Joy Kcenia O’Neil holds a PhD in Sustainability Education from Prescott College, Arizona, USA where she studied socio-ecological sustainability, intra-active pedagogies, sustainable leadership and adult and transformative learning in higher education. In her research, she took a reflexive inquiry and narrative living story approach to her own teaching practice and the learning of others as she examined how and in what ways relationality contributes to learning. She has been an educator and practitioner in formal and non-formal higher education for 18 years in the Southwest and Midwest USA and abroad and in Japan for 5 years. Much of her recent teaching and student mentoring focuses on social and ecological justice in education.

She has designed and administratively led undergraduate and graduate academic programs for state and private institutions of higher education and has consulted in curriculum and program development in higher education. She thrives on fostering transformative change-agency learning and leading experiences by exposing students to diverse ways of thinking and designing projects to solve the most complex pressing issues we face in society.

As a first generation college graduate and first generation Mexican-Polish-Russian American, she brings her whole self and a culturally responsive and relevant lens that contributes to her interconnected and inclusive thinking. She also holds a BS and Master’s in environmental /ecological sciences and contributes her ecological knowledge to her design process of educational systems. She lives in the Pacific Northwest, USA with her family and enjoys being outside in the natural world as much as possible. She also loves kitchen as place—making meaningful food experiences laughing, eating and learning with others.