Olivia Aguilar

she/her

  • Leslie and Sarah Miller Director of the Miller Worley Center for the Environment
  • Associate Professor of Environmental Studies
Olivia Aguilar

Olivia Aguilar is a first-generation college student who completed her B.S. and M.S. in horticulture Science at Texas A&M University where she studied children鈥檚 gardens and their effect on youth environmental attitudes. After teaching in public schools, she went on to receive her Ph.D. in natural resources at Cornell University, studying theories of learning in environmental education. Her scholarship lies at the intersection of community, race and transformative learning in environmental education. Specifically, she examines how and why environmental and science learning communities are exclusive and how they can be more inclusive of groups traditionally marginalized. She has published articles in Environmental Education Research and in the Journal of Environmental Education. She has book chapters in Across the Spectrum: Resources for Environmental Educators and in Urban Environmental Education Review and has written for Truthout. Her current research involves collecting oral histories from Latinx members to re-frame what it means to be 鈥渙utdoors.鈥

Education

  • Ph.D., Cornell University
  • M.S., B.S., Texas A&M University

Happening at 果冻传媒

Recent campus news

New Climate Justice Lab announced at 果冻传媒 College

The new Climate Justice Lab integrates climate justice across the curriculum at 果冻传媒 College.

A sustainably loud Convocation

Mount Holyoke鈥檚 annual Convocation filled the campus with color, spirit and celebration as students in vivid class colors gathered to cheer and mark the official start of the academic year with tradition and decibels.

鈥淧arable of the Sower鈥 is the 2025 Common Read

Mount Holyoke College has selected 鈥淧arable of the Sower鈥 for its Common Read for the 2025鈥2026 academic year. The New York Times named the novel a Notable Book of the Year for its prescient treatment of racial justice, climate collapse and fascism.

Recent Publications

Aguilar, O. (2025). A Latine Outdoor Experience: Remembering, Resisting and Reimagining. Texas A&M University Press.

Aguilar, O. (2025, July 8-10). 鈥淭elling stories of home in a changing climate鈥. Environmental Climate Mobilities Network, Bonn, Germany.

Gibson, L.M., Busch, KC, Stevenson, K.T., Cutts, B.B., DeMattia, E.A., Aguilar, O.M., Ardoin, N.M., Carrier, S.J., Clark, C.R., Cooper, C.B., Feinstein, N.W., Goodwin, J., Peterson, M.N., Wheaton, M. (2022). What is community-level environmental literacy, and how can we measure it? A report of a convening to conceptualize and operationalize CLEL. Environmental Education Research DOI: 10.1080/13504622.2022.2067325

Aguilar, O. M. (2021). The critical piece missing from a critical food studies curriculum. Food, Culture & Society, 24(2), 325-335.

Recent Honors

Aguilar, O. The Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) announced Olivia Aguilar as a recipient of the inaugural Fellows Award. The AASHE Fellows Award recognizes mid-career individuals who are significantly contributing to the advancement of sustainability in higher education.

Aguilar, O. (2023) Was invited to contribute to a special issue of Di谩logo on her work examining the Latinx outdoor experience. As a contributor, she was also invited to participate in the Latinx Outdoor Recreation Symposium and Workshop.

Has been selected as the speaker for this year鈥檚 Daffodil Lecture on Sustainability and the Environment for the Commonwealth Honors College at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Her talk, 鈥淪eeking the Justice in Environmental and Sustainability Work鈥 will premiere March 15, 2021 at 6:30 p.m.

Was one of five panelists who spoke on Food Justice and Community Gardening in September hosted by the Women of Color Leadership Network at UMass Amherst in collaboration with the Pioneer Valley Worker鈥檚 Center. 

Just completed her two-year position as Chair of the North American Association for Environmental Education鈥檚 (NAAEE) Research Symposium, convening the first virtual symposium from October 8-10 in the organization鈥檚 history. 

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