ASLE is a nonprofit professional association with a dynamic membership and one part-time professional staff member. ASLE thrives because of the commitment of its members to carrying out our work; therefore we invite our members to sustain this vital work and to shape our future by considering serving as an officer or coordinator.
This fall, ASLE will hold elections for:
- (Co) President
- Three Executive Council seats:
- At-Large Seat
- Public Engagement Officer Seat
- Contingent/Independent Advocacy Seat
- Diversity Officer
- Graduate Student Liaison (junior)
If you would like to nominate yourself or another ASLE member for one of these positions, please contact us at info@asle.org. Online voting will be conducted from mid-November to mid-December. Candidate statements for elected office (maximum of 500 words) are due by November 14, 2025.
Please send all candidate statements via email, as PDF or Word attachments, to info@asle.org. Feel free to inquire if you have any questions about the offices, duties or statements; full position descriptions are posted below.
In addition, we seek applicants for this key appointed position:
- Sustainability Officer
Applications are due by December 1, 2025, and should include a letter of application stating reasons for interest and relevant experience and skills, and a CV or resume. Please send all candidate or application materials, via email as PDF or Word attachments, to info@asle.org. Feel free to inquire if you have any questions about the offices, duties or statements; job descriptions are below.
President or Co-Presidents (Term: 2026-2028)
The President(s) will serve for two years. The President(s) will also serve on the executive of the Association for a third year as Immediate Past President(s).
Responsibilities:
- Further the strategic work of the organization, including strategic planning on regular cycles as mandated by the bylaws.
- Cultivate and maintain relationships with funders, potential funders, and institutional co-applicants for major grants.
- Cultivate and maintain relationships with existing and emergent collaboratives and non-academic partners, for example, intergovernmental agencies and coalitions, culture sector entities and organizations. Pursue, with ASLE affiliates worldwide, opportunities for furthering environmental humanities participation in shaping conversations pertaining to the ecological and social crises of our times.
- With the MD and others, including legal counsel as appropriate, develop and regularly review policies and memos of agreement with project collaborators and/or partners to ensure fairness and transparency in use of ASLE’s name and endorsements for conferences, events, and affiliations.
- Collaborate with the Conference Chair and committee to infuse strategic priorities into the conference program.
- Appoint non-elected coordinators and officers to vacant positions, upon approval by majority vote of the Executive Council.
- Supervise the operations of ASLE in a judicious and diligent manner.
- Meet regularly with the Managing Director of the Association.
- Set agenda for Retreat with MD and VP, with VP leading on logistics
- Make recommendations for strategic allocation of funds to Treasurer and MD, ahead of preparation of budget, and present budget and rationale to EC.
- Preside at meetings of the ASLE officers, Executive Council, and the general membership
- Report to the general membership on the state of the Association
- Represent the Association and its purposes to other organizations and the general public.
In voting by the Executive Council, the President(s) will vote only to break a tie.
The Immediate Past President(s) will assist the President and Vice President in managing ASLE projects in support of the Association’s mission and to advance the Strategic Plan. The IPP may be called upon to initiate special projects and appoint ad-hoc committees. The IPP does have full voting privileges.
Executive Council: At-Large Seat (Term: 2026-2028)
The Executive Council (EC) is the primary policy-making body of the Association. The EC will review programming, procedures, and policies of the Association regularly and revise them as needed to meet the Association’s purposes most effectively. The EC will meet at least once every calendar year, at the call of the President. Between formal meetings, EC members will be consulted virtually, as necessary. Executive Councilors are charged with representing the interests, issues, and concerns of the multiple constituencies that comprise our member community.
Responsibilities:
- Attend the EC retreat held in the spring of non-conference years, and the EC meeting during the biennial conference
- Review the ASLE Strategic Plan and work with officers to prioritize and implement the goals and action items of the Association
- Participate actively and thoughtfully in ongoing ASLE policy deliberation and decision-making, and participate in EC votes
- Serve on the Conference Committee for the biennial conference
- Serve on at least one other program or administrative committee, such as financial management (budget); personnel evaluation; grants, awards or Spotlight proposal reviews; activism; public engagement projects; social media design and evaluation, etc.
