Liz Walker, a nationally recognized authority on "ecovillages"--communities striving for social, economic and environmental sustainability--will be speaking at the USC's Green (West) Quad Learning Center on Tuesday, March 6th, at 7:30 p.m., and again on March 7th at 7:30 p.m.

The meeting on the 7th is a special event, with a limited capacity, so please This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it by noon on Monday, March 5th. A buffet dinner will be served.

Walker is co-founder and executive director of Ecovillage at Ithaca (New York), www.ecovillage.ithaca.ny.us, and she will be speaking on “The Evolution of an Ecovillage: What We've Learned and How We're Changing the World." The Learning Center is at the corner of Wheat and Sumter Streets, and the event is free and open to the public.

Walker is the author of "EcoVillage at Ithaca: Pioneering a Sustainable Culture," www.newsociety.com/bookid/3882 . She created a partnership between Ithaca College and the Ecovillage at Ithaca which was awarded an NSF grant of $149,000 for curriculum development. Walker has been interviewed on CNN, PBS, NPR, Voice of America, and has had feature articles in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Popular Science, Residential Architect, and Mother Earth News. She has traveled to ecovillages around the world and is a co-founder of Gaia Education, a new international organization developing curriculum on creating sustainable communities.

Walker's talk is part of the Green Quad Learning Center's series "Ecovillages: Living as if the Earth Really Matters," which focuses on alternative communities and their experiments with sustainable living. Ecovillages are part of an emerging, sustainable culture that relies on alternative economic models, renewable energy systems, and alternative modes of education.

The Green Quad Learning Center is dedicated to supporting students, faculty, staff, and community members in exploring the changes required to create a sustainable society. For more information, call 803-777-1994.