Aloha

Diamond, Joan M. | August 30, 2018 | Leave a Comment

Aloha,

As most of you know, the word “aloha” is both a welcoming and a farewell and today we say “Aloha” to Erka Gavenus, MAHB departing Director of Communications and to Brittany Ganguly, our new Director.

Erika joined the MAHB staff while a graduate student in Public Health at UC Berkeley. Erika helped with the redesign of the MAHB website with particular attention to strategies for increasing member engagement, expanding the library, and providing greater access to resources and materials. Additionally, Erika managed the MAHB blog series (we recently posted #300 https://mahb.stanford.edu/?s=blogs ) and worked with many of you to write blogs and engage in the conversation. She oversaw the MAHB Arts Initiative  https://mahb.stanford.edu/creative-expressions/mahb-art-community-recap/ to bring in creative approaches to communicating about existential threats; for the 6&6 Collaborative Project she interviewed 6 artist-scientist partners and authored a series of articles.

A major contribution was compiling a comprehensive annotated bibliography covering alternatives to a pro-growth economy. This has proven to be a valuable resource to educators, interested citizens, students, and others interested in understanding the risk of a collapse of civilization. https://mahb.stanford.edu/page/2/?s=growth+economics

Perhaps most significant were the relationships she built with so many of you and enjoyed so deeply. Erika learned from you and was inspired by your passion and interest.

Erika is leaving the MAHB to fulfill her goal of many years: She will be pursuing her doctoral studies at University of British Columbia in the Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability Dr. Terre Satterfield will supervise her work in how changes in access to coastal resources affect community health, with particular attention to social and cultural health among indigenous communities. This focus builds not only on her work with the MAHB but her life in Homer, Alaska.

Her contribution has been outstanding but more significantly, we will miss her positive, curious, highly productive presence.  We are very happy for her and her new husband, Mark.

As our Senior Associate, Erika will remain an important part of the MAHB community consulting, advising and sharing ideas and insight.

 

Joining us at the MAHB is Brittany Ganguly. After serving in the Peace Corps, Brittany completed a dual Masters in Social Work and Public Health from Berkeley in May, 2018. https://angel.co/brittany-ganguly

While a student she worked with Professor Malcolm Potts to teach and expand his Sustainability 101: Opportunities and Challenges course where she engaged with and learned from many different leaders in the areas of sustainability and our future as a society. She is as excited as Paul and I are to support her in bringing this expertise and experience to the MAHB. Over the coming months I expect we will see some changes as the MAHB grows and changes with time.

Brittany writes:

 I look forward to bringing this knowledge and my enthusiasm to the MAHB. I am excited about reaching out to new members, engaging them in our work and increasing conversations in our Forums section. My goal is to support the MAHB as a platform that any interested individual or group can find useful for conversations, research, community engagement and personal reflection.

Please join me in warm alohas to Erika and Brittany.

 

Joan M. Diamond

Executive Director

Millennium Alliance for Humanity and the Biosphere (MAHB)

The views and opinions expressed through the MAHB Website are those of the contributing authors and do not necessarily reflect an official position of the MAHB. The MAHB aims to share a range of perspectives and welcomes the discussions that they prompt.