Connecting, Convening, and Catalyzing to Support a Local Sustainability Movement

Fall 2025 Harry ’51 and Joshua ’49 Tsujimoto Perspectives in Global Development Seminar Series

About the speaker

Since 2004, Gay Nicholson has led Sustainable Finger Lakes (formerly “Sustainable Tompkins”) in designing and implementing an integrated program to advance the creation of a more sustainable regional community. Gay emphasizes a systems approach to working with partners to build the infrastructure and social capacity for more sustainable ways of living and working. Gay participates in a number of local partnerships related to energy and climate, equity as an economic driver, and sustainable agriculture.
Gay left a career in sustainable agriculture to work in environmental advocacy and education with Cornell’s Program on Ethics and Public Life, and then as executive director of the Finger Lakes Land Trust before leading the creation of Sustainable Tompkins. She has been an active volunteer in numerous community and environmental organizations, providing leadership from the local to the national level.
Gay’s undergraduate degree (with High Distinction) is in Environmental Sciences from the University of Virginia (1979), and her Master’s (1982) and Doctorate (1991) are in Vegetable Crop Physiology and Integrated Pest Management from Cornell University.

Abstract

Social change moves faster when bottom-up community action coordinates with top-down policymaking. Tompkins County has a statewide reputation as an innovator in community-driven leadership on climate action and sustainable development. Over the past 20+ years, Sustainable Finger Lakes has helped to organize, educate, and support the local sustainability movement, while providing leadership on electrification for low-income households. Programs and projects on a wide range of initiatives have helped advocates connect across separate silos of activism, and thus influence local policies, values and norms around sustainable development. The challenge now is to ramp up efforts to connect the regional movement and build the organizing infrastructure we will need to cope with both climate disruption and large-scale climate migration to the Northeast and Great Lakes.

About the seminar series

The Harry ’51 & Joshua ’49 Tsujimoto Perspectives in Global Development Seminar Series showcases innovative approaches to development with experts from around the globe. Each year, the series attracts online registrants from over 45 countries and more than 350 organizations. 

Seminars are held Wednesdays from 12:20-1:10 p.m. eastern time during the semester in 175 Warren Hall. Students, faculty and the general public are welcome to attend in-person or via Zoom.

The series is co-sponsored by the Department of Global Development, the Department of Natural Resources and the Environment, and the Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management as part of courses GDEV 4961, AEM 4961, NTRES 4961, GDEV 6960, AEM 6960, and NTRES 6960.