Angela Ober, senior sustainability specialist in the University of Maryland, Baltimore’s (UMB) Office of Sustainability, made a lasting impact on children in the UMB Police Athletic/Activities League (PAL) program during Earth Month when she taught them about the importance of trees.

She created an educational workshop on how trees combat urban heat island effect, encouraging the children to become “Tree PALs” to protect trees in the city and helping them decorate ornaments made of pine cones during an event at the University’s Community Engagement Center (CEC). Then she accompanied the children to a site on campus where UMB had planted trees to discuss the importance of native trees to Baltimore’s local ecology, demonstrating urban heat island effect with an experiment in which the children touched the grass and the sidewalk. The children also decorated the trees.

“You got a group of preteens in our PAL program so excited about trees that when we went on a field trip recently, they made me go to a nature center and rent them magnifying glasses so that we could run out and look at trees for three hours,” Liv Alanis Myers, CEC program coordinator, told Ober. “And I fully credit that to you because you got them excited about it just by being there with your enthusiasm.”

The program was just one example of the impact that Ober has had on UMB and its community in her two years at the University. Ober’s work was celebrated June 21 during a videoconference with UMB President Bruce E. Jarrell, MD, FACS, who surprised her with the news that she was University’s June Employee of the Month. He was joined by Ober’s colleagues in the Office of Sustainability, which is part of UMB’s Office of Administration and Finance, as well as representatives from departments across campus. They all praised her collaboration, partnership, positive attitude, and joyfulness.

“Angela’s short time at UMB has already been so beneficial to the campus community. We often talk about the silos that exist at our institution, and Angela has been instrumental in helping to deconstruct those silos and reach across the aisle to offer help,” said Elizabeth Main, MPA, associate director for sustainability and Ober’s supervisor. “She has made it a point to look outside of her own division and offer assistance with efforts across the campus aimed at making processes more efficient. She doesn’t do any of it for glory or recognition — she does it because it’s the right thing to do and she wants to make a positive impact in support of the collective good.”

Ober has produced a wide variety of work, including program proposals, interactive maps, reports, articles in The Elm, web content, event flyers, and social media graphics to get the message out about sustainability — part of UMB’s core values. She spearheads several initiatives, including greenhouse gas reporting for the University, annual sustainability progress reporting, and a Resiliency Working Group. And she has developed relationships across UMB’s seven schools and central administration, as well as partnerships with the University of Maryland Medical Center’s sustainability staff, Baltimore City’s Office of Sustainability, and sustainability staff at other area universities.

Ober said that because university sustainability offices are usually small — UMB’s currently consists of Ober, Main, and two fellows — collaborating with colleagues and students is important.

“We rely on the help of a lot of others who are also passionate about sustainability in their own departments or offices to help us get work done across campus,” she said. “We have a joke in our office that we infiltrate different areas and try and meet as many people as possible so we can grow that network and that support.”

She said this teamwork is her favorite part of the job.

“We do a good job here talking about what UMB is doing to foster change to support the campus, the community, and the planet and reduce our impact on the planet,” she said. “And what really makes that an interesting part of the job is it’s not just coming from our office, it’s something that UMB collectively is doing to make that work happen.”

One of Ober’s most high-profile projects has been the self-service waste initiative, which has been rolled out in 19 buildings so far this year. Individual desk-side trash cans are removed, and students, faculty, and staff are responsible for bringing their waste to centrally located waste stations. Custodial technicians collect trash and recycling from the common receptacles.

“It’s definitely been a conversation piece,” Ober said. “It’s more than just increasing our recycling rate. It’s also about preventing things from getting incinerated like the liners in the individual bins.”

The initiative was highlighted in the office’s nomination for the Maryland Green Registry Sustainability Leadership Awards, which are given to member organizations that show a strong commitment to sustainable practices, measurable results, and continual improvement. UMB received this award in June 2023 and also was honored for its sustainability efforts in 2022 with a Green Level People Loving and Nurturing Trees Award, which recognizes community efforts to care for trees, and a Tree Campus Higher Education designation by the Arbor Day Foundation.

“Her efforts are greatly felt across campus, although many people may not know that, and I’m appreciative of everything that she does,” said Anna Borgerding, PMP, assistant vice president, Facilities and Operations, and former director of sustainability. “She does it in such a manner that is inclusive, provides feedback, and gives us better solutions than the ones we think of in the beginning.”

With the help of UMB’s design and construction project managers, Ober recently put together a comprehensive map and dashboard to show campus construction projects that may affect pedestrian, cycling, or vehicle traffic. This work used her geographic information systems (GIS) skills; she is working toward her Master of Professional Studies in GIS at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.

Ober also serves on Baltimore City’s Climate Action Plan Technical Advisory Group as the UMB representative. Members will meet four times and discuss strategies the city needs to put into place to reduce waste from businesses and residential areas.

“It blew me away to know that a small shop of two or three people was able to get so much done, and you are such a critical part of that,” Dawn M. Rhodes, DBA, senior vice president and chief business and finance officer, told Ober during the videoconference.

Anthony Consoli, MArch, University architect and an advocate for sustainability, said, “It means so much when so much of our mission as a university is related to health care, and sustainability at its core is about health. Thank you, Angela, for all you’ve done.”

As Employee of the Month, Ober will receive a plaque, a letter of commendation, and an extra $250 in her next paycheck. She said she was humbled and grateful to receive the award and thanked Main and other colleagues from around UMB for their support.

“Elizabeth is a great supervisor,” Ober said. “Between the two of us, and when Anna was part of our team, I was surprised how fast we could get things done in terms of sustainability initiatives.”

— Jen Badie