Nancy Tuchman

Founding Dean, Institute of Environmental Sustainability
Loyola University Chicago, U.S.A. 

 

"I first met Superior General Fr. Adolfo Nicholás, S.J. in 2010 at the Assembly of Jesuit University Presidents, Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City, where he gave an important speech on the Globalization of Superficiality.  Among many other important points in his talk, he clearly articulated the impact of having such easy access to enormous volumes of information on the internet, has had on our ability to think, to process information, and reflect deeply on its meaning.  As an example of the superficiality that plagues our societies he pointed out how painless it is to “friend” and “un-friend” people without the hard work of encounter; a comment that still stays with me and keeps me from using social media myself. This meeting was also the first time that the Assembly of Presidents included ecology as one of the big social challenges to address, which is why I was invited to attend and give a plenary talk on the environmental crisis.  Following that Assembly, Fr. Nicholás invited me to serve as one of 6 members of an Ecology Task Force charged with writing a position paper coming from the Curia called Healing a Broken World.  Working closely with the Father General on that project was an enormous privilege, and its fruits provided leverage for advancing environmental sustainability at my home institution of Loyola University Chicago, as well as across the international Jesuit Universities.  He was a kind, intelligent, just, and compassionate leader who made a very big difference in my life and in my work to advance environmental sustainability within the Jesuit Universities."