Elizabeth Burke

President, Board of Directors 

Currently Serving as Communications Director

What sustainability means to me.

Sustainability is a mutually beneficial relationship. It is a distinct process of reciprocity between all living elements in a system. When one element begins consuming others without returning anything, the system becomes imbalanced. We live in an imbalanced system, and the concept and practices of sustainability give us the tools to restore that balance.

Why I am involved with the New SHIRE Institute

After I graduated Penn State, I moved to Austin, Texas and worked as a community organizer with Texas Campaign for the Environment. Braden invited Patrick and I out to the Hundred Acre Wood, and I loved it. I loved the idea, I loved the people, I loved the land. I volunteered on weekends, simultaneously working as a client account manager for a national telecom company. They operated on a multi-million dollar budget, but placed so much emphasis on attracting as much financial capital as possible, they forgot to invest in human and resource capital. They created cycles of exploitation without reciprocation . The SHIRE allows me to generate financial capital by emphasizing the value of human and resource capital. It allows my social needs to coincide with my environmental ones.

What I Offer

I ask questions. I aim to address imbalances. I anticipate needed infrastructure, then recruit the right people to construct it. I build space, mental and physical, both sustainable. As people interact with those spaces, they learn and react and build. They learn to inhabit space sustainably. They invite their friends and family to do the same. Sustainable habitats create momentum. I am here to maximize velocity.

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