The International Academic Forum (IAFOR) > People > International Academic Advisory Board > Sustainability, Energy & Environment

Sustainability, Energy & Environment

  • Dr June Henton
    Dr June Henton
    Auburn University, USA
  • Fan Li
    Fan Li
    LePing Social Entrepreneur Foundation & Stanford Social Innovation Review (SSIR), China
  • Professor Mark Pegrum
    Professor Mark Pegrum
    The University of Western Australia, Australia
  • Dr Philip Sugai*
    Dr Philip Sugai*
    Doshisha University, Japan
  • Professor Denis Binder*
    Professor Denis Binder*
    Chapman University, USA
  • Brian Aycock
    Brian Aycock
    IAFOR Research Centre
  • Dr James W. McNally
    Dr James W. McNally
    University of Michigan, USA & NACDA Program on Aging
  • Ms Karen Newby
    Ms Karen Newby
    Par les mots solidaires, France
  • Dr Tom Houghton**
    Dr Tom Houghton**
    Curtin University, Australia
  • Dr Maxime Jaffré*
    Dr Maxime Jaffré*
    United Arab Emirates University, United Arab Emirates
  • Dr Elena Raevskikh*
    Dr Elena Raevskikh*
    Department of Culture and Tourism Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
  • Mr Lowell Sheppard*
    Mr Lowell Sheppard*
    HOPE International Development Agency, Japan

* attached to more than one section
** journal editor

The role of the International Academic Advisory Board is to provide advice and expertise in support of IAFOR’s mission and activities. Members are appointed by the President of IAFOR to one or more academic sections, depending on their individual area(s) of expertise.

Membership of the IAAB is for three years, renewable once, and is by invitation only. Journal Editors are ex-officio members of the Board for the length in which they serve.

The IAAB is organised into three academic divisions, and then further into sections, each of which has a Chair responsible for academic programmes and publications, and who serves as a representative on the Academic Governing Board.

I – Education & Language Learning

II – Social Sciences & Sustainability

III – Arts, Humanities, Media & Culture

Dr June Henton
Auburn University, USA

Biography

Dr June Henton is Professor and Dean of the College of Human Sciences at Auburn University. Dean Henton provides leadership for teaching, research, and outreach programming in subject areas such as: nutrition and wellness; hospitality and service management; sustainable human development; relationships and health; the science of design; and women’s wealth and philanthropy. The commitment of the College is to produce graduates who are not only professionally competent, but globally aware and socially engaged. In addition to her role as Senior Dean, Dr Henton also serves as Associate Director of the Alabama Agricultural Experiment Station and Auburn’s liaison to the Alabama Cooperative Extension System, serving the citizens of the state, nation, and world.

Throughout her administrative career, Dean Henton has focused on the creation of innovative initiatives to position students for success in a rapidly changing world. Notably, the Hotel and Restaurant Management program partnered with the West Paces Hotel Group to establish a service excellence program based on the quality sciences, that is unique in the nation. In addition, she was co-founder and initiated Auburn’s charter membership in the National Textile Center University Research Consortium. In recent years, the College of Human Sciences has developed Auburn’s only International Minor and established its first permanently endowed, year-round overseas campus in Ariccia, Italy. Moreover, since 1994, the College has sponsored the International Quality of Life Awards at the United Nations to honor leaders who have distinguished themselves at the highest levels professionally as well as in humanitarian endeavors. Also, under Dean Henton’s leadership in 2004, Auburn University was invited to be the first academic partner with the UN World Food Programme in a university hunger campaign. Since that time, more than 150 institutions of higher education have joined the coalition of Universities Fighting World Hunger.

Dr Henton earned her PhD in Family Social Science at the University of Minnesota. During her years as a faculty member, she taught a variety of courses in the social and behavioral sciences. Her publication record includes a list of books, book chapters, and articles reflecting her primary areas of research, viz., interpersonal dynamics, relationship violence, and relationship stability. Examples include a Dryden Press book, Hers and His: A Problem Solving Approach to Marriage and refereed articles in journals such as Journal of Marriage and the Family, Journal of Family Issues, Social Psychology Quarterly, and Journal of Social Psychology. She also received a B.S. degree from Oklahoma State University and an M.S. from the University of Nebraska.

