Aaron Witham

Aaron directs the office of sustainability, which steers sustainability programs on all four campuses: Portland, Gorham, Lewiston, and Online. The Office’s initiatives include climate action planning, planning and implementation of alternative transportation, energy management and investment, greenhouse gas accounting, sustainable landscaping, storm water outreach, green buildings, green purchasing, sustainability outreach, and general well-being.

Aaron has been working in the field of sustainability in higher education since 2008. Before coming to USM, he served as Sustainability Education & Outreach Coordinator at the University of Vermont, Director of Sustainability at Green Mountain College, and Interim Sustainability Coordinator at Unity College. He holds an M.S. in Natural Resources and a Graduate Certificate in Ecological Economics from the University of Vermont. He also earned a B.F.A. in Writing from the University of Maine at Farmington and studied Environmental Science at Unity College. In graduate school he worked as a transportation research scholar in UVM’s Transportation Research Center.

His passion for campus sustainability stems from his belief that higher education is the perfect testing ground for cutting edge sustainability strategies and that it is a critical platform for educating the next generation of leaders capable of responding to a rapidly changing planet, along with its associated economic and social challenges.