For Louise Rosen, caring for the Earth is all about collaborating and creating.

These are her titles: Director of Student Programs, Office of Education Programs, The Earth Institute; Assistant Director, MPA Program in Environmental Science and Policy School of International and Public Affairs; and Associate Director, Office of Educational Programs, The Earth Institute.

Yet in the nearly five years she’s been at Columbia University, Rosen is perhaps best known for creating the All-Ivy Environmental Career Fair that she describes as a highlight of her work.

In 2003, Yale and Cornell had a similar event of their own that Rosen attended as a Columbia recruiter. But she also approached the organizers about Columbia’s joining forces with them, so in 2004, it became a three-school event.

Meantime, students from all eight Ivy League schools were getting together on their own to talk about environmental concerns. Since the students were able to collaborate, why couldn’t their schools do the same around the career fair, Rosen asked. In 2005, the All-Ivy Environmental Career Fair was born.

This year’s fair, on Feb. 17, drew 77 recruiters from corporate, private, government and non-profit groups, and about 450 students. This, compared with 40 recruiters and 300 participants in 2004. Rosen says this year we “had community here, an amazing sense of collaboration.”

Rosen points out that the all-Ivy aspect of the fair brings together each of the schools’ own networks, thereby giving students access to a wider range of opportunities. “Everybody wins,” she says.

Rosen is also foundress of Columbia’s Environmental Open House, at which area students are invited to learn more about the programs in environmental studies and sustainable development at Columbia University and Barnard College.

“Being New Yorkers, at Columbia we’re sometimes blasé about what we have,” Rosen says. “Other schools tend to be more vocal about being environmentally oriented. We have more programs than most schools, so it’s important to bring them together to see their breadth.

"This not only gives people the opportunities to see the programs in one hit, but also whether they’d be good fits for the programs.”

The next Environmental Open House will be held in the fall, Rosen says.

Rosen also brings students together at the Student Advisory Council, whose 22 members come from The Earth Institute’s affiliated departments and schools and meet once a month. Rosen says the students tell her what’s going on in their departments so The Earth Institute “can shape and plan events to complement their academic activities and interests and ultimately benefit them.”

“We find out what they need and how we can help them,” Rosen says.

Rosen says she grew up in a very green area, “bang smack in the middle of London.” Her aptitude and interest in the study of geography evolved into a passion for people and environmental justice. She has been able to dovetail this with her love for writing – Rosen has a BS in Geography from the London School of Economics and an MS from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

Her environmental commitments stay with Rosen at the end of her work day, when she says her life is “things with four legs and furry coats.”

“I walk the dogs and write,” she says.

Her dogs are a border collie/bichon named Nut Graf, and Sydney, a border collie/beagle puppy, recently rescued from the streets. Commenting on Nut Graf’s journalistic name, Rosen says “he’s convinced he was a war correspondent in another life!”

Rosen says, “I’m happiest when I’m in Central Park, walking the dogs, looking at the hawks and raccoons, before the rest of the city has woken up. I love that.”

In a personal and professional life whose hallmarks have been collaboration and cooperation, it’s not surprising to hear Rosen say that most important environmental challenge at Columbia University is building collaboration. “Students have strong desires to see changes,” she says. “We need to help get their suggestions to the right people who can make things happen, to facilitate those relationships. Students want to change.”