The origin story and people behind…

MAJOR SUSTAINABILITY

Major Sustainability is the result of a “major” effort by over 30 faculty and students from across the Smeal College of Business, led by the Center for the Business of Sustainability. We began in 2017 with a simple question, “What should business schools be teaching students about sustainability?” We decided to answer that question for each major. Thus, “Major Sustainability” was born–the idea that each major plays a role in sustainability. Later, we decided to add minors as well.

After taking two years to identify sustainability learning objectives by major, we decided to create a resource to make them accessible for all business schools. A student and faculty advisor(s) worked on each business major and minor to create content to make the learning objectives concrete, practical, and credible for students and faculty. Each set of webpages for a particular major was user-tested by current students, and reviewed by faculty and by an industry expert.

The site continues to be maintained by the Center for the Business of Sustainability, and was made possible with generous support from its donors.

Erik Foley, Former Director of the Center for the Business of Sustainability is responsible for the vision, development, and outreach related to the BEST (Business Education for Sustainable Transformation) and Major Sustainability project.

Susie Wright, Associate Teaching Professor of Accounting, is responsible for overseeing student authors’ content creation within their majors.

Katherine Schreiner will graduate from the Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications with a B.A. in Broadcast Journalism and a minor in Theatre in December 2025.

Saige Cestone graduated from the Smeal College of Business with a B.S. in Management and minors in Legal Environment of Business, Labor and Employment Relations and Sociology in May 2021.

Taylor Hutsell graduated from the Smeal College of Business in Risk Management and Economics in May 2022.

Cece Minnick graduated Summa Cum Laude from the Smeal College of Business with a B.S. in Accounting and minors in Information Systems Management and Legal Environment of Business in May of 2020.

Riya Nandedkar graduated from the Smeal College of Business with a B.S. in Supply Chain and Information Systems and minors in Economics and Entrepreneurship and Innovation in May 2021.

Jack Vlazny graduated Summa Cum Laude from the Smeal College of Business with a B.S. in Management Information Systems in May of 2022.

Lisa Bolton, Professor of Marketing

Dave Cather, Clinical Professor of Risk Management

Dan Cahoy, Robert G. and Caroline Schwartz Professor, Research Director of Center for the Business of Sustainability

Shelley Curling, Assistant Teaching Professor of Accounting

Carolyn Dang, Assistant Professor & Cook Fellow in Ethics

Mark DesJardine, Assistant Professor of Management and Organization

Dan Guide, Smeal Chaired Professor of Operations & Supply Chain Management

Christoph Hinkleman, Clinical Associate Professor of Finance

Ed Jenkins, Professor of Practice in Accounting

Ron Johnson, Associate Teaching Professor of Management and Organization

Art Jones, Associate Teaching Professor of Management Information Systems

Kyle Kaplan, Clinical Assistant Professor of Business Law

Maurie Kelly, Director of the Pennsylvania Spatial Data Access, Instructor of Risk Management

Akhil Kumar, Professor of Management Information Systems

Mallory Meehan, Assistant Clinical Professor of Real Estate

Jeanette Miller, Associate Director of Farrell Center for Corporate Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Assistant Clinical Professor of Entrepreneurship

Celeste Newcomb, Instructor of Management and Organization