“The greatest threat to our planet is the belief that someone else will save it.”
– Robert Swan
Environmental Sustainability & Green Building
I am dedicated to working with organizations and professionals that have the vision and courage to bring meaningful, measurable change to our global community. In the coming decades, we will face growing inequality, a lack of jobs and income, global climate change, migration and refugees, and a host of other issues that the next generation will need to overcome. All of which will now be exacerbated by the global Covid19 pandemic. I am keenly interested in the roles education, nonprofits and government will play in addressing how humanity will tackle these issues and how we can help pave the way for the next generations to combat the consequences of our current priorities.
As my career has developed, I have become more and more convinced that we all, especially our youth, need to form a healthier relationship to our natural world. With this in mind I decided to try to go beyond simply integrating environmental concerns into a progressive education and founded a school designed to utilize modern environmental and progressive educational practices and curriculum and built to meet the standards set by the USGBC’s Center for Green Schools.
Antigua Green School
As the Director of the Antigua Green School I was responsible for managing a team of architects, contractors, investors, educators and parents in designing and building the new purpose built school facilities, designed to align with the U.S. Green School Council standards, to serve as a modern, progressive educational environment, and meet the needs of our K-12 Cambridge International School.
The Green School was designed to leave a small carbon footprint, and utilize local materials and building methods. We built every classroom with glass walls that completely open towards a central garden, giving students and teachers the opportunity to transition freely between the outside and inside teaching spaces. We used sustainable materials such as Elias Fishers, Eco InterBlocks whenever possible.
Las Manos de Christine
In 2010 we partnered with Jonathon and Emma Engels, a dynamic pair of educators and permaculturalists, who took over the LMdC program in El Hato and built the first structures for the public school. We used an Earth bag method to shore up the sides of the mountain and then utilized a method developed by Pablo Swayze, a local artist and philanthropist to build the walls and roofs. Pablo’s ingenious method utilizes the readily available lamina, which is riveted to form a series of tubes that make it a strong, sustainable and affordable building option.
We also successfully built a sustainable library and a Early Childhood Learning Center, as well as an outdoor-classroom and surrounding gardens and play-areas, using the same Eco-friendly building methods.
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
– Albert Einstein
Eco - InterBlock
Simple, packed earth interlocking bricks, designed by Elias Fisher, and made to bring a sustainable building solution to Guatemala. The Antigua Green School utilized these eco-friendly building materials in our Middle School and High School buildings, designed to meet the strict standards of the U.S. Green School Council and the standards of Cambridge International Schools.
I began my career as an Americorps volunteer building rooftop gardens for underfunded New York City public schools and libraries, and running an environmentally focused program for inmates at Rikers Island. These first vital experiences began to shape my ideas about social justice, sustainability and environmental education, and would eventually lead me full circle to the founding of the Green School in Antigua, Guatemala.
I grew up in the New Mexican desert riding horses on my uncle's sheep ranch, and am an avid hiker, mountain biker and explorer of cities, countries and the wilderness. I have traveled to over 30 countries, hiked through national parks and jungles, and have summited several mountains and volcanoes. I am passionate about getting kids out of the classroom to experience and explore our natural world.