Office of Sustainability Staff

To contact Office of Sustainability staff members, please email sustainability@usc.edu.

Mick Dalrymple

Chief Sustainability Officer

Michael “Mick” Dalrymple brings to USC over 30 years of multi-disciplinary experience in sustainability leadership, higher education, information technology, and media. He previously served as the director of university sustainability practices at Arizona State University, developing the internal consulting service to empower the university in attaining ambitious sustainability goals, including achieving carbon neutrality in 2019 – six years ahead of schedule.

Dalrymple connects stakeholders and experts in developing integrated solutions to complex environmental, social and economic challenges and opportunities. His previous work includes formulating and executing projects that joined expert faculty researchers and students with stakeholders from various sectors (government, industry, and/or non-governmental organizations) to create domestic and international solutions related to algal biofuels, green schools, energy benchmarking, municipal tree and shade master plans, aquifer sustainability, and circular economy. Dalrymple also managed a federally-funded project for ASU with partners in the City of Phoenix and Arizona Public Service to retrofit as much of downtown Phoenix as possible for energy efficiency.

As an entrepreneur, Dalrymple co-founded an environmental building supply company and a green building architecture and consulting services firm. He is a produced feature film screenwriter with an extensive film and advertising production background. Aim high and implement.

Ellen Dux

Office of Sustainability Associate Director

Throughout her career in sustainability, Ellen Dux has garnered significant experience working on a broad range of renewable energy, clean power, and cleantech initiatives. Her primary focus is stakeholder engagement and communications, grant fundraising, and program development.

Most recently, Ellen worked closely with the Los Angeles County Chief Sustainability Office to help launch the Clean Power Alliance, Southern California’s new clean energy utility. She also has partnered with the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator to develop and source funding for a large-scale energy efficiency buildings retrofit program. From 2014 – 2016, Ellen worked extensively with the Viterbi School of Engineering’s Information Sciences Institute on the Department of Energy’s Los Angeles Department of Water and Power Smart Grid Regional Demonstration Project. She began her sustainability career working in utility-scale PV.

Prior to transitioning to sustainability, Ellen held a number of senior positions in the entertainment industry, including Executive Director of 20th Century Fox’s mobile content division. She also co-founded a filmed entertainment production company with musician Peter Gabriel.

Ellen holds a B.A. in Foreign Affairs from the University of Virginia, and an M.B.A from the University of Southern California Marshall School of Business.

Hannah Findling

Sustainability Program Administrator

Hannah Findling is a Sustainability Program Administrator in USC’s Office of Sustainability and Office of the President. She helps manage the President’s Working Group on Sustainability in Education, Research and Operations, co-leads the Arts & Climate Collective, manages the Task Force on Carbon Removal and Offsets, and works on a variety of sustainability issues across campus. 

Hannah obtained her Masters of Public Administration with a Certificate in Public Policy at USC in 2021, and has worked on sustainability at USC since. Prior to this, she worked for five years as a bilingual paralegal in immigration, and spent a year in Ecuador through a Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship. Prior education includes her BA from the University of Puget Sound in International Relations with minors in Spanish and Environmental Studies.

Chelsea Graham

Experiential Learning Manager

Chelsea is the Experiential Learning Manager in the Office of Sustainability. In this role, she collaborates and supports faculty in designing and delivering sustainability-based learning experiences and curriculum to USC students. Chelsea also oversees the President’s Sustainability Internship Program (PSIP) which provides students an opportunity to contribute to the university’s 2028 sustainability goals through a wide range of tasks such as data collection and analysis, content creation, and communication strategy. Chelsea views sustainability and climate as fundamentally intersectional issues that should be engaged across university departments and offices.

In 2016, Chelsea received her Ph.D. in communication studies and rhetoric from the University of Kansas. Her research focused on popularized, historical narratives of national parks and their impact on contemporary discourses surrounding climate change. Additionally, to this role she brings over a decade experience in curriculum design and has received multiple awards for her teaching. Prior to joining the office of sustainability, Chelsea held faculty positions in the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism at USC as well as Oregon State University where she specialized in environmental communication, rhetoric of science, rhetorical theory and criticism, and argumentation at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. Chelsea’s teaching philosophy emphasizes the need to center experiential learning as a mode of empowering students to effect change in their communities.

Brad Haydel

Associate Director

Brad Haydel has over 10 years of experience providing comprehensive solutions and effective leadership on a wide range of sustainability initiatives, with a focus on carbon mitigation and climate resilience programs.

Prior to joining USC, Brad served as the Energy & Sustainability Manager at Cal State LA, where he established their 2019 Climate Action Plan, Campus Sustainability Committee, Zero Waste Plan, and Green Revolving Fund to foster a campus culture of sustainability. He holds a Master of Environmental Science & Management degree from UC Santa Barbara’s Bren School and is a LEED Accredited Professional.

Karen E. Hinds

Sustainability Hub Coordinator

Karen E. Hinds (Kay) is the Coordinator for the USC Sustainability Hub. Prior to joining USC, Kay was the Executive Assistant to the Senior Vice President for Student Affairs at Loyola Marymount University.

