The National Council on Student Development is pleased to announce the Keynote Speakers for its 2009 National Conference.

Dr. Spilde has led Lane Community College to receive several grants for 2009 from the Meyer Fund for a Sustainable Environment. Meyer funds provide seed funding to faculty for research and teaching initiatives that are innovative, interdisciplinary and promote a sustainable society.

This keynote presentation will provide insight on how to create an interdisciplinary learning environment that builds understanding of sustainable ecological, social, and economic systems, concern for environmental justice, and the competence to act on such knowledge.

Mary Spilde has served as the President of Lane Community College since 2001. In 1995, she joined Lane as the Vice President for Instructional Services. In 1997, she became Vice President for Instruction and Student Services. Prior to that, she served 15 years at Linn-Benton Community College in Albany, Oregon, in a variety of positions including dean of business, health, and training. Mary served on the Oregon Workforce Quality Council for six years and the Oregon Workforce Investment Board for three years as well as serving on numerous local boards.

Mary earned a bachelor’s degree in business and social systems and a law degree from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. She completed a master’s in adult education and a doctorate in post-secondary education at Oregon State University. Lane Community College is a League for Innovation in the Community College board college, and Mary currently serves as board chair.

Presently, Mary serves on the executive committee and is chair of the American Association of Community Colleges. She is a board member of the National Institute for Leadership Development, the American Association of Colleges and Universities, and the National Committee for Cooperative Education. Mary also serves on the steering committee for the American Presidents’ Commitment to Climate Control, and she co-chairs Oregon’s Post-Secondary Quality Education Commission. Mary is a former board member of the American Association of Women in Community Colleges and was president of that organization from 2002 - 2004.

Mary has a passion for learning about leadership and organizational change. She focuses much of her time and energy at Lane on leading and supporting initiatives that will develop a culture of innovation, achievement, and improvements in the learning environment.

For the last 10 years, Garett has had a slightly different approach to environmental activism and sustainability. Rather than protesting in the streets, he has focused his energy on building community partnerships that shift systems and re-value our relationship with human, natural and capital resources. In 2007 and 2008, Garett ran the media relations and was a key strategic advisor for Focus the Nation. After the inaugural teach-in event, Garett spent 12 months working at Metropolitan Group—the nation’s leading social change agency—where he worked with the Lincoln Center Institute to design a national initiative on the power of imagination, New Seasons Market on regional food economy issues, RugMark Foundation on ending child labor in SE Asia and Healthy Democracy Oregon on a new deliberative democracy model. Garett has also worked in the health care world on the concept of "healthy buildings, healthy food, healthy patients" by integrating green building standards and facilitating inter-hospital incentives that encourage dieticians to source their food from local farms. In 2005, Garett was a founding artist of Clif Bar’s signature Green Notes program. The program marries the power of music with a passion for the environment in the interest of protecting the places we play for our future generations. Clif Bar and Garett will team up again in 2009 to launch his next album, Huckleberry Tree. His label, Three Pin Records, is a 1% for the Planet business member.