2026 Sustainability Workshop:

Friday and Saturday, February 27 – 28, 2026
UH Mānoa campus and Waikakeakua, Mānoa Valley

We invite you to a workshop focused on sustainability curriculum for undergraduates. Participants will be introduced to frameworks for integrating social, economic and environmental sustainability in new or existing courses.

This annual workshop is presented by the College of Social Sciences at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, sponsored by the Institute for Sustainability and Resilience (ISR) in collaboration with the Association for Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) and the national Science Education for New Civic Engagements and Responsibilities (SENCER) Center for Innovation West.

Benefits of Participation

• Explore the concept of sustainability across different fields and learn how to integrate it into new or existing courses.
• Be inspired to work with indigenous and local communities to include a sense of place and diverse forms of knowledge in the curriculum.
• Learn how to use a campus and its sustainability programs as teaching resources.
• Explore transdisciplinary connections with other faculty and programs in home institutions and beyond.
• Share resources for developing and enhancing sustainability content in courses.
• Gain knowledge on climate change and ideas on incorporating related issues in courses.
• Obtain a digital certificate of completion for a promotion dossier or other career purposes.

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Waiakeakua

The field trip will take the participants from the UH Mānoa Campus to the Native Forest Restoration site, Waiakeakua, a sacred place in the back of Mānoa Valley where we follow the protocol of the host culture. The field activity will start at 8 a.m. and will include light snacks. Be ready to get muddy as the site is explored. 

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Facilitators

Ulla Hasager Ulla Hasager, PhD, is the CSS Director of Civic Engagement and Senior Advisor to the CSS Dean. She leads engaged curriculum creation and professional and program development across communities, institutions, and disciplines. For example, she leads the innovative Mālama I Nā Ahupuaʻa service-learning program, which is internationally recognized as a model for sustainability education. She coordinates SENCER Hawaiʻi (Science Education for New Civic Engagements and Responsibilities), and is co-director of the national SENCER’s Center for Innovation West. 

Krista Hiser, PhD, is a Professor at Kapiʻolani Community College and Director of the Sustainability Education Accreditation Commission for the National Sustainability Society. She has served as the Senior Advisor for Sustainability Education at the Global Council for Science and the Environment and established the University of Hawaiʻi System Center for Sustainability Across the Curriculum. She is also the host of AASHE’s Ultimate Cli Fi Book Club, and teaches writing and literature with an emphasis on sustainability and climate change education. Her doctoral degree is in Educational Administration from UH Mānoa.

Aya H. Kimura is a Professor of Sociology, Senior Advisor to the CSS Dean, and Director of the University of Hawaiʻi Center on Sustainability Across the Curriculum. She has an MA in Environmental Studies (Yale) and a PhD in Sociology (University of Wisconsin-Madison). Her books include Radiation Brain Moms and Citizen Scientists: The Gender Politics of Food Contamination after Fukushima (Duke University Press: the Rachel Carson Book Award from the Society for Social Studies of Science) and Hidden Hunger: Gender and the Politics of Smarter Foods (Cornell University Press: Outstanding Scholarly Award from the Rural Sociological Society).

Guests Speakers

Kamakanaokealoha M. Aquino is from Waimānalo, O‘ahu, and is the Native Hawaiian Coordinator for Hui ʻĀina Pilipili: the CSS Native Hawaiian Initiative, UH Mānoa. He coordinates and supports Hawaiian-centered programs in teaching, learning, service and scholarship, including the College’s Nā Koʻokoʻo: Hawaiian Leadership Program for students, and Hulihia: Decolonizing and Indigenizing Social Sciences Curriculum Program for College faculty.

Charles “Chip” Fletcher is the Dean of the School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology at UH Mānoa and Director of the Coastal Research Collaborative team. He is a special advisor to Governor Josh Green for Climate and Resilience and serves on the Governor’s Climate Advisory Team and Decarbonization Working Group. His research focuses on assimilating global trends in decarbonization and integrating climate projections for Hawaiʻi. He teaches Earth Science and Climate Change, and, with his students, has published over 100 peer-reviewed scientific research papers. He is the author of three textbooks, a frequent public speaker, and a contributor to local and national media inquiries.

Tamara Ticktin is a Professor in the School of Life Sciences. Her interests lie at the interface of people, plants and conservation, including the sustainable use of wild plant species and biocultural conservation and restoration. Over the years she has had the privilege of mentoring many graduate students, from Hawai‘i and across the globe, working on sustainability issues. In 2018 she was awarded the Peter J Garrod Distinguished Graduate Mentoring award.

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This event is co-sponsored by the UH Mānoa College of Social Sciences and the OFDAS Center for Teaching Excellence