Long before climate change and the environmental movement was in vogue, Betsy Vogel Boze was already raising environmental awareness. A former Girl Scout Council president and board member in Texas and Alaska and a lifetime member of Girl Scouts USA, Boze credits her early scouting and summer camp experiences for igniting her passion.

Boze attended C.E. Byrd High School in Shreveport, Louisiana, a Blue Ribbon learning institution regaled for its mathematics and science curriculum. While at C.E. Byrd, Betsy Boze was involved in social and ecological causes. Among her many environmental pursuits, Betsy Boze sewed a green and white ecology flag for the first Earth Day. Its flight in front of Byrd High School is the first recorded display of the Ecology flag.

She attended Southern Methodist University (SMU) and earned her B.S. in Psychology in 1974. Continuing at SMU, Betsy Boze received her MBA from SMU’s Cox School of Business and studied International Management at Thunderbird School of Global Management. Teaching in Japan, Germany and Italy she returned to the U.S. to study marketing, with minors in sociology and economics, at the University of Arkansas where she earned her Ph.D. in Business Administration.

After faculty and administrative positions at the University of Texas at Brownsville and the University of Alaska Anchorage, Betsy Boze became the Chief Executive Officer and Dean of Kent State University (KSU) at Stark in July 2005. A transformational leader, Betsy Boze positioned KSU Stark as the regions’ social and environmental university. Kent State University at Stark flourished under Betsy Boze’s leadership being recognized every year on the President’s Service Learning Honor Roll, an honor emblematic of the institution’s dedication to community service and service learning, earned in large part due to Betsy Boze’s commitment to the education of her students.
Betsy Boze was an early signer of the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment to eliminate greenhouse gas emissions, educate students, create solutions, and provide leadership-by-example. Like the Climate Commitment, Dr. Boze recognizes that universities have a unique responsibility as role models for their communities and in educating the students who will develop the social, economic and technological solutions to create a thriving, civil and sustainable society.

Dr. Boze secured funding for the Hoover Center for Environmental Media Activism, in partnership with the University of Miami. The Initiative will develop generations of scholars who understand science and are able to produce new media that is fair, highly educational and effective in triggering change on individual and social levels. Students address world-changing issues through emerging digital media activism, including web-based reports, blogs and video.

“Students and faculty will learn from environmental and confluent media experts on issues that affect where we live, work and learn. The Environmental Media Initiative will touch all of our students—through coursework, internships, loaned faculty, student exchanges and classroom research expeditions,” says Boze. “The potential is limitless.” Early topics included climate change’s impact on aquatic diversity and bird migration, the impact of local pollution on flora and fauna diversity in general and in wetlands such as the protected pond area on Kent State Stark’s campus.

“A key element to mobilize students in environmental and other important global issues is to empower them to produce new media that is fair, highly educational and effective in triggering change on either individual or social levels,” says Ali Habashi, director of UM’s Arnold Center for Confluent Media Studies.
“I’m very excited about this initiative as it brings my father’s legacy full circle,” says Elizabeth (Lacey) Hoover, president of the Herbert W. Hoover Foundation. “He was an industrialist environmentalist—and his heart was in educating people about the environment. We are very proud to implement this initiative and hope that it greatly enriches the lives of people in Stark County.”

The Hoover Initiative for Environmental Media Activism will be housed in Kent State Stark’s new 45,000 Science Building, designed to be LEED Gold certified.
“We are truly grateful to the Herbert W. Hoover Foundation for their gift. Protecting the environment is one of our campus’ core values. This gift enables us to expand educational opportunities and supports our existing and proposed majors and degrees,” says Boze.

ECOLOGY FLAG LINKS

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecology_Flag_(American)
http://ultimateflags.com/store/earth-flags/buy-ecology-flag-enviromental-flag-green-flag
http://www.worldlingo.com/ma/enwiki/en/Ecology_Flag_(American)
http://www.viswiki.com/en/Ecology_Flag_(American)

ENVIRONMENTAL LINKS

http://stark.kent.edu/about/upload/encompass-magazine-spring-2009.pdf
http://www2.presidentsclimatecommitment.org/reporting/documents/ACUPCC_AnnRep_2008.pdf
http://www2.presidentsclimatecommitment.org/html/2008summit/registered.html
http://www2.aashe.org/archives/2008/1006.php
http://www.betsyboze.webs.com/
http://sites.google.com/site/betsyboze/
http://www.cacubo.org/pdf/Oct2009handouts/SustainabilityUC.pdf
http://www.secondnature.org/documents/DuncanLetter_92309.pdf