Hello my friends! It has been a long time since I posted a new blog and it is high time that I did! Lots to catch you up on, so buckle your seatbelt!

As many of you know, I moved to the upper Midwest after living in the Palm Beaches (south Florida) for 37 years. It was a move that I had wanted to do for a very long time- more than 30 years, actually! But, timing is everything and I only wanted to make the move when things were lined up for me to do so. At last, things did line up and away I went!

I taught for a year at Loyola University Chicago’s Institute of Environmental Sustainability for a 1-year contract. When the contract ended, I decided not to return and wanted to move forward with other things. The experience was valuable. I got the opportunity to teach courses on the scientific basis of environmental issues, environmental sustainability and sustainable agriculture. The latter course was special for me as I had recently completed writing my second book (Measuring Food Sustainability and the Benefits of Urban Agriculture) and was able to provide sections of it to the students as a textbook.

After my time at Loyola, my husband and I moved to the far-flung northwestern suburbs of Chicago. We live in a small city that is on the dividing line of Chicago’s bedroom community urban sprawl and the rural countryside. It is amazing to live here. I submitted my second books to publishers and one is in peer review. Fingers crossed that it moves forward.

After 2 years in Chicagoland, I have finally made contacts within the environmental and sustainability community, which has led to me re-starting my speaking engagements and book events. You can find these on my Events link to the left of this webpage. I’m so happy to be doing this again, but in a new region of the country. I have also begun teaching college courses again and these are/will be focused on environmental science, sustainability and horticulture.

I have also continued my research into the benefits of urban food growing! My entire backyard is a food garden and last season (2018), I collected really good data. I’m compiling and analyzing the numbers now and hope to present them at my upcoming conference presentations. Looking to continue this until I no longer can.

Thanks so much for visiting my webpage. I need to go for now. Please stop one of my speaking engagements and say hello. Would love to talk with you.

Warmest regards,

Dr. Z