New Sustainability SIG Co-Chairs

This week, Sarah Hitt and Valentina Rossi were selected as the new SEFI Sustainability SIG Co-Chairs.

Sarah Hitts (NMITE, UK) is a Professor of Liberal Studies at the New Model Institute for Technology and Engineering (UK) and Programme Lead for its BSc Construction Management. She has been involved with SEFI since 2020, when she joined the Ethics SIG. Sarah joined the Sustainability SIG in 2022, and attended the joint Spring School in 2024. She has published chapters in 2 SEFI handbooks (so far!) and represented and promoted SEFI at a recent meeting of the European University of Technology. Sarah also acts as the project manager for the Engineering Professors’ Council’s Ethics, Sustainability, and Complex Systems Toolkits, and has also worked with Engineers Without Borders – UK and Engineering for One Planet on initiatives that promote globally responsible education and practice.

Valentina Rossi (EPFL, CH) is a Pedagogical Advisor at the Teaching Support Centre (CAPE) at EPFL and a PhD candidate at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland. She is a researcher in the integration of sustainability and ethics in the engineering curriculum from an interdisciplinary perspective, drawing on philosophy/ethics, social psychology, and educational sciences. Valentina has been involved with SEFI since 2024 as member of the Sustainability and Ethics SIG after attending the Spring Symposium. She contributed to the organisation of the SEFI 2024 annual conference at EPFL, coordinating the sustainability team. Valentina has edited a book on Engineering Educational Games for a Sustainable Society: Play, Learn and Transform, and was an education project manager at the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) where she developed trainings for diplomats and young pupils on leadership and negotiation, climate change/justice, DEI.

Congratulations and all the best to Sarah and Valentina in their new role!

A huge thank you as well to outgoing Co-Chairs Aida Guerra and André Baier for all of their contributions.