- Help recruit candidates for officer positions, and encourage and facilitate greater involvement in the organization by its members
- Assist with mentoring graduate students and junior faculty as appropriate
Executive Council: Public Engagement Officer Seat (Term: 2026-2028)
The Executive Council (EC) is the primary policy-making body of the Association. The EC reviews programming, procedures, and policies of the Association regularly and revises them as needed to meet the Association’s mission most effectively. EC members are expected to participate in (recently held virtually) the EC retreat held in non-conference years, and attend the EC meeting during biennial conference years.
In the Strategic Plan, ASLE officers decided to designate several EC positions to carry out particular core functions of the organization. One of these designations in our revised bylaws is the Public Engagement Officer. Because this position is relatively new and could encompass a wide range of possibilities, the PEO could hone in on one or more area of emphasis, examples are below. To reiterate, these are areas of possible focus for the PEO to choose from, and not a comprehensive list of job duties!
Emphasize public writing and equip members to do it; examples include:
- Develop new programming and digital spaces to help ASLE members and groups make their own work more visible
- Use existing tools (the website and social media) to more effectively promote members’ work and public projects
- Provide opportunities for members to learn to write effectively for the public
- Establish a network of ASLE members to provide training for other members.
Help ASLE to achieve the goal of increasing public humanities engagements between members and grassroots community groups, non-profits, agencies, NGOs, and funders; examples include:
- Organizing pre-conference workshop(s) on public engagement appropriate for new or aspiring practitioners.
- Organizing workshops / convenings for practitioners of different levels of experience to deepen and mutually support work in the academy.
- Promoting advocacy and activist panels at all conferences, remote, in-person, and regional
- Developing relationships with funders for higher education and also local and regional funders for public health, environmental justice, inclusive placemaking, responsive philanthropy.
- Looking at interdisciplinary projects like University of Idaho’s Confluence Lab, PPEH, LENS as examples, and put out a call for others who are doing work like this, working with regional leaders and collaboratories and featuring their work on the ASLE website
Helm efforts to develop or use existing tools to help ASLE members and groups make their own work more visible, providing opportunities to learn effective public writing, and establishing a network of training. Possible methods include:
- Provide support to members with guidelines about publicizing work by providing a PR document on the website and updating the press kit on the website
- Create a concrete list of experts to post on the website (E.g, experts in indigenous studies, environmental justice, ecomedia, climate change communication, food, vegan studies) for media and for collaborative work
- Send out regional press releases about the conference, off-year symposiums, and collaboratories
- Publicize specific public-facing panels at the conference, off-year symposiums, and collaboratories
- Pitch themed series to national publications
- Post guidelines on how to pitch and develop templates for different types of series or posts (e.g., interviews, book reviews)
- Make lists of publications and contacts
- Organize the ASLE website to foreground information for media
- Organize workshops at conferences about public communication
- Highlight public pedagogies and develop the teaching resources database on the site
- Research grants for public science, environmental writing
- Cultivate relationships with EH series editors and create opportunities for ASLE members to interact with them
Executive Council: Contingent/Independent Advocacy Officer Seat (Term: 2026-2028)
The Executive Council (EC) is the primary policy-making body of the Association. The EC reviews programming, procedures, and policies of the Association regularly and revises them as needed to meet the Association’s mission most effectively.
The EC meets at least once every calendar year, at the call of the President. Between formal meetings, EC members will be consulted electronically as necessary. Formal discussions and votes currently occur mostly remotely. EC members are expected to participate in (recently held virtually) the EC retreat held in non-conference years, and attend the EC meeting during biennial conference years.
The Contingent/Independent Advocacy Officer on the Executive Council should have experience working on issues or advocacy relevant to contingent faculty or independent scholars, and is charged with representing these constituencies’ issues and concerns on the Executive Council.
Responsibilities:
- Review the ASLE Strategic Plan and work with officers to prioritize and implement the goals and action items of the Association that relate to contingent and independent members
- Participate actively and thoughtfully in ongoing ASLE policy deliberation and decision-making with this constituency in mind
- Participate in EC votes
- Assist with and help develop non-conference programming and projects that will serve the needs of contingent faculty and independent scholars.
- Assist the Conference Committee with organizing programming at the conference that will serve the needs of contingent faculty and independent scholars.
- Encourage and facilitate greater involvement in the organization by contingent faculty and independent scholars.
- Help recruit candidates for officer positions
- Assist with mentoring contingent faculty and independent scholars as appropriate
Diversity Officer (Term: 2026-2028)
The Diversity Officer is an elected position with voting privileges; term of office is three years. The Diversity Officer should provide significant evidence of affiliations with diverse groups and/or organizations. The Immediate Past Diversity Officer will overlap with the subsequently elected Diversity Officer for one year and serve in an advisory and mentoring capacity.
