University Sustainability’s offices are located in the Facilities Administration Building on Fairfax Campus, on the second floor. Reach out to us at @SustainMason on Instagram!
Greg Farley is Director of University Sustainability for George Mason University in Fairfax, VA. He has held similar positions at Washington College (Chestertown, MD) and at Chesapeake College (Wye Mills, MD), where he was also an award-winning instructor and director of the Chesapeake College Center for Leadership in Environmental Education. His career in sustainability began as a visiting scholar at the Sustainable Living Institute of Maui (SLIM), part of the University of Hawai‘i Maui College, where he also co-edited a book, “Thinking Like an Island,” with SLIM Director Jennifer Chirico. A biologist by training, he holds degrees from Duke University and Florida State University.
Donielle Nolan (Doni for short) has been at Mason since 2010 when she started as an undergraduate student studying biology and volunteering as the president for the garden club. In 2014, she was hired part time to start the hydroponic greenhouse program at the President’s Park Greenhouse. She became full time staff in 2016 when she combined the greenhouse and gardens into a single program.
Doni received her Master’s of Science in plant science and pest management in 2018 and began teaching sustainability courses as adjunct faculty. She is now pursuing her PhD in Biosciences, studying root rot disease and microbial treatments in hydroponic systems. Her passion and joy are contagious as she engages and educates the community about sustainable food production, composting, herbal medicine and so much more. If you would like to get involved with the Greenhouse & Gardens Program, or have a landscaping related project idea, please contact Doni at [email protected], or sign up for the weekly volunteer shifts.
In her current role as a Program Manager for Zero Waste Mason (ZWM), Colleen oversees a variety of reuse/recovery initiatives to decrease waste incineration and address basic needs insecurity. Items collected at Patriot Packout (PPO) and Mason’s free store are redistributed to Mason Patriots and local community members, preventing useful items from ending up in the trash.
Colleen also partners with team members in University Sustainability, Facilities Management, Housing and Residence Life, community organizations, vendors, and various Mason departments to support waste diversion initiatives and track Mason’s diversion improvement. These include the Better Bins Preview, ZWM standards testing, campus recycling initiatives (e.g., glass recycling), and the expansion of composting, food recovery, and resuables in campus operations. She is a Mason alumna and holds a Bachelor’s in Environmental and Sustainability Studies.
Amber is a sustainability expert who oversees Mason’s institutional sustainability assessment and reporting efforts, like AASHE STARS. She also advises and partners with internal/external stakeholders in Auxiliary and Business Services (ABS), Facilities, Purchasing, Transportation, and peer institutions to improve sustainability best practice, circularity, and resource efficiency in campus operations, contracts, purchasing, data reporting, policy, planning, and standards development. She has secured more than $350,000 in grants and investments to support innovative initiatives to ‘green’ Mason and has provided strategic input as a committee member on Mason RFPs and contract negotiations worth over $300 million. Amber has represented Mason as a speaker national conferences and in 2020, she authored the National Wildlife Federation’s collegiate waste reduction certification program as a board member. In 2022, she co-led a Mason task force with ABS that earned Virginia’s prestigious Governor’s Environmental Excellence Award.
Amber, who has over nine years of experience, began her career as a research associate at the Alliance to Save Energy. She has consulted on projects for clients including the U.S. government, international organizations, and Fortune 500 companies. She has taught at Mason and acted as faculty liaison and coordinator for its Sustainability LLC. Her continuing education includes certificates in Data Visualization (University of Washington, 2024), Carbon Footprinting (University of New Hampshire, 2023), and Executive Education in Sustainability Leadership (Harvard University, 2021). In 2021, she was one of only 18 individuals selected for the U.S. National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s (NREL) Executive Energy Leadership Academy.
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