CLAS hires Stratis Giannakouros as director of UI Office of Sustainability and the Environment

Thursday, August 23, 2018

Stratis GiannakourosThe College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (CLAS) has announced the appointment of a new director for the University of Iowa Office of Sustainability and the Environment.

Stratis Giannakouros comes to the UI from Arizona State University, where he served as project manager and program manager for the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Institute of Sustainability. Prior to that, he was the assistant director at the Center for Sustainable Communities at Luther College and sustainability outreach coordinator at Colorado State University. Giannakouros has a bachelor’s degree in Economics from Loras College and a master’s degree in Environmental Politics and Policy from Colorado State University.  

He began his new position August 31, 2018, and will oversee the integration of the Office of Sustainability and the Environment (OSE) into CLAS. The OSE is now located in 301 Communications Center.

OSE Interim Director and CLAS Associate Dean Marc Armstrong said Giannakouros is the perfect fit at a pivotal moment for the office.

“We are very pleased to bring Stratis aboard for this crucial position,” Armstrong said. “The Office of Sustainability and the Environment has been an important part of our campus for years. We look forward to the office implementing new emphases on student research and learning opportunities, and Stratis’s depth of experience in academic settings will help us create and sustain innovative programs.”

The Office of Sustainability—as it was known until July 2018—was created in 2008 by President Sally Mason, with Liz Christiansen as its director. Christiansen retired from the position in 2017, having built the office into a vital center for education, outreach, and engagement.

The office’s move into CLAS, from the Office of the Provost and Facilities Management, will enable it to continue those activities, while aligning it more closely with student-centered, sustainability-focused research and teaching in the college.

The Office of Sustainability and the Environment is located in University Capitol Centre.

The University of Iowa College of Liberal Arts and Sciences offers about 70 majors across the humanities; fine, performing and literary arts; natural and mathematical sciences; social and behavioral sciences; and communication disciplines. About 15,000 undergraduate and nearly 2,000 graduate students study each year in the college’s 37 departments, led by faculty at the forefront of teaching and research in their disciplines. The college teaches all Iowa undergraduates through the college's general education program, CLAS CORE. About 80 percent of all Iowa undergraduates begin their academic journey in CLAS. The college confers about 60 percent of the university's bachelor's degrees each academic year.