Dr Cheryl Desha

Dr Cheryl Desha is a lecturer in sustainable development at the Faculty of Built Environment and Engineering, and a Research Principal at The Natural Edge Project (TNEP), a non-profit partnership on research, education and strategy for innovation for sustainable prosperity.

Dr Desha graduated in 1999 from Environmental Engineering at Griffith University (First Class Honours), receiving a University Medal and Environmental Engineering medal. She worked for consulting engineering firm Arup for four years, also undertaking work placement within the Queensland government. From 2004 she worked for Griffith University in formal collaboration with TNEP, as a lecturer in the School of Engineering and member of the Urban Research Program. In 2011 she moved to QUT as part of TNEP’s transition to a new hosting arrangement.

Since 2003, Dr Desha has been the co-investigator on over 1.7 million dollars of research grants, which will increase to 3 million by 2012. Since 2005, and including works in development for 2010, she has achieved 11.55 HERDC publication points, an average of 2.31 points per year. Working with the TNEP research team this has included co-authoring; 6 books, 5 book chapters, 5 journal articles, 13 conference papers, 5 industry reports, and 5 magazine articles. Furthermore, during this time, internationally Dr Desha has delivered 5 invited keynote and 6 invited speaking addresses, 5 invited presentations and has co-facilitated 2 workshops. In Australia Dr Desha has delivered 7 invited keynote and 18 invited speaking addresses, 8 presentations, 8 university guest lectures, and co-facilitated 8 workshops.

In 2005 Cheryl was selected as the Engineers Australia Young Professional Engineer of the Year. In the same year, she was a member of the TNEP team which was announced winner of the prestigious Banksia Award for Environmental Leadership, Education and Training for The Natural Advantage of Nations, and the Engineering Sustainable Solutions Program. She also co-founded the Queensland node of the Sustainable Living Challenge at Griffith University in collaboration with the Port of Brisbane Corporation (2006-2008). In 2010 Dr Desha was awarded the university teaching medal for the Science, Environment, Engineering and Technology Group at Griffith University.

With regard to significant publications, Dr Desha is a contributing author to The Natural Advantage of Nations (Earthscan, 2005), and co-author of Whole System Design (Earthscan, 2008), Factor 5 (Earthscan, 2009), and Cents & Sustainability (Earthscan, 2010). Dr Desha is currently writing a book on rapidly transitioning engineering education to education for sustainability (EfS) with co-author Charlie Hargroves (Earthscan).

Dr Desha’s career goal is to facilitate sustainable development by empowering society with emerging language, knowledge and skills related to achieving sustainable solutions. In particular she is committed to building capacity for sustainable development, including topics such as energy efficiency, biomimicry, whole system design and biophilic urbanism. Together with the team from TNEP, Dr Desha has developed a range of projects focused on education and training for sustainable development, including working with universities, professional bodies, government agencies, companies, schools and touring international keynote speakers (see details at http://www.naturaledgeprojec.net).