Nan Jenks-Jay Is Only the Third Person to Win AASHE’s Lifetime Achievement Award

Nan Jenks-Jay, former dean of environmental affairs at Middlebury College in Vermont, has received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education. She is only the third person to win the award.

AASHE is the leading association for the advancement of sustainability in higher education. It serves higher education faculty, administrators, staff, and students who are change agents and drivers of sustainability innovation. Established in 2005, AASHE has more than 900 members in the United States, nine Canadian provinces, and 20 countries.

In presenting the award, AASHE stated that Jenks-Jay “has been actively involved in the advancement of environmental studies programs, their transformation of higher education and their impact on regional sustainability. She has been immersed in a full spectrum of environmentally-related work as an educator, field scientist, land trust founder, consultant, board member, and administrator.”

Jenks-Jay served as dean of environmental affairs and taught in the Environmental Studies Program at Middlebury College for 21 years before retiring in 2019. In her role as dean, she worked to advance Middlebury’s Environmental Studies Program, as well as foster an integrated institutional vision for sustainability. Before joining the faculty at Middlebury College, Jenks-Jay was the director of environmental studies and Hedco Endowed Professor at the University of Redlands in California. Earlier, she taught at Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts for 14 years.

A native of Ohio, Jenks-Jay earned her graduate degree at the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies at Yale University.