The Center for Serve-Learn-Sustain will host the Liam’s Legacy Symposium on Wednesday, November 18, from 4 to 5:30 p.m. in the Clary Theater of the Bill Moore Student Success Center. The symposium will ask what sustainability might look like if the concept of community is taken seriously.

The asset-based community engagement model encourages change and development by using the talents and capacities of people within the community. It also focuses on a community’s strengths and not just its needs.

“The Liam’s Legacy Symposium is a wonderful opportunity to join the conversation regarding how Georgia Tech approaches sustainability,” said Kristina Chatfield with Georgia Tech’s new Center for Serve-Learn-Sustain. “We are engaging community partners at and around Georgia Tech, as we continue to develop programs for the students’ academic experience.”

The event will include keynote remarks by Jody Kretzman, one of the co-founders of The Asset-Based Community Development Institute at Northwestern University, and Jenita McGowan, the chief sustainability officer for the City of Cleveland. Kretzman and McGowan also will participate in a panel discussion with Stephanie Stuckey-Benfield, sustainability director for the City of Atlanta, and Chris Burke, Georgia Tech’s director of Community Relations. Jennifer Hirsch, director of the Center for Serve-Learn-Sustain, will facilitate the discussion.

The Liam’s Legacy Symposium celebrates the life and legacy of Liam Rattray, a sustainability activist, who had just graduated from Georgia Tech with a degree in public policy when he was killed by a suspected drunk driver in 2011. Financial support for the Liam’s Legacy Symposium comes through the School of History and Sociology, and the Wardlaw Fund for Human Rights.