Outline for 2021 Workshops/Seminars on Sustainability

Session One Outline

1. What is sustainability?  A little history and some current examples.
2. What is it that we want to sustain?  Examples will include sustaining the profitability and viability of a business, improving the effectiveness and funding support of a government agency, sustainable approaches to agriculture or fisheries in a specific region or country, sustainability and the global environment, and many more.
3. Participant input on current responses and challenges.
4. More in-depth analysis of some of today’s and tomorrow’s most important sustainability efforts.

Session Two Outline

1. Science, politics, public opinion, personal choice, and economics: how they interact to shape policies and practices.
2. Analysis of losses from storms – global warming, economics, or policy failures?
3. Applying Continuous Quality Improvement, Rapid Feedback, Systems Analysis, and other approaches to sustainability.
4. Next steps to sustainability and how to develop an integrated and marketable plan.

Dr. Hay has over thirty five years of professional experience in the US, Canada, and the Caribbean applying a broad range of scientific methods, data analysis, research and writing skills to all phases of projects in applied psychology, technology, human services, children’s health, ergonomics, training systems, human resources, sustainability, safety, transportation, and policy. Tom has worked with federal, tribal, state, local, foundation, and corporate partners to define project goals, requirements, evaluations, budgets, and deliverables; develop data collection tools and procedures; analyze data from multiple sources; and present results to a variety of audiences. 

He has worked with the military on technical training systems development as well as life skills training and family programs. Recent projects include serving as an expert on children’s health for a project funded by the Office of Women’s Health, writing grants as part of a team validating and designing state-wide child welfare data systems, and leading a grant writing team for a Department of Energy grant for advanced electronics technology to develop high voltage power electronics for improving the national electric grid.
Dr. Hay has taught at the university level and made over 150 professional presentations of project and research results. His writing includes grant proposals, policy papers, brochures and marketing materials, fundraising appeals, literature reviews, internet product and process reviews, training materials, surveys, research reports, public education, and internal documents for organizational development. He is comfortable in both print and electronic formats to meet specific needs. Tom earned his B.S. in Psychology with a second major in Chemistry from the University of New Mexico and his Ph.D. in Experimental Psychology from the University of California, Berkeley. His post-doctoral research in the Zoology Department at the University of Toronto was in visual neurophysiology. He lives near Washington, DC in Northern Virginia. He is particularly interested in understanding and advocating for natural resource conservation and residential and commercial energy efficiency.