Award Webinar: JCCC’s Sustainability Distinction Program: A Customizable Model for Sustainability Education
“Johnson County Community College“ is the recipient of a 2026 AASHE Campus Sustainability Achievement Award. This webinar is part of the 2026 Awards showcase highlighting all four winners in this category.
This session will discuss how Johnson County Community College created and launched the Sustainability Distinction Program (SDP), an academic program that embeds sustainability across degree pathways—without adding a new major, minor, or certificate. Open to students from all disciplines and functioning similar to an honors program, the SDP allows participants to graduate with a sustainability distinction added to their transcript through coursework, experiential learning, and reflection. The session will highlight the program’s innovative design, describing how to keep the “extra lift” for students manageable while centering equity and access and utilizing existing institutional structures. The session will discuss how the four program requirements of coursework, cohort meetings, sustainability activities, and a reflective capstone portfolio support systems thinking, while helping students connect sustainability to their academic, personal, and professional goals. Grounded in lessons learned from the program’s first year, this presentation will offer practical takeaways for institutions interested in expanding sustainability education in ways that are scalable, low-cost, and rooted in existing campus structures.
Presenters
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Rachael Rost-Allen, Sustainability Education and Engagement Coordinator, Johnson County Community College Rachael Rost-Allen, Ed.D., is the Sustainability Education and Engagement Coordinator at Johnson County Community College (JCCC), where she partners with faculty, staff, and students to integrate sustainability into curriculum and campus initiatives. Since joining JCCC in 2023, Rachael has played a key role in expanding sustainability programming, including co-designing and launching the college’s Sustainability Distinction Program and co-leading JCCC’s first achievement of AASHE STARS Gold. Rachael also serves as a co-advisor for the Student Sustainability Committee and teaches as an adjunct professor at JCCC and Southern New Hampshire University. Previously, she spent ten years as the Education Program Manager at the Topeka Zoo and Conservation Center, where she taught more than 2,500 classes to over 125,000 learners. Her work has been recognized nationally through honors including National Geographic’s Grosvenor Teacher Fellowship, the North American Association for Environmental Education’s 30 Under 30 award, and the Emerging Wildlife Conservation Leaders program. Rachael holds a Doctor of Education in Educational Sustainability from the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point and is passionate about creating inclusive, action-oriented learning experiences that support a more sustainable future. |
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Jay Antle, Executive Director, Center for Sustainability; Professor of History, Johnson County Community College Dr. Jay Antle was born in Texas where he lived for the first 21 years of his life. While at Lee College, he took a field course in Yellowstone National Park that led him to become deeply interested in environmental issues. He completed his undergraduate education in history and then moved on to Arizona State University for his master’s degree and then to the University of Kansas in 1992 for his Ph.D. in American Environmental History. While in graduate school, he participated in an exchange program with Johnson County Community College (JCCC) that ultimately led him to secure a professorship there in 2000 that he still holds. His responsibilities at JCCC have grown to include heading up the College’s Sustainability program as the Executive Director of the College’s Sustainability Center. He is a four-time winner of the JCCC Distinguished Service Award. He served as the Chair of the Board of Directors for the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) and served on that Board from 2014-2022. He currently lives in Lawrence and is an avid hiker and storm chaser. He is also a distance runner with over 180 half-marathons and ten marathons to his credit. |