(September 16, 2015)

Centenary hosts sustainability advocate and Wilson Fellow Florence Reed

Florence Reed

SHREVEPORT, LA — Florence Reed, president and founder of Sustainable Harvest International, will be in residence September 21-25 as a Woodrow Wilson Visiting Fellow at Centenary College. In addition to workshops for students and faculty, Reed's visit to Centenary will include a public lecture, "Organic Farming to Feed the World," on Thursday, September 24 at 6:00 p.m. in the Whited Room in Bynum Commons.

"Florence Reed's visit will be an exciting complement to ongoing Centenary conversations about the challenge of living a sustainable life in the complex 21st century world," said Jenifer K. Ward, Provost and Dean of the College. "Through Sustainable Harvest International, Reed has created a platform for linking personal service with global advocacy and action, providing an incredible model for our students as they work to discover their own passions and begin to think about ways they can bring about positive change."

Reed founded the non-profit Sustainable Harvest International (SHI) in 1997, building on experiences in agro-forestry and environmental conservation as a Peace Corps volunteer in Panama in the early 1990s. SHI is dedicated to working with rural Central American communities to implement sustainable farming practices and to provide training and tools to assist farming families. After starting small with approximately a dozen families, SHI has worked with 1,500 families in Belize, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama. Together, volunteers and Central American farmers have planted more than three million trees, converted 17,000 acres of degraded land to sustainable farms, and saved an estimated 80,000 acres of tropical forest from slash and burn destruction.

Reed holds honorary doctorates from the University of New Hampshire and Southern New Hampshire University. She has been recognized with many awards, including the Yves Rocher Women of the Earth award and the Peace Corps' prestigious Shriver Award for Distinguished Humanitarian Service. In November 2011, Reed was named a Woodrow Wilson Visiting Fellow by the Council of Independent Colleges. The Wilson Fellows program was founded over 35 years ago to create new connections between the academic and nonacademic world and brings prominent artists, diplomats, journalists, business leaders, and other nonacademic professionals to campuses like Centenary to engage in dialogue with students and faculty members.

Reed's visit to Centenary as a Woodrow Wilson Fellow is generously underwritten by the Attaway Professorship in Civic Culture Program. The Attaway program, funded by Douglas and Marion Attaway, brings intellectuals who have made notable contributions to the public discussion of ideas to the Centenary College campus through workshops, lectures, and other interactions with members of the campus community.

For more information, visit centenary.edu/reed