Ms. Buckholz is a dedicated sustainability professional with over 18 years of experience starting sustainability programs from the ground up. She excels at being a connector, breaking down silos, and building relationships that bring people together to move ideas into actionable plans. Ms. Buckholz has extensive experience designing, facilitating, and working with executive-level committees and working groups with a proven track record of implementing projects to meet specific sustainability goals.

Ms. Buckholz is currently a senior associate at Brailsford & Dunlavey, where she develops climate and sustainability action plans for higher education institutions. Prior to consulting, Ms. Buckholz was the Director of Sustainability at California State University, East Bay. As the first sustainability officer for the campus, she was solely responsible for integrating the concepts of sustainability into all aspects of campus, from academics to engagement, throughout the curriculum, operations, and campus plans and within administrative policies. Before coming to East Bay, Ms. Buckholz worked at the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) where she connected with subject matter experts to support the development of the Sustainability Tracking, Assessment & Rating System (STARS), a transparent, self-reporting framework for colleges and universities to measure their sustainability performance. Ms. Buckholz started her career as the first sustainability officer in the California State University System at Chico State, where she led the synthesis of cross-campus sustainability efforts into a cohesive, award-winning program.

Ms. Buckholz holds a Bachelor’s degree from Ohio University in Environmental Geography, a Master’s degree in Geography and Planning from Chico State, is a recent graduate of the Harvard University Executive Education for Sustainability Leadership Program, and is an active AASHE Board Member.