DePaul Sustainability Stewards

Staff Steward: Lisa Gibbons

Meet Lisa Gibbons, Director of Learning Experience Design in the Center for Teaching and Learning. She has worked at DePaul for 19 years. Lisa is a passionate advocate for community access to healthy food and a disruptor of the broken food system in the United States. Her vision to create an alternative business model for healthy food production and distribution aligns well with DePaul University’s mission of promoting health and access within the community.

Lisa’s dedication is exemplified through her work with the Wild Onion Market, a food co-op in the Rogers Park neighborhood of Chicago. Serving as a director and vice-president of the board for five years, she co-led the construction and store design team along with the communications team. Leveraging over 20 years of business experience and her MBA from DePaul, Lisa has helped the Wild Onion Market become an economic engine for the community, providing access to local farmers and producers and fostering community organizing around food sustainability and access.

In addition to her work with the Wild Onion Market, Lisa is an official Openlands Treekeeper, advocating for urban forests in Chicago. She and her husband have a 90-acre farm in Buchanan, Michigan, with plans to restore the prairie, wetlands, and forest, and convert conventionally farmed land to organic. This regeneration project reflects Lisa’s deep commitment to sustainability and ecological restoration.

Lisa’s pursuits exemplify how professional expertise and personal passions can create lasting, positive impacts, inspiring others within the DePaul University community and beyond.

Student Steward: Jakob Deszcz

Jakob Deszcz, who graduated with a B.A. in Environmental Studies in June 2023, organized an effort to collect plastic bags and plastic film on campus. The plastic was collected through bins placed in the Environmental Science and Studies office and the east entrance of the Richardson library.  When the bins were full, Jacob took the plastic bags and film to drop-off locations at local grocery stores that collect them for recycling, like Jewel, Target, and Mariano’s. 

Jakob collected over 500 pounds of plastic bags and film!  Eventually, DePaul was rewarded for Jakob’s efforts with a bench (pictured) made out of recycled material—including recycled plastic bags—that now sits in our quad. 

Jakob went on to participate in a competitive Sustainability Hackathon at DePaul where he, along with his teammates, Laura Murphy and Shanjali Arul, developed a plan for Green Certification for DePaul Dorms.  They took second place in the Hackathon, and Jakob’s concept of collecting plastic bags was folded into the green certification process. 

With creativity and commitment, Jakob has left a legacy of green innovations at DePaul!

Alumni Steward: Danielle Russell

Danielle Russell graduated from DePaul in 2016 with a Bachelor’s in Sociology and minors in Peace, Justice, & Conflict Studies, and Community Service Studies. During her time at DePaul, she was passionate about youth empowerment and engagement through Restorative Justice practices within the Community Peacemakers program. She also worked with young students to improve their reading skills through the READS program. 

When she graduated DePaul, she wanted to learn more about how to engage youth in the most enjoyable and empowering ways possible. So, Danielle joined the Public Allies Americorps program hoping to be placed at a restorative justice or nonviolence-focused youth agency. Instead, she was placed in an environmental organization that she’d never heard of called Openlands to support a “green infrastructure” program. She loved nature, but never saw herself in the environmental field, and was worried she wouldn’t be able to explore youth empowerment work.

On her first day at Openlands, she witnessed in awe as young people she knew through the READS program found focus and peace through gardening. Since then, she has learned about gardening and the environment, where she loves facilitating people’s experiences with nature, especially Black and Brown youth. She has been at Openlands since 2016 and works with school communities to design green schoolyards and activate school gardens. Danielle knows that when children connect to nature and gardening, it helps with their well-being. She sees that ensuring access to nature and environmental wellness are issues of race, gender, and class-based justice. She feels so privileged to be able to help people grow their own food and connect to nature in fun and healing ways.

Faculty Steward: William Gilliland

William Gilliland, an Associate Professor in Biological Sciences, exemplifies the spirit of sustainability through his remarkable initiatives in beekeeping and environmental education. His dedication to fostering a greener campus and community will leave a lasting impact on both the university and the environment.

William’s journey into sustainability began with his involvement in the Howard Area Community Garden. His wife, Katje, applied for a grant from The Bee Conservancy, which led to the installation of a beehive in the community garden. Drawing on his background as an insect biologist, William’s fascination with a different insect species ignited his interest in beekeeping.

This interest translated into a larger initiative, supported by a Quality of Instruction (QIC) award from DePaul to install beehives on campus. William secured permissions from various campus entities, ensuring that the project was aligned with sustainability goals. Three beehives were successfully installed proximate to the Lincoln Park campus, adding not only to the academic landscape, but also to the local ecosystem.

William’s commitment to sustainability extends to his teaching. He recently developed a service-learning course focused on urban beekeeping. This course not only imparts knowledge about beekeeping, but also emphasizes community engagement, and students collaborate with local community gardens to install and maintain beehives, fostering a deeper connection between education and practical sustainability efforts.

The installation of beehives on campus has already shown positive outcomes, including increased pollination in Lincoln Park. While still in its early stages, the initiative has received positive feedback, and William envisions future scientific research involving the bees. William’s efforts are a powerful example of how our faculty can apply their academic interests in projects that benefit our human and non-human communities alike!