Fan Li
LePing Social Entrepreneur Foundation & Stanford Social Innovation Review (SSIR), China

Biography

Fan founded Global Links Initiative with Robin Rowland in 2003, a nonprofit organisation headquartered first in Tokyo and then in Shanghai that fostered practical links among social entrepreneurs around the world. In 2004, GLI first brought the concept of social entrepreneurship to China.

Fan was a founding member of the China-US Strategic Philanthropy Partnership (CUSP), a leading network that promotes research, exchange and collaboration between the philanthropic sectors of China and the United States, she worked with CUSP from 2010 to 2016. Fan connected and advised partnership building between two leading social enterprises in Japan and China from 2009 to 2012, which resulted in the first China-Japan social joint venture in sustainable farming.

Fan is co-editor-in-chief of the Chinese version of Stanford Social Innovation Review. She is also editor of the groundbreaking book, A New Horizon: 10 Stories of Social Entrepreneurs in China (HongKong, 2010). Her translation of Kazuyoshi Fujita’s book, Radish Revolution, was one of the best sellers of the SanLian Publishing House in 2013. She currently serves as International Advisor for the LePing Foundation in Beijing. Fan’s work as Senior Fellow at the IAFOR Research Centre leads efforts to grow the East Asia Social Innovation Initiative, a cutting-edge network for research, dialogue and knowledge sharing on social innovation in East Asia.

Professor Mark Pegrum
The University of Western Australia, Australia

Biography

Mark Pegrum is an associate professor in the Graduate School of Education at The University of Western Australia in Perth, where he is the Deputy Head of School (International), with responsibility for overseeing offshore programmes and international connections. In his courses, he specialises in digital technologies in education, with a particular focus on mobile learning. He is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, and his teaching has been recognised through Faculty and University Excellence in Teaching Awards, as well as a 2010 national Australian Learning & Teaching Council (ALTC) Excellence in Teaching Award.

His current research focuses on mobile technologies, digital literacies, augmented reality, and mobile learning trails and games. His books include: Brave New Classrooms: Democratic Education and the Internet, co-edited with Joe Lockard, and published by Peter Lang in 2007; From Blogs to Bombs: The Future of Digital Technologies in Education, published by UWA Publishing in 2009; Digital Literacies, co-authored with Gavin Dudeney and Nicky Hockly, and published by Pearson in 2013; and Mobile Learning: Languages, Literacies and Cultures, published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2014.

Mark Pegrum is currently working on a new book entitled Mobile Lenses on Learning: Languages and Literacies on the Move, due for publication by Springer in 2019. To date, some of his work has been translated into Chinese and Portuguese. Mark Pegrum is an Associate Editor of the International Journal of Virtual and Personal Learning Environments, a member of the Editorial Boards of Interactive Technology and Smart Education, Language Learning & Technology and Technology in Language Teaching & Learning, and until recently he was a member of the Editorial Board of System. He is a member of the Advisory Council for the Laureate-Cambridge Online Language Learning Research Network (OLLReN); a member of the Advisory Panels for the Digital Education Show Asia and EduTECH Asia; a member of the Programme Committee for the International Mobile Learning Festival; a member of the International Review Panel for mLearn; the Co-Convenor, with Hayo Reinders, of the AILA research network Mobile Gaming in Language Learning & Teaching; and an external reviewer for the 2018-2019 UNICEF Digital Literacy & Skills scoping project.

Mark Pegrum currently teaches in Perth and Singapore and has given presentations and run seminars on e-learning and m-learning in Australia and New Zealand, Asia and the Middle East, the UK and Europe, and North and South America.

Dr Philip Sugai*
Doshisha University, Japan

Biography

Dr Sugai is a Professor of Marketing within Doshisha University's Graduate School of Business where he currently teaches Marketing, eMarketing, Marketing Research, and Sustainable & Responsible Marketing. Dr Sugai also served as a Visiting Professor for Stanford University from 2015 - 2017, where he taught Innovation in Japan at the Stanford Overseas campus in Kyoto. Prior to joining the Doshisha University faculty, Dr Sugai taught at the International University of Japan in Niigata where he also served as Dean and Associate Dean of the IUJ Business School for six years.

