About
Who We Are
We are students, educators, researchers and teacher education specialists. Our passion is working on tools to support international collaboration with our peers and whole communities to develop and scale Education for Sustainable Development.
We believe that success will hinge on three key cultural traits. Each trait can be learned and developed in ways unique to each community:
An on-going scientific inquiry into human behavior and cultural evolution.
The development of behavioral flexibility, or the agency to move toward one’s values and better care for one’s self and others in the face of adversity.
A culture of community science defined by measurable improvement.
Together we hope to advance timely answers to the questions "How do we improve our schools to work for all?" and "How do we improve our communities to work for all?" that are applicable to diverse improvement efforts everywhere.
Our People
Our Team
Alex Herwix, PhD, Evolving Schools Project (Germany)
Alison Malisa, Evolving Schools Project (United States)
Diana Singh, Evoling Schools Project (Poland)
Julian Wong, Evolving Schools Project (United States)
Liz Rosario, Evolving Schools Project (United States)
Nadia Sandi, Evolving Schools Project (Belgium)
Peter Bullock, Executive Director, Director of Consulting and Training Services (United States)
Susan Hanisch, PhD, Co-founder, Research Director, and NetLogo Principal Trainer (Germany)
Our Board of Directors
Josia Razafindramamana, PhD, President of the Board (Madagascar)
Dustin Eirdosh, PhD, Director, Cofounder and President Emeritus (Germany)
Brian Lowe, PhD, Secretary of the Board (United States)
Prof. Bjorn Grinde, Director (Norway)
Our Governance Documents
(Click link above to view, copy and print):
Articles of Incorporation
IRS Determination Letter
Bylaws
IRS Filings, including Form 1023 (FY24)
At a glance, we are proud of our:
All volunteer, independent board
Executive Director as an ex-officio, non-voting officer
Commitment to transparency
Big Red Earth d.b.a. Global ESD is a U.S. 501(c)3 nonprofit organization.
EIN 47-5484033
Our Lead Partner
Evolving from the work of Global ESD, OpenEvo at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology is our lead academic partner on educational design and research, centrally coordinating free guides, curricula and other resources to develop Educational Design Labs and Community Science Labs and more, on a Creative Commons license (CC-BY-SA).
OpenEvo helps learners and community stakeholders better care for themselves, others and the planet by:
Understanding problems through human behavioral sciences
Evolving solutions within a framework of participatory community science and networked improvement
Our History
In 2016 Global ESD formed as a U.S. 501(3) nonprofit in Pennsylvania. It is currently incorporated under the name Big Red Earth, a nod to its initial focus in Madagascar under cofounders Dustin Eirdosh and Susan Hanisch.
In 2017, in association with the University of Leipzig (Germany), Dustin and Susi began developing an international teacher training module under the name Global ESD. These activities have continued under their leadership with additional support from the Max Planck Institute, leading to the formation of OpenEvo.
Beginning in 2019, teachers and students in Leipzig, Germany and internationally, including Lake Placid High School (NY), have piloted elements of the Global ESD design concept (continuing with OpenEvo). Working with these pilot sites identified the following barriers:
Teachers request and need direct implementation support
Schools do not have budgets to provide or sustain direct implementation support
Communities and schools do not share a conceptual framework in community science
In 2020, Evolving Schools was initiated as a peer to peer networked improvement community to alleviate barrier #1.
In 2024, Portraits of the Park was initiated in the Adirondack Park of upstate New York (USA) to address barrier #3.
Today, OpenEvo will continue to centrally coordinate all curricular resources and design concepts developed to date, while Global ESD works to partner with schools and communities to implement OpenEvo resources, to address barriers #1 and #2.
In the near future Big Red Earth will adopt Global ESD as the formal legal name of the organization.