Meet Our Staff

University Sustainability’s offices are located in the Facilities Administration Building on Fairfax Campus, on the second floor.  Contact us at gogreen@gmu.edu to get connected with us!

Greg Farley
Director of University Sustainability George Mason University

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.

Sarah D’Alexander
Sustainability Program Manager – Patriot Green Fund

Sarah joined the University Sustainability in 2019 where she manages the Patriot Green Fund, a grant designed to support the Mason community with projects that help build a culture of sustainability on its campuses.

Prior to Mason, Sarah worked as the Lead Coordinator at the University of Maryland’s Office of Community Engagement where she created mutually beneficial and collaborative partnerships with community stakeholders as well as organized an annual, large-scale day of service. Sarah has a Graduate Certificate in Leadership and Management from University of Maryland Global Campus, received her B.A. in Biology and Environmental Studies from Ohio Wesleyan University, and earned her MBA from George Mason University. While an undergraduate student, she created the university’s first major waste diversion program that collected over 20 tons of reusable items. After graduation, Sarah served as a Team Leader in AmeriCorps NCCC where she traveled the country to work with different nonprofit organizations in their missions of energy conservation, environmental stewardship, agriculture, and disaster relief. Sarah is also trained in organic farming practices from her time working as an apprentice at Crown Point Ecology Center in Akron, Ohio.

Doni Nolan
Sustainability Program Manager, Greenhouse & Gardens

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 of the GMU Organic Gardening Association (GOGA). She joined University Sustainability in 2013 as the summer intern for the Potomac Heights Organic Vegetable Garden (PHVG) and later as the assistant coordinator for the Permaculture Design Certification Course (PDCC).

After working all summer in the garden, she knew that growing food was her passion. In 2014, she was hired part time to start the hydroponic greenhouse program at the President’s Park Greenhouse. The facility is still going strong today, hosting hundreds of volunteers every semester, and growing lettuce, microgreens, and culinary herbs year round, which are served in the dining halls and sold to customers on campus. 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 for the School of Integrative Studies. She is now pursuing her PhD in Biosciences with the College of Science, studying beneficial microbes that treat Pythium root rot disease 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 dnolan6@gmu.edu, or find her in the campus gardens during the weekly volunteer shifts.

Colleen Regan
Zero Waste Specialist

In her current role as a Zero Waste Specialist in University Sustainability, Colleen works in close partnership with the Mason Facilities Waste & Recycling team to support campus recycling initiatives, the expansion of composting operations, and the implementation of reusables across Mason’s campuses. She is also a member of the Mason Sustainability Council’s Circular Economy and Zero Waste (CEZW) Task Force where she advances strategic pilot projects in support of Mason’s pivot away from single-use plastics and polystyrene. She is a Mason alumna and holds a Bachelor’s in Environmental and Sustainability Studies. 

Amber Saxton
Sustainability Program Manager – Campus Efficiencies

Amber has 8+ years in sustainability policy, planning, education, and assessment. She recently supported the launch of the Mason Sustainability Council (MSC), 2020 AASHE STARS reporting, and recently conducted Mason’s first internal GHG inventory. She manages various energy efficiency (EE), alternative transportation, green purchasing, and zero waste programs, including a collaboration with Mason Athletics, Sodexo, EagleBank Arena, and over 60 volunteers that earned 1st place nationally for waste diversion in 2020. She led sessions at AASHE’s 2020 Global Conference on plastics pollution, and recently authored NWF’s CR2ZW “Plastics Reduction for College Campuses Recognition” program launching summer 2021, which has secured recurring AASHE STARS credit. To engage the Mason community, she and Facilities ITS developed an ArcGIS ‘Sustainable Mason Map,’ and are working on a sustainability dashboard. She has also taught Sustainability Project Management as an adjunct instructor for Mason (SIS) and was the Coordinator and a Faculty Liaison for the Environment & Sustainability LLC. She was selected by the National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL) as one of 18 Energy Execs for NREL’s 2021 Executive Energy Leadership Academy.

Amber got her start at the Alliance to Save Energy in D.C. as an International Research Associate, where she worked on projects for the World Bank on EE in new/ existing buildings in the EU; APERC studies on alt. transportation; US DOE’s US-China Eco-City Exchanges; EM&V policy development for Vietnam; and LEAD gender strategy for climate change adaptation/ mitigation for the USAID, an ICF sub-contract. She holds an M.A. in Foreign Policy Analysis & Conflict Negotiation from Seton Hall University and a B.A. from Ohio University. She did her graduate internship at The Clinton Foundation in Domestic Policy, and consulted-for-credit in IIE’s Heiskell award-winning Global Leadership Center for the U.S. Senate, foreign embassies, and Procter & Gamble.

 

Student Staff

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