Dr Sugai is the author of two books, The Value Plan and The Six Immutable Laws of Mobile Business (John Wiley & Sons) and has published case studies with Ivey Business School Publishing on KITKAT Japan, AGL, Hatsune Miku and Walt Disney Internet Group.

He received his Doctorate degree from Waseda University and his M.B.A. in Marketing and Operations Management from New York University’s Stern School of Business. He has worked as a marketing executive at American Express, Muze, Inc., and Lightningcast, Inc., and currently serves as a marketing advisor and marketing strategy consultant to companies both in Japan and globally.

*Dr Philip Sugai is attached to more than one section of the International Academic Advisory Board.

Professor Denis Binder*
Chapman University, USA

Biography

Professor Binder’s career teaching law spans 4½ decades. His primary teaching areas are Environmental Law, Torts and Toxic Torts. He has been involved with infrastructure issues for four decades, starting with the Legal Liability for Dam Failures. He received the National Award of Merit by the Association of State Dam Safety Officials in 1996.

His work includes emergency action planning, energy issues, the causes and responses to natural disasters and tragedies, and security issues, including cybersecurity and cyberbullying. He has written and spoken scores of times to academic, legal and professional audiences on these problems.

His recent research focuses on two aspects of disasters. The first is on natural and human risks in the environment, recognising that human development magnifies the risks of natural hazards. The second is the increasing application of criminal law in disasters and tragedies in the New Millennium.

Professor Binder received his LL.M., in 1971 and doctorate in law (S.J.D.) from the University of Michigan in 1973.

*Professor Denis Binder is attached to more than one section of the International Academic Advisory Board.

Brian Aycock
IAFOR Research Centre

Biography

Brian served in the US military during multiple overseas operations, then joined the Peace Corps to work on economic development in sub-Saharan Africa. Brian also managed the refugee employment department of a resettlement agency, assisting refugees as they arrive in the United States. He has published articles on economic development and underdevelopment, as well as refugee law in Japan, and most recently presented on issues of human security at the International Conference on Peace and Conflict, hosted by the University of Delhi (India).

His undergraduate work was completed in the United States before beginning postgraduate studies in economics at the University of Glasgow. In 2017, Brian went back to school to study refugee law, earning his MA (Distinction) in Refugee Protection from the University of London. Brian is currently pursuing his doctorate at the International Christian University (ICU) in Japan, and serving as an adjunct lecturer at Keisen University and Oberlin University. His current research interests are in international law, particularly refugee and human rights law, and he is conducting research into legal protections for persons displaced by climate change.

Dr James W. McNally
University of Michigan, USA & NACDA Program on Aging

Biography

Dr James W. McNally is the Director of the NACDA Program on Aging, a data archive containing over 1,500 studies related to health and the aging lifecourse. He currently does methodological research on the improvement and enhancement of secondary research data and has been cited as an expert authority on data imputation. Dr McNally has directed the NACDA Program on Aging since 1998 and has seen the archive significantly increase its holdings with a growing collection of seminal studies on the aging lifecourse, health, retirement and international aspects of aging. He has spent much of his career addressing methodological issues with a specific focus on specialised application of incomplete or deficient data and the enhancement of secondary data for research applications. Dr McNally has also worked extensively on issues related to international aging and changing perspectives on the role of family support in the later stages of the aging lifecourse.

Dr James W. McNally is a Vice-President of IAFOR. He is Chair of the Social Sciences & Sustainability division of the International Academic Advisory Board.

Ms Karen Newby
Par les mots solidaires, France

Biography

Karen Newby trained as a nurse, and has lived and worked in England, the United States and France, where she currently resides. In 2007 she founded Words for Solidarity, a charity to support Nepalese women to become professional and ethically responsible nurses.