Kay began her career as the Administrative Assistant at the Drew Hamilton Community Center in New York City, where she worked to strengthen ties amongst local politicians and community members. She furthered her career as an assistant to the Senior Vice President of Community Based Services at the Children’s Village, a prominent foster care agency in New York servicing youth at the city, state and federal levels. This experience fueled Kay’s passion for working with young people of all ages; as a result, she has participated in Dialectical Behavior training and numerous programs tailored to the needs of teenagers transitioning to adulthood.

Originally from New York City, Kay holds a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice.

Julie Hopper

Sustainability Business Data Analyst

Julie Hopper leads data collection, analysis and reporting for research and administrative projects that support campus sustainability on all fronts. Julie brings over 10 years of experience in data analysis and visualization, project management, experiential learning, and scientific communication. Julie is passionate about environmental sustainability, with recent projects focused on the processes leading to marine plastic pollution and relevant solutions.

Prior to this position, Julie conducted research and taught undergraduate courses in Environmental Studies and Ecology at USC. Julie holds a PhD in Environmental Science, Policy and Management from the University of California, Berkeley in 2015. Her dissertation research focused on sustainable management of invasive pests and weeds via biological control. After graduating, Julie led research projects funded through the Delta Science Fellowship (California Sea Grant-NOAA), on invasive aquatic weed management in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta in collaboration with researchers and policy makers from multiple governmental agencies and academic universities.

Erin Jebavy

Marketing Specialist

Erin leads the marketing efforts of the Office of Sustainability, including the e-newsletter, website, digital and print collateral, and social media to inform USC students, faculty, staff, and alumni, and effect large-scale change in sustainability practices in the USC community.

She comes to the Office of Sustainability from the USC Career Center, where she oversaw the department’s events and publicity campaigns. Prior to the Career Center, Erin worked at the USC Alumni Association in various roles supporting regional alumni engagement.

Erin holds a B.S in Communication Studies from New York University and an M.A. in Communication Management from the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism at USC.

Lilian Ledesma

Sustainability Program Specialist

Lily joined USC’s Office of Sustainability as their new Engagement Specialist. In this role, she will help advance outreach and engagement initiatives for students, faculty, staff, and alumni in support of campus sustainability programs, while also serving as a liaison to campus partners and student organizations. Lily has more than 5 years of experience in higher education sustainability outreach and engagement.

Prior to arriving at USC, she worked at CSU Dominguez and CSU Long Beach helping implement their campus zero waste and sustainability programs. She’s also worked in the nonprofit sector as Heal the Bay’s Community Advocacy Coordinator & Volunteer Manager, overseeing their volunteer outreach and recruitment.

Lily holds a B.A. in Environmental Earth Science from the University of California, Berkeley and is currently pursing her M.P.H in Community Health Education from CSU Long Beach.

Evan Morris

Digital Media and Visual Design Specialist

Evan is a Digital Media and Visual Design Specialist in the Office of Sustainability, helping to achieve the goals of USC’s Assignment: Earth Sustainability Framework by optimizing sustainability-focused digital communications across the university. 

Evan has worked in education, tech, healthcare, publishing, and journalism. Prior to USC, he headed up a consulting firm that specialized in product launches and content audits. He holds an A.A. in English from Cabrillo College and a B.A. in Creative Writing with a concentration in Poetry from San Francisco State University.

Ines Ware

Sustainability Operations Specialist

With over ten years of experience in environmental nonprofits ranging from communications to development and programming, Ines has demonstrated her strong passion and dedication to environmental conservation. 

Prior to joining USC as the Sustainability Operations Specialist, she spent three years as a Sustainability Consultant working with corporations to develop and achieve their sustainability goals with focuses on environment, social and governance initiatives. As a consultant working with environmental nonprofits, she project managed the development of community gardens, parks and farmers’ markets to encourage sustainable communities through the implementation of green spaces and community economics. 

Ines studied Environmental Planning and Design with a concentration in Community Transformation and Placemaking while minoring in Sustainability at the University of New Mexico. She also studied Environmental Science at North Carolina Central University. 

President’s Sustainability Internship Program

The President’s Sustainability Internship Program connects students with co-curricular learning opportunities that advance university sustainability. Throughout the academic year, the full cohort of interns are brought together to build community, share knowledge across their different project teams, and gain the skills to grow as sustainability champions. Meet the current cohort.

Campus Sustainability Partners

Gina Whisenant

Waste and Recycling Manager, Facilities Management Services

Gina Whisenant has considerable experience creating and implementing waste diversion and recycling programs for large commercial operations. Formerly at Republic Services, she participated in the launch of RecycLA, Los Angeles’ new municipal trash collection and recycling program aimed at reducing waste in local landfills.

Zero Waste Team, Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum

The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum is the two-time winner of the Pac-12 Sustainability award for a zero waste sports venue (2016 and 2017), and was honored with the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors Green Leadership award in 2019. The Coliseum operations team partners with the USC Office of Sustainability, Republic Services, Legends Concessions, Marsden Custodial Services, Athens Waste Management, BASF, and Fox Sports to run USC’s first zero waste program, and has diverted almost 800 tons of waste from local landfill since 2015.