MIAD conferred an honorary doctorate on Kenneth L. Leinbach, executive director of Milwaukee’s Urban Ecology Center, at its commencement ceremony on Saturday, May 9.
“A luminary in the Milwaukee community, Mr. Leinbach was honored for his leadership role in community-based environmental education, which has been nationally recognized and is being modeled in cities around the United States,†said MIAD President Neil Hoffman.
Leinbach led the community effort to build the Urban Ecology Center from an old trailer in an abandoned city park into a state-of the art green community center that annually serves approximately 70,000 visitors of all ages.
The Eastside Center provides consistent contact to natural land for thousands of central city students. Its multi-faceted indoor and outdoor resources include a college-level field research station and grade-school outdoor classroom that has become an environmental education tool for urban revitalization.
MIAD students are deeply engaged with the center and its mission through the college’s Service Learning Program and have made it their number one choice for fulfilling their community service requirement. The center was also a vital part of the college’s honoring of Earth Week.
The students’ commitment reflects MIAD’s commitment to the environment, sustainability and greening its campus through the development of a comprehensive plan and ongoing collective efforts to improve the college’s energy use, work environment and “green” habits.
Commencement was held at the Milwaukee Public Library’s Centennial Hall.
Read about Earth Week at MIAD.
Read more about Going Green at MIAD.
Read more about the Urban Ecology Center’s comprehensive programs.
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