Dr Tom Houghton**
Curtin University, Australia

Biography

Dr Tom Houghton is Director of the MBA (Oil & Gas) at Curtin Graduate School of Business, Australia, and was previously a Research Fellow at the University of Strathclyde, UK. His principal field of research is sustainable energy economics and he has a keen interest in energy for development, having established a training program in Renewable Energy for Developing Countries with UNITAR. Dr Houghton is a Visiting Professor at Nagoya University of Commerce and Business, Japan, where he provides courses in sustainable energy to MBA students. Before joining Strathclyde he spent more than five years in the power industry and a further eight in the banking sector, latterly as director at the Japanese bank Nomura. With colleagues in Asia and the United States, he established a consulting company in the renewable energy sector in 2011. Dr Houghton holds an MEng from Imperial College, an MBA from London Business School and a PhD from the University of Strathclyde.

**Dr Tom Houghton is the editor of the IAFOR Journal of Sustainability, Energy & the Environment.

Dr Maxime Jaffré*
United Arab Emirates University, United Arab Emirates

Biography

Dr Maxime Jaffré is currently Assistant Professor at the United Arab Emirates University (UAEU). Before joining UAEU, Dr Maxime Jaffré worked as Research Fellow at the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS), at the Centre Norbert Elias in Marseille, France. He holds a PhD in sociology from the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (EHESS). He defended a PhD thesis entitled “The globalization of culture and the spirit of Arabic music: a sociology of scholarly Arabic musical forms decontextualized in France and in the US”.

Dr Maxime Jaffré also worked as research assistant at the University of Chicago with Prof. Terry Nichols Clark, where he analyzed the social and political dynamics of cities and culture in France and internationally. Since 2013, he is involved in the ANR-Curricula research project funded by the French National Research Agency (500K€), which aims at analyzing the reorganization of cultural institutions in cities designated “European Capitals of Culture” in four European countries (France, Sweden, Poland and Italy). Since 2018, he is working on a research project on "Multiculturalism and Tolerance in the UAE" founded by the United Arab Emirates University (UAEU).

*Dr Maxime Jaffré is attached to more than one section of the International Academic Advisory Board.

Dr Elena Raevskikh*
Department of Culture and Tourism Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

Biography

Dr Elena Raevskikh is a research fellow at the Department of Culture and Tourism Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. She holds a PhD in sociology from the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (EHESS) (France), and a Master’s degree in international public law from the Lomonosov Moscow State University Law Faculty (Russia). She supports CultureSTATS-AD project that aims to produce internationally recognizable and comparable cultural statistics in the emirate of Abu Dhabi. By structuring pre-existing cultural data as well by exploring the new approaches to data collection and analysis, the project seeks to understand how to enhance the impact of culture and cultural assets on the social and economic growth of Abu Dhabi, and how to discover, analyse and support cultural phenomena that makes Abu Dhabi unique. For this project, Dr Raevskikh is developing new conceptual and methodological approaches to the legitimate articulation of locally anchored and internationally comparable dimensions of the evolving culture statistics system.

*Dr Elena Raevskikh is attached to more than one section of the International Academic Advisory Board.

Mr Lowell Sheppard*
HOPE International Development Agency, Japan

Biography

Lowell Sheppard is Asia Pacific Director of the HOPE International Development Agency, an organisation that works to improve the supply of basic human necessities to the world’s extreme poor. Aside from his 25-year involvement with HOPE, Lowell has dedicated much of his life to social and environmental improvement projects throughout the world. He was the Chairman of the Whose Earth initiative in the UK, and was the founding Chairman of Novimost, a non-government organisation responding to the needs caused by war in the Balkans. He was also CEO of one of the UK’s largest youth charities and an executive member of Spring Harvest, an annual Christian festival which attracts more than 60,000 people each Easter, and raises more than one million dollars for charities every year. A fellow of the Royal Geographic Society, Mr Sheppard is the author of six books, which reflect his diverse intellectual interests and life experience. His latest book, Boys Becoming Men, examines the importance of rites of passage, including adventures, for children becoming adults. Lowell is a noted public speaker, and has given lectures at both undergraduate and postgraduate level on Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainability, and he is a former vice-chairman of the CSR Committee for the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan.

*Mr Lowell Sheppard is attached to more than one section of the International Academic Advisory Board.