co-created the Sustainability Hub at Binghamton University including the seed library and Equitable Sustainability Literacy Guide, is active on various sustainability related campus committees, currently chairs a committee in the American Library Association’s Sustainability Round Table, and is in the process of starting a Community of Practice through the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education. Her current research focuses on seed libraries and seed saving - particularly with ties to culture, information literacy, sustainability in academia, and sustainability leadership.  

Prof. Nick Henshue has a BS in Environmental Education, Master’s in Biology, and PhD in Ecology. He currently looks for ways to utilize earthworm ecology together with Restoration and Soil Ecology to improve habitats in Western New York. Additionally, he is the Director of Undergraduate Studies for the Department of Environment and Sustainability at the University at Buffalo, He is also on the faculty for the graduate program in Evolution, Ecology and Behavior. 

Will Hong is an Associate Professor in the Department of Digital Media and Journalism at SUNY New Paltz. He holds graduate degrees from Princeton University and the Tisch School of the Arts/NYU and spent two decades in the film and television industry in New York City. Prof. Hong received a professional certificate in Campus Sustainability Leadership from the University of Vermont in 2015 and has led webinars and presented on sustainability pedagogy innovation at AASHE, ICSD (Earth Institute/Columbia University), the Sustainability Curriculum Consortium Faculty Conference, and the All In: Higher Education, Interdisciplinarity and Our Collective Climate Challenge Symposium at Duke University (2024). He lives in upstate New York with his spouse and their sensitive beagle. 

Jeremy Jiménez received his doctorate in International and Comparative Education at Stanford University in 2017. He is currently an Associate Professor in the Foundations and Social Advocacy Department at SUNY Cortland. He has previously taught high school social studies for over a decade in Norway, the USA, and Venezuela. He currently teaches (future teachers) about race, class, gender, and international issues in education and how they intersect with environmental justice. His current research focuses on how to prepare educators and schools for our looming transition towards life after fossil fuels, with special reverence for Indigenous perspectives and conceptions of land stewardship. While his younger self traveled extensively (+180 countries), these days Jeremy prefers to vagabond locally via hiking, biking, and skiing in the woods, or cultivating his permaculture garden at home, admiring the beautiful biodiversity surprises that emerge.  

Orla Smyth LoPiccolo is a registered architect and professor at Farmingdale State College, where she served as Chair of the Department of Architecture and Construction Management. Since 2008, she has taught 17 courses, integrating sustainability, applied learning, and service learning. She developed the General Education course ARC100 Introduction to Architecture and Culture, introducing sustainability through design thinking and field trips for students across disciplines. In ARC310 Construction Design, 347 students documented 100 community partner buildings and proposed energy-efficient retrofit strategies, linking coursework to the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Professor LoPiccolo served on FSC’s Sustainability Committee and Green Building Institute and initiated the renewable energy demonstration project – Smart Energy House. She served as Chair of the Farmingdale Executive Committee, Chair of the Applied Learning Review Board, and member of SUNY’s Carnegie Community Engagement Committee. She also leads the Hicks Hall Conceptual Student Competition.

A Certified Passive House Designer, she has published over 20 scholarly papers on sustainability pedagogy, emphasizing applied learning, interdisciplinary collaboration, and climate-responsive teaching. She participated in the 2024 SUNY Climate Solutions Community of Practice. Recipient of the SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching and a first-generation college graduate, she champions equity, access, leadership, and climate literacy. 

Rebecca Pinder grew up in rural upstate New York where she spent her time exploring the local landscape and the forests of the Adirondacks. Her lifelong fascination with streams and lakes led her to pursue a degree in Biology from SUNY Cortland and she later studied salamander biology at John Carroll University in Cleveland, Ohio, where she received her Master’s degree in Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior. After returning to New York, she attended the University at Albany and studied interactions between earthworms and stream-side salamanders. Earning her doctoral degree, she looked to share her love of the natural world with others and started teaching biological sciences at Columbia-Greene Community College. She is currently the coordinator for the college’s Environmental Biology Program and teaches Environmental Science, Anatomy and Physiology courses as well as General Ecology courses, including the River Ecology course held at the Hudson River Field Station. She still researches salamander and earthworm interactions along streams and is a founding member of the Healthy Soil Collaborative. She spends her spare time gardening and hiking through the Catskill Mountains with her family. 

Jack Tessier is a plant ecologist, focusing on forest understory plants. He attended SUNY Geneseo for bachelor's and master's degrees in Biology and SUNY ESF for a PhD in Environmental and Forest Biology. Jack taught for five years at Central Connecticut State University before moving to SUNY Delhi in 2007, where he teaches ecology and environment courses and manages the AS in Environmental Studies and the BS in Sustainability.  

Augusta Williams, ScD, MPH is an Assistant Professor at SUNY Upstate Medical University in the Department of Public Health and Preventive Medicine. She serves as the Assistant Director of Upstate’s Public Health Program, as well as the Assistant Director of the Central New York Children’s Environmental Health Center. Dr. Williams examines the impacts of extreme weather and environmental hazards on public health and safety, specifically on workers and children. She also is involved in medical education scholarship, evaluating best practices for disseminating climate and health information to health professional learners. She was formerly a heat safety technical expert at the Occupational Health and Safety Administration. Originally from Lewis County, NY, she earned a BS in biology and atmospheric sciences from Hobart and William Smith Colleges, her MPH from Columbia University, and her doctoral degree from Harvard University. Since starting at Upstate in 2022, she has expanded environmental health educational and research opportunities for students, including the creation of a new climate and health elective course for health professional students.  

Jean Yang is an Assistant Professor of Landscape Architecture at SUNY ESF, where her teaching and research focus on making sustainability tangible through creative, participatory methods. A first-generation American and former SUNY Civic Discourse Fellow, she has worked across campuses, neighborhoods, and international contexts to help people see climate literacy not just as a concept, but as something lived and shared.

Before joining ESF, Jean served as Project Manager and Design Lead for Los Angeles County’s first Sustainability Plan and the Upper Los Angeles River Master Plan, integrating resilience, equity, and biodiversity into public policy and design. Today, she translates those lessons into studios and workshops that connect ecological systems with cultural and civic life.

Her work includes the forthcoming book The Activist University (Routledge), which documents strategies for embedding justice and sustainability into curriculum and institutional practice, as well as sticker-based visual toolkits that have been used by the United Nations, the National Park Service, and community organizations from Samoa to Syracuse.

Jean is eager to join the SUNY Sustainability Fellows not only to share these methods, but to learn from colleagues across disciplines. She sees the fellowship as a chance to help build a SUNY-wide community rooted in equity, creativity, and shared learning.