Our Team

Elena Irwin is faculty director of the Sustainability Institute and a professor of environmental economics in the Department of Agricultural, Environmental and Development Economics.
A compelling advocate and energetic spokesperson for SI and sustainability at Ohio State, Elena develops and nurtures SI’s academic activities including interdisciplinary research programs and sustainability curriculum development across natural, physical and social sciences, engineering, public health, planning and policy, and the humanities. She leads the overall strategic direction, including cultivating campus-wide collaborative research and curriculum development efforts, partnering with academic units to recruit and mentor Discovery Themes faculty, and working with other faculty and staff leaders to develop partnerships with stakeholders and extramural funding opportunities.
Her research addresses the sustainability of human-natural systems at local and regional scales, with a focus on land use, ecosystem services and integrated models of land-water systems. She has been principal investigator (PI) or Co-PI on multiple research projects totaling over $17 million in funding from the National Science Foundation, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, as well as private foundations. She is a member of the U.S. EPA Board of Scientific Councilors Sub-Committee for Sustainable and Healthy Communities and co-author of a 2018 report from NSF entitled “Sustainable Urban Systems: Articulating a Long-Term Convergence Research Agenda.” She is a past elected board member of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists and the North American Regional Science Council and a member of the National Research Council’s committee on land change modeling. Her research projects include development of a dynamic model of food, energy and water systems for the Great Lakes regional economy; resilient land use and management systems under a changing climate; and urbanization patterns and impacts of land use change on water quality and ecosystem services.
She earned an undergraduate degree in German and history from Washington University in St. Louis and her Ph.D. in agricultural and resource economics from the University of Maryland.
She is the past recipient of a Sustainability Science Award from the Ecological Society of America and the North American Regional Science Council’s Hewings Award for distinguished young scholars in regional science. She was recognized in 2015 with an Educator Award from the North American Colleges and Teachers of Agriculture association.

Josh Knights forges strategic partnerships with companies, nonprofits, government agencies and other stakeholders that drive sustainability outcomes for Ohio State and its partners. He works with colleagues from across the colleges to pursue opportunities that advance Ohio State’s contributions to sustainability and resilience, especially in the fields of sustainable energy, healthy land and water, and smart and resilient communities.  Josh firmly believes in the power of collaboration to solve leading sustainability challenges.  Prior to joining Ohio State in 2018, Josh held leadership positions at The Nature Conservancy, including executive director of its Ohio program and director of its Corporate Partnerships team.  Previously, Josh worked on international trade policy in Washington, D.C., at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the law firm of White & Case.

Gina Hnytka’s work as Director of Education and Learning Programs for the Sustainability Institute centers around curriculum development, experiential learning and student engagement opportunities in sustainability and resilience. Founder and co-leader of the SUSTAINS Learning Community, Gina previously led undergraduate and graduate student services and managed academic programs for the Department of Agricultural, Environmental and Development Economics (AEDE). She also was program director for the Environment, Economy, Development and Sustainability major in collaboration with AEDE and the School of Environment and Natural Resources. Gina has received multiple awards for her work supporting students and academic programs and for her efforts with SUSTAINS.  She believes in the transformative power of education as a tool to create new opportunities for our students to learn, grow and prepare to solve our global sustainability challenges. She holds three Ohio State degrees: a bachelor’s degree in business administration and two master’s degrees, in environment and natural resources and higher education and student affairs.

Maureen Langlois supports faculty in developing proposals in the sustainability, energy and resilience space. She works with multidisciplinary teams to identify opportunities and strategies that will enable their proposals to be successful and their research and training efforts to be impactful. Maureen’s background is in science communications, from the K-12 science classroom to the Science Desk at National Public Radio to the Global Water Institute at Ohio State. She holds an MS in environmental science from The Ohio State University and a BA in biology and philosophy from Washington University in St. Louis. Maureen joined the Proposal Development Office in January 2018.

Atar Herziger joined Ohio State as a postdoctoral researcher in behavior and sustainability in 2018. At the Sustainability Institute, Atar collaborates with faculty and field partners on and off campus to understand why and how individuals engage in sustainable behaviors such as recycling, energy conservation, and consumption curtailment. She conducts experiments that seek to understand the cognitive and affective processes that trigger (ir)responsible consumer behaviors, and tests interventions that aim to promote sustainable behavior. Atar manages the Sustainable Behavior (SuB) working group, which brings together behavioral researchers across Ohio State departments to collaboratively seek and pursue research opportunities in the sustainability domain. Through her affiliation with the School of Environment and Natural Resources (SENR) and the Environmental and Social Sustainability lab (ESS), Atar and her colleagues conduct the annual Campus Sustainability Survey, which provides insights into Ohio State students’ attitudes, knowledge, and behavior in the sustainability domain.

Atar is trained as an organizational (MA), social and economic psychologist (PhD). Some of the topics she is interested in are consumer habits, self-control, goals, and values.

Joan Slattery Wall joined the Office of Energy and Environment, now the Sustainability Institute, in 2012 where, as editor, she develops print, electronic and social media materials and edits Sustainability Institute documents and publications. Since 2001 she has worked in higher education communications, with responsibilities in writing, editing, marketing and media relations for The Ohio State University’s College of Engineering beginning in 2004 and previously for Ohio University. She started her career in journalism as a reporter and editor for daily, weekly and monthly publications covering crime and courts, community news and business, respectively. She graduated summa cum laude from The Ohio State University with a bachelor’s degree in journalism.