Andrew McMahan, Chair for the Department of Sustainability at Central Carolina Community College, will be the speaker for the college's first sustainable speaker series in honor of Richard and Rebecca Hayes.
SANFORD - Andrew McMahan, Chair for the Department of Sustainability at Central Carolina Community College, will be the speaker for the college's first sustainable speaker series in honor of Richard and Rebecca Hayes.
The program, which will be held at 1 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 21, in Room 9209 of the Science Building on the CCCC Lee Main Campus, is sponsored by the Richard and Rebecca Hayes Endowed Lecture Fund for Environmental Policy and Stewardship through the CCCC Foundation.
"Defining Sustainable Systems" is the topic of the program, as McMahan will introduce attendees to the guiding principles and axioms that define sustainable systems of any scale. The presentation will examine a variety of factors that contribute to the creation of these systems as well as challenges that threaten both short- and long-term sustainable practices.
McMahan has been with CCCC since 2006 when he was hired to collaborate with industry and other organizations in an effort to develop training curriculum for bioenergy technicians. From 2010-12, he served as Director for the Energy Curriculum Improvement Project (Energy CIP), a North Carolina Community College System initiative tasked with integrating renewable energy training and workforce development into existing vocational programs at all 58 community colleges across North Carolina.
Since 2010, McMahan has served as a delegate for a National Science Foundation project whose goal is having technical educators from the U.S. travel internationally to exchange best practices for renewable energy training and workforce development with other premier training organizations around the world. His work with the National Science Foundation has allowed him to collaborate with top training facilities in Denmark, Australia, New Zealand, and Germany. In turn, McMahan has provided curriculum development and program implementation assistance to colleges across the U.S.
McMahan is also owner of a small hydroelectric company that is currently in the process of relicensing a hydroelectric power plant on the Haw River in Bynum.
He is a graduate of Appalachian State University with a degree in Environmental Policy & Land Use Planning.
"My family has been interested in and an advocate for the preservation of our environment for the past 30 years," said Hayes. "We hope that through this endowment, an annual public lecture will be possible at CCCC, to both students and citizens of our community, to provide them with the very best and the very latest science information relating to what is happening to our planet because of global warming; and more importantly, what measures can be and should be taken, by each of us and all of us, to protect and preserve our precious water, soil, and air and the lives both human and animal they support."
CCCC President Dr. T. Eston Marchant said the college is thankful for friends like Richard and Rebecca Hayes. "We are grateful to Mr. and Mrs. Hayes for their contributions to the college and to the community," he said.
The CCCC Foundation is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization affiliated with, but independent of, Central Carolina Community College. It receives donations of money and equipment on behalf of the college and uses them to promote its educational mission and assist students through scholarships and grants.
For more information about the Foundation, its work and events, visit www.cccc.edu/foundation. For more information about classes and programs at Central Carolina Community College, visit www.cccc.edu.
Andrew McMahan, Chair for the Department of Sustainability at Central Carolina Community College, will be the speaker for the college's first sustainable speaker series in honor of Richard and Rebecca Hayes.