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Blue Devil of the Week: Continual Learning at Nicholas School

Allison Besch oversees Duke’s environmental professional development programs

From left to right, Francis Lethem with the Duke Center for International Development, Allison Besch with the Nicholas School of the Environment and Elizabeth Shapiro-Garza with the Nicholas School traveled to Arequipa, Peru, in July of 2015.
From left to right, Francis Lethem with the Duke Center for International Development, Allison Besch with the Nicholas School of the Environment and Elizabeth Shapiro-Garza with the Nicholas School traveled to Arequipa, Peru, in July of 2015.

“We offer the non-degree professional development programs for the Nicholas School, which can take place on campus, online, in somebody’s workplace, anywhere. We were hosting 22 hydropower engineers from China, and they were on campus for 10 weeks, and they visited the Duke Marine Lab for a week. They were coming to learn environmental project management and business development skills. I visited Arequipa, Peru, last year to do a training course for the mining industry. We were working with an industry that is traditionally known for not-so-great environmental practices where at least one corporation, our client, was open to trying to do better. We had not done the program before, and we were hoping that it would work and do a little good in the world. Duke supports me in developing new sessions, taking on new project partners, and gives me permission to be innovative, and I really appreciate that.”

Allison Besch
Director of Executive Education Programs, Nicholas School of the Environment
4 years at Duke

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