Unity College
Organization Description
The first institution of higher education in the nation to divest from fossil fuel investments, Unity College is changing the face of higher education. Sustainability science lies at the heart of our educational mission, offering environmental degrees for undergraduates on campus and master’s degrees online. For over fifty years, Unity College has been educating students to be the problem solvers of tomorrow. Through the framework of sustainability science, Unity College provides a liberal arts education that emphasizes the environment and natural resources. Through experiential and collaborative learning, our graduates emerge as responsible citizens, environmental stewards, and visionary leaders.
Participant Biographies
Dr. Carrie Diaz Eaton
Carrie Diaz Eaton is an Associate Professor of Mathematics in the Center for Biodiversity at Unity College, where she has been since 2010. She has a B.A. in Mathematics with a minor in Zoology and an M.A. in Interdisciplinary Mathematics, both from University of Maine, where she studied computational neurobiology and neuronal networks. Carrie earned her Ph.D. in Mathematics from University of Tennessee with a concentration in Mathematical Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. Her current research involves network perspectives of coevolution and consequences for sustainability. She is also active in research in undergraduate interdisciplinary mathematics education. Carrie Diaz Eaton serves as the Education Subgroup co-Chair for the Society of Mathematical Biology and on the Editorial board of PRIMUS. She has also served as the past Program Chair and Electronic Communications Chair of BIO SIGMAA, a special interest group of the Mathematical Association of America and for the editorial board for Letters in Biomathematics. She also leads QUBES (Quantitative Undergraduate Biology Education and Synthesis) as its Consortium Developer.
In teaching, Carrie's classes focus on the mathematical language for today's questions in key sustainability science issues. Class projects include creating sustainable harvest management plans (Calc I), investigating the impact of greenhouse gas on climate change (Calc I and II), and investigating the potential of alternative energy resources (Calc II). She has a passion for teaching interdisciplinary mathematics and mathematics pedagogy (teaching best practices). To have a solid foundation in understanding your field, our future leaders need to understand the theory, theory that is developed with the language of mathematics.
Dr. Emma Perry
I began by helping teach lab sections of biology courses before teaching my own complete course. In those it was all about addressing individual student questions and helping them to both complete procedures correctly, and understand their results.