As part of her work with ULSF, Debra Rowe, Ph.D. is working with higher education associations and K-12 associations on the integration of the sustainability paradigm into all levels of formal education. Dr. Rowe is also working on a national public communication campaign about sustainability.

Debra has been professor of renewable energies and energy management for over 20 years at Oakland Community College. Students in her alternate energy technologies courses regularly include builders, architects, engineers, building trades people and facilities managers. She won the State and Regional Professional Development Award from the Association of Energy Engineers (www.aeecenter.org) for the curricula of the Environmental Systems Technology program. She also created and teaches energy management and renewable energies in an on-line format. She created an Energy Awareness Center at the college and hosted many conferences and customized trainings on energy and sustainable design practices.

As a consultant to a national consortium of community colleges entitled PETE (the Partnership for Environmental Technology Education), Dr. Rowe created a model energy management degree design for community colleges, funded by the U.S. Department of Energy. Colleges around the country are currently utilizing the materials to develop their own programs. Dr. Rowe is the consultant to over twenty colleges, helping them incorporate energy and/or sustainability into their institutions' operations and curricula. In addition, Dr. Rowe is the energy and sustainability consultant to the National Science Foundation funded National Science Database Library. She is working on the creation of the national eERL collection (Electronic Environmental Resources Library).

Debra was Interim Dean of Applied and Engineering Technologies at Oakland Community College in 2002-2003. Before coming to OCC to teach, Dr. Rowe owned a renewable energy and energy management company, conducting energy audits and designing/installing energy efficiency and renewable energy systems. She is on the education division board of the American Solar Energy Society.

Debra Rowe received her Ph.D. in Business from the School of Business Administration at the University of Michigan in 1991. She received her M.A. in Psychology and her M.B.A. in Business from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor in 1989 and 1988. Debra's Bachelor's degree is from Yale University in 1977. She has completed continuing education energy engineering courses in energy and has a mechanical contractor's license. She is the author and editor of numerous publications on the integration of sustainability into education (see www.ncseonline.org/EFS, www.urbanoptions.org/SustainEdHandbook and www.urbanoptions.org/RenewableEnergy/index.htm for examples).