Ruth Anne Hanahan receives Environmental Leadership Award
Faculty, staff, and students who are at the forefront of environmental efforts at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, were honored last week during at a ceremony held in Circle Park. Gordie Bennett, UT’s sustainability manager, and Jay Price, UT’s environmental coordinator, presented the Environmental Leadership Awards to four members of the campus community.
Ruth Anne Hanahan, a senior research associate with the Tennessee Water Resources Research Center (TNWRRC), part of the Institute for a Secure and Sustainable Environment, won the staff environmental leadership award for her role in providing opportunities for UT and community members to gain meaningful, real-life experience in understanding, enhancing, and protecting the environment.
During her sixteen-year tenure with UT, Hanahan has managed the Knoxville Water Quality Forum’s Adopt-a-Watershed program in fifteen local K-12 schools, mentored 112 CAC AmeriCorps members from all over the country, and touched the lives of more than 22,000 students.
In addition to her responsibilities with the TWRRC, Hanahan involved students with integrated biotic integrity (fish shocking) studies, stream bank restoration, installation and maintenance of rain gardens, litter pickups, and the creation of water quality publications. In 2011, Hanahan worked with UT Athletics to coordinate a stream cleanup event for seventy members of the rowing team and others.
Read the story in Tennessee Today to see the other award winners.