Beth Mercer-Taylor
Sustainability education; simulations and games for education and engagement; project-based teaching and learning; systems thinking; city sustainability; school sustainability
Background & Expertise
Beth Mercer-Taylor has served since 2008 as sustainability education co-director at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities, where she connects climate, energy and justice scholarship with engaged teaching and community partnership. She manages the sustainability studies minor and works across colleges, departments, and communities to build curricular and co-curricular pathways that link students, faculty, K–12 educators and practitioners to real-world sustainability challenges.
Her teaching emphasizes simulations and project-based learning, including a mock United Nations climate negotiation and applied projects developed in partnership with cities, state agencies, nonprofits and community organizations. She co-teaches a study-abroad course on renewable energy in Germany, part of a long-standing state-to-state partnership between Minnesota and North Rhine–Westphalia.
Working closely with colleagues at the Institute on the Environment, Mercer-Taylor has helped launch campus-wide initiatives such as the Sustainability Symposium, the SELFsustain retreat and the Sustainability Action Open House, and has supported the development of new sustainability courses across disciplines. She has served as PI or co-PI on projects funded by NSF, NIFA, LCCMR and Hennepin County, spanning equitable energy policy, ecosystem health and youth climate leadership. Her collaborative project Backyard Phenology and the Climate Chaser is on display at the Bell Museum.
Trained in law, public policy, planning and community organizing, she brings strategic, networked leadership to sustainability education.
Featured Project: Beth Mercer-Taylor
Growing the Just Solar Revolution to Scale in Minnesota
A regional analysis of equity
Challenge
Equity and inclusion concepts have received much attention from energy project leaders and policymakers in recent years, but projects still often overlook root causes. A focus on reaching measurable equity or racial diversity numbers does not necessarily lead to changes in access to funds, power relationships or intersectional organizing and planning.
Meet the Project Team
Project Lead
All Projects Featuring Beth Mercer-Taylor
Annual Sustainability Symposium Showcases Student Work and Collaboration across UMN
Fourteen years ago, IonE colleagues Jennifer Schmitt and Beth Mercer-Taylor stood at the railing above the Learning & Environmental Sciences atrium, looking down at the space below.