The Lead Speakers

Dr Geoffrey Chase

Geoffrey Chase, the Dean of Undergraduate Studies and the Director of the Center for Regional Sustainability at San Diego State University, attended Ohio Wesleyan University, where he received the BA in English in 1971. Dr. Chase joined Northern Arizona University in 1992 as the Director of English Composition. While at Northern Arizona University, Chase also served as English Department Chair, Dean of Liberal Studies, and as the Associate Provost for Undergraduate Studies. At NAU, he revamped the composition curriculum to give it an environmental focus and became a leader of the Ponderosa Project, a faculty development project aimed at helping faculty from throughout the university integrate issues of environmental sustainability into their courses. The Ponderosa Project has become a model faculty development project that has been introduced to faculty on more than 175 campuses in the United States and Canada.

In 2004 he co-edited, with Peggy Barlett, Sustainability on Campus: Stories and Strategies for Change, which was published by MIT Press. He currently serves as Board Chair for the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE). He has also served on the Executive Committee for the American Conference of Academic Deans (ACAD), as Co-Chair for the Proposal Review Committee for the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC), and has served as team chair for accreditation teams. Dr. Chase lectures widely on sustainability in higher education and, with Peggy Barlett, offers workshops on institutional change, curriculum, and sustainability.

More details on his current work leading curriculum change for sustainability

Professor Paul Trowler

Paul's research focus is change and the implementation of higher education policy particularly at institutional and departmental level. His research and evaluation work focuses especially on the significance of disciplinary and contextually-specific locations for leadership and change management. He has a particular interest in academic staff and organizational learning as they relate to the enhancement of teaching and learning in higher education. Paul is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and an active member of international organizations involved in higher education research and evaluation. Paul was the main organizer for the first three Higher Education Close Up conferences, the last in 2006. These are devoted to fine-grained research into higher education. Higher Education Close Up 4 was held in Cape Town in 2008 and Close Up 5 will be held at Lancaster University in July 2010.

Recent works include

• Becher, T. and Trowler, P. (2001) Academic Tribes and Territories: intellectual enquiry and the cultures of disciplines (2nd edition). Buckingham: Open University Press/SRHE.
• Trowler, P. (2008) Cultures and Change in Higher Education. London: PalgraveMacmillan. Bamber, V., Trowler, P., Saunders, M. and Knight, P. (2009)Enhancing Teaching, Learning, Assessment and Curriculum in Higher Education. London: Open University Press.

Dr Peter Hopkinson

Peter is Director of Education for Sustainable Development at the University of Bradford and Co-Director of the Higher Education Environmental Performance Improvement project. Peter has led the £3.1M HEFCE funded Ecoversity StuDent project to embed sustainable development in the 'living and learning experience' of all students at the University of Bradford. This project has been a catalyst for the institution wide Ecoversity programme, which won the Times Higher Award 'Outstanding Contribution to Sustainable development' 2009 and also the Sector wide Green Gown Continuous Improvement - Institutional Change and a 'Highly Commended' in Courses category for work on ESD (both 2009). Ecoversity was also flagged as a sector leader in both 'teaching and learning' and 'integration' by Universities that Count; the sector wide index on Corporate Social responsibility. The core Ecoversity StuDent team will be lead facilitators for the workshops on Day 1 of the conference.

Mr Steve Egan

Steve Egan has been Director of Finance and Corporate resources at HEFCE since 1996. In this role he has been responsible for the rewarding and developing staff initiative, creating the Equality Challenge Unit, the transparency review, project capital and the Council's work in leadership, governance and management which includes sustainable development and corporate social responsibility.

Professor Peter James

Peter is Professor of Environmental Management at the University of Bradford and Co-Director of the HEFCE funded HEEPI project. Peter has a specific interest in promoting sustainability improvements in complex organizational settings where where action requires technical understanding and cross-functional collaboration - green IT (SusteIT), high performance buildings (HiPerBUILD) and sustainable laboratories (S-Lab). His work on Sustainable Universities can be found at www.goodcampus.org. His previous career included spells as a management consultant, as a BBC journalist and as founding CEO of the Centre for Sustainable Engineering. In his non-Bradford time, he continues to work as an environmental and business consultant and as advisor to Government departments and RDAs. His publications include books on Driving Eco-Innovation, Sustainable Measures and The Green Bottom Line.

Professor David J. Francis

Professor David J. Francis is Chair of African Peace and Conflict Studies in the Department of Peace Studies and holds the UNESCO Chair at the University of Bradford . He established the Africa Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies (now the John & Elnora Ferguson Centre for African Studies (JEFCAS) and served as its Founding Director until 2008. During this time, he led the implementation of the £1.75 million Allan & Nesta Ferguson Trust project grant to the African Centre on 'Working for Durable Peace and Sustainable Development in Africa'.

His research focuses on the nexus of peace-security and development in transition societies in Sub-Saharan Africa and has published six books and a number of journal articles, book chapters and policy reports. 

His recent publication is 'US Strategy in Africa: AFRICOM, Terrorism and Security Challenges' Routledge, Feb. 2010.

Michael Grove

Michael Grove is director of the National HE STEM Programme, University of Birmingham. Michael's academic background is as a  Physicist with a particular interest in the polarisation of the cosmic microwave background radiation.  He has previously worked on issues surrounding the learning and teaching of mathematics within higher education, and his interests include supporting students at the transition to university where he remains a member of the successful mathcentre and mathtutor teams, the teaching of mechanics, supporting the professional development of new academic members of staff and part-time teachers, and developing graduate and employability skills to better prepare students for the workplace. He is a former member of the Higher Education Academy's Strategic Advisory Forum, and current Chair of the Mathematics Working Group for the 14 - 19 Science Diploma.

Michael was directly involved in developing the proposal for the HEFCE funded More Maths Grads initiative and its subsequent implementation, and was a member of the team that developed the proposal for the National HE STEM Programme in 2009. Michael was appointed Director of the National HE STEM Programme in November 2009, and is responsible for its overall strategic direction and the interaction of the programme at a national policy level.

Roger Bond

A Chartered Surveyor by profession, Roger has worked in property for thirty years, in Higher Education for thirteen years and is currently Director of Estates at the University of East Anglia, previously he held the role at Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen and the University of Hertfordshire.

Roger is proud to be Deputy Chair of the Governing body and is on the Resource Committee (School budget and spending) and Strategy Committee (School development and future planning).

Roger lives in Attelborough and is Parent Governor, having a son at the high school. Roger's eldest boy attended the high school and its sixth Form where he sucessfully gained the qualifications to attend University. Socially, Roger enjoys badminton and playing the saxophone but not at the same time.