May 10, 2019
School of Sustainability instructor Nancy Mancilla is among nine American professionals selected by Eisenhower Fellowships (EF) to travel to China for one month as part of the 2019 Zhi-Xing China Eisenhower Fellowship Program. These dynamic fellows represent a diverse group of leaders across a broad range of fields, including emerging technologies in smart cities, diversity and inclusion, sustainable development and renewable energy.
“This year’s Zhi-Xing Fellows are forward-thinking innovators, addressing some of the most important issues of our times. We’re pleased to welcome them into the global network of Eisenhower Fellows,” said Robert Gates, chairman of Eisenhower Fellowships.
For the month of June, the Eisenhower Fellows will travel throughout China, pursuing individual projects and engaging in transformative exchanges of knowledge and ideas with leading thinkers in their respective fields.
Mancilla, who teaches Sustainability in the Global Context (a class for students in the Master of Sustainability Leadership or Executive Master of Sustainability Leadership program), said that her goal in China is to gather material for a hands-on booklet for sustainability practitioners that highlights examples for how the UN Sustainable Development Goals are being pursued in non-Western countries such as China, Cuba, Kenya, Lebanon, Mexico, Nigeria and Russia.
“While teaching Sustainability in the Global Context now for a couple of years, I’ve struggled to identify practical guides for instituting sustainability, while also highlighting what is being done outside of Europe or the United States,” Mancilla said. “What is currently available is highly theoretical and anecdotal — resulting in unequal representation of best-in-class models that can be learned from and replicated. My hope is to address this information gap while creating something that is useful for students and sustainability practitioners.”
Now in its fifth year, the Zhi-Xing program is designed to immerse ascendant American mid-career leaders in China and advance greater understanding between the people of the two nations. A partnership between EF and the China Education Association for International Exchange, the fellowship program features intensive cultural immersion, group sessions with Chinese and U.S. experts and two weeks of individually-tailored travel and meetings in four to six Chinese cities.
EF is now accepting applications for 2020 programs based in the U.S. and around the world. Successful candidates for EF programs are exceptional leaders eager to advance their personal and professional growth who can articulate how the fellowship will help them to produce impactful change. Eisenhower Fellows commit to lifelong engagement with the organization and its nearly 1,600 active fellows around the world.