Rawlins Endowed Professorship in Environmental Literacy

Rawlins Endowed Professor, Dr. Cindy Daley, showing her students the importance of managed grazing for soil health.

The Rawlins Endowed Professor in Environmental Literacy was created in 2002 to create a position for a faculty member and support programs to promote environmental literacy and sustainability across the CSU Chico campus and beyond. The intention was to prepare all students of all majors for dealing with a global environment which is being continually diminished by loss of species, disappearance of habitats, and degradation of air, water, and soil. 

The Professorship is tasked with taking the lead in championing the University Sustainability Mission in the academic side of sustainability for at least one three-year term. They also engage with administration, staff and students to both increase awareness of the environmental challenges we face and to work toward finding sustainable solutions to these challenges be they local or global.  

This endowment was made possible by a generous donation by Jack Rawlins who, through a successful career as a businessman, rancher and hunter, came to realize that environmental problems are not only complex but require an informed citizenry to work toward solutions. He became a passionate conservationist and supporter of multiple environmental causes including the Northern California Natural History Museum and several ecology and conservation-related endowments at Chico State.