The Diversity Officer will oversee and participate in the activities of the Diversity Caucus to reach across national, disciplinary, cultural, sex/gender, and other boundaries to enhance diversity and inclusiveness for ASLE. The Diversity Officer is expected to participate in (recently held virtually) the EC retreat held in non-conference years, and attend the EC meeting during biennial conference years.
Responsibilities
- Report to the EC at its annual officer meeting on specific goals to work toward diversity
- Work with Conference Committee to include diverse voices in conference events and programming
- Work with Conference Committee to implement the accessibility guidelines, and review the guidelines with the accessibility working group after each conference to consider ways they could be updated and/or improved
- Cultivate, establish, and maintain affiliations with other diverse groups and/or organizations
- Review the ASLE Strategic Plan and work with officers to prioritize and implement the goals and action items of the Association as they relate to diversity
- Participate actively and thoughtfully in ongoing ASLE policy deliberation and decision-making
- Participate in EC votes
- Organize, run, and report on meetings of the Diversity Caucus
Graduate Student Liaison – Junior (Term: 2026-2027)
The two Graduate Student Liaisons (GSLs) represent the interests, needs, and concerns of ASLE’s graduate student members. One GSL will be elected for a two-year term each year, serving as non-voting junior GSL in the first year, and voting Senior GSL in the second year of their term. In conference years, the senior GSL will serve in an advisory capacity through the next biennial conference cycle to provide continuity, mentoring, and guidance.
GSLs work with the ASLE Mentoring Coordinators and other ASLE Officers and Program Coordinators to develop and implement policies, initiatives, and programs that support the well-being and development of graduate students and graduate studies. The GSLs are expected to participate in the annual officers’ meeting (held virtually in recent years) in non-conference years, and attend the officers’ meeting in-person during biennial conference years.
Responsibilities:
- Work with the Mentoring Coordinator, ASLE officers and coordinators, and ASLE members to organize panels, workshops, and other professionalization/ mentoring/social events for graduate students and junior academics at the ASLE Biennial Conference
- Develop material pertinent to graduate students and graduate study for the ASLE website
- Work on initiatives for undergraduate students, as appropriate
- Manage the ASLE Graduate Student Facebook page and other student-related social media outlets
- Provide virtual and physical forums for discussion between GSLs and ASLE graduate student members, including the Graduate Student Interest Group Meeting at the ASLE Biennial Conference
- Stay up-to-date on professionalization, graduate studies, and graduate student trends, challenges, and opportunities beyond ASLE to better serve our member community
Sustainability Officer (Term: 3 years)
The ASLE Sustainability Officer* is an appointed position, with a term of three years, renewable once upon the mutual agreement of ASLE leadership and the current Sustainability Officer.
Responsibilities Include:
- Serve on the Biennial Conference Committee.
- Work to reduce on-site impacts at biennial and regional conference.
- Work on reducing the carbon footprint from travel to ASLE Conferences, via virtual participation and other methods.
- Collaborate to provide instructional guidance for attendees regarding sustainability practices.
- Explore options for divestment from fossil fuels; carbon-free funding options; and impact investing and bring research and recommendations for EC consideration annually.
- Work to strengthen the financial sustainability of the Association via net zero or net positive budgeting for symposia and conferences, finding sponsors, and diversifying revenue sources.
- Draft grants, in collaboration with the Managing Director, to targeted funders identified by ASLE leadership for support of our strategic vision.
- Increase labor sustainability by developing tools to support current leadership and staff, and to ease transitions between incoming and outgoing officers.
- Participate in the EC officer’s retreat held in the spring of non-conference years.
- Attend and participate in the EC officer’s meeting held just before the biennial conference.
- Review the ASLE Strategic Plan, and work with officers to prioritize and implement the goals and action items related to sustainability of the Association.
The Sustainability Officer should have excellent organizational skills, and ideally:
- Knowledge of sustainability principles and best practices
- Grant writing experience
- Experience with reviewing budgets and fundraising
* The Strategic Plan statement on sustainability: “ASLE recognizes our responsibility to explore, develop, and model sustainable environmental, financial, and labor practices on behalf of our members and for the benefit of other academic professional organizations.”
