California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Climate Fellows Program

If so, please apply for this exciting opportunity to become a Chancellor’s Climate Fellow. Fellowships are available in several areas including community engagement, student engagement, curriculum development, workforce and campus facilities. For Cohort 2, the Chancellor’s Office will be selecting four fellows to complement the work that is already underway with Cohort 1.

Time and Travel Commitment

The anticipated commitment is between 40% and 100% of a full-time load for two years, subject to your local schedule/load commitments and negotiation with administration at the college/district.
Work is remote, with periodic reimbursed travel, including, but not limited to:

• regular virtual meetings and weekly work.
• one meeting each semester at the Chancellor’s Office in Sacramento.   
• attendance at annual C3Converge Conference (this year Sept. 29-30, 2025 in Anaheim).
• quarterly in-person retreats at colleges across the state.

Deliverables

Climate Fellows will report to the Senior Climate Fellow and provide regular status level updates and recommendations to the Chancellor’s Office.

By April 30, 2025, please complete this application and submit a one- to two-page statement of interest that identifies your interests, which college you work with and your role at the college, and your preliminary thoughts on engagement in the selected area of focus as detailed below.

Timeline for Selection

• Applications are due April 30, 2025. 
• Applicants notified by Monday, May 30, 2025.

Questions? Contact Senior Climate Fellow Carla Grandy (cgrandy@cccco.edu) with the subject line ‘Climate Fellow Application.’

Areas of Focus

Outlined below are the areas of focus for the Vision 2030 Climate Action agenda. In your letter of interest, let us know in which of these areas you are most interested in collaborating.  You may also propose other areas not represented here that are of interest to you. The first cohort of Chancellor’s Climate Fellows have projects already underway in each of the areas of focus and we are interested to hear how you would engage with them on that work. 

Climate Action - Community Engagement

• Consider ways in which faculty and staff can support climate change and sustainability goals of Vision 2030 through collaboration with community organizations.
• Support colleges to create community engagement plans with local community-based organizations engaged in climate action.
• Facilitate opportunities for colleges to engage in public-private partnerships with local employers.
• Identify funding opportunities for colleges that will support campuses and communities to obtain additional resources for ongoing work.

Climate Action - Curriculum Intervention

• Engage faculty to find discipline-specific examples of sustainability in their curriculum and support statewide disseminate of this information.
• Support systemized collection and analysis of curriculum data.
• Recommend ways to support faculty in efforts to advance climate action education and engagement. 
• Develop a statewide framework, partnering with Academic Senate for California Community Colleges (ASCCC) and the Chancellorʼs Office, on strategies to embed climate action and sustainability topics into general curriculum.
• Develop resource sharing and storage for climate across the curriculum.

Climate Action - Workforce Development

• Develop a framework to assess the workforce needs of industries in the green and blue economy and to document the existing green and blue economy programs within the system.
• Identify existing and develop new opportunities for living laboratories for students to engage in meaningful hands-on learning opportunities.
• Identify funding opportunities to support development of green and blue economy workforce development programs through grants for innovative initiatives.

Climate Action - Campus Facilities and Operations

• Support statewide implementation framework for the Board of Governors Climate Action and Sustainability Goals and Vision 2030, including the creation and/or updating of administrative policies and plans to move toward the goal of net zero carbon emissions by 2035.
• In partnership with the Chancellor’s Office Facilities Division, apply for grants and other funding opportunities to advance the goals of Vision 2030.

Climate Action - Additional Areas of Focus 

In addition to the established areas above, the following are additional areas of exploration for Climate Fellows: Climate justice, climate resilience, communications, intersegmental opportunities, community health and wellness, green investing/finance, land/habitat conservation, climate policy and legislative advocacy, dual enrollment/high school pathways, and grants and funding.

Expected Activities

Activities for this fellowship may include but are not limited to the following:

• Attend and participate in statewide and regional events and collaborate with existing efforts and organizations in state, local, and regional climate action and community college spaces.
• Engage in climate action and sustainability work on a statewide level in partnership with the Chancellor and the Chancellor’s Office.
• Engage faculty and staff in conversations at the regional and statewide level.
• Contribute to in-progress landscape analyses in one or more focus areas and assist in data collection and verification.
• Assist the Chancellor’s Office with, and/or recommend relevant climate-related demonstration projects in topics such as sustainability, workforce development, community resilience, curriculum development, climate justice, and resource development.
• Conduct policy research and develop and disseminate effective practices.
• Create campus-level staffing plan for climate work, including recommendations for establishing committees and work groups.
• Identify grant opportunities and make proposals on how to sustain ongoing work.
• Plan and facilitate statewide and regional webinars, workshops, and in-person events to provide professional learning opportunities for community college faculty and staff to promote Vision 2030 priorities, including but not limited to:

• Strategies to improve student achievement as it relates to climate action and sustainability. 
• Strategies to improve community college operations. 
• Strategies to engage community partners.
• Strategies to coordinate planning and implementation of statewide initiatives.