By Maggie Dees
Addair graduated from Catawba in 2018 with a degree in Music with a concentration in Worship Arts and a minor in Religion. In 2021, she received her certification in Architectural Technology with a specialization in Sustainability from Central Piedmont Community College.
In her role, Addair works on zero-waste education and outreach, the expansion of campus pollinator gardens, annual move-out programs, and many others. She is a member of the Tree Care Advisory Board, Sustainability Committee, and Staff Council. She is the Staff Advisor for the Environmental Stewards Program, Catawba Outdoor Adventure Club (COA), and the Helen Foil Beard Women’s Society. Addair works diligently to make Catawba College a fun, safe, and sustainable environment for all - people and nature.
To start can you tell me a bit about what you do for Catawba College and the Center for the Environment?
My title is sustainability program director. What does that mean? I work on different sustainability programming across campus, and my focus is on our waste streams and educating about recycling and composting.
Before I came, there was not a ton of recycling on campus and where we did have recycling, it was just randomly placed and by itself. A lot of studies have been done that indicate if recycling is just alone and not by a trash bin or a landfill bin that people are going to throw whatever in it. So, when I got here, I made sure that wherever there was a trash can, there was also a recycling bin.
Thankfully, Catawba already had a partnership and a contract with Triad Composting services. All our back of house food waste in the dining hall goes to the large compost bins outside of the dining hall, where they are picked up by Triad composting services. Since we already had that contract, we have continued to expand our composting program.
The environmental stewards, which is a great student program that Noah Upchurch and I resurrected post COVID, have been helping a lot with the composting efforts. We started a pilot program last year in office spaces and residence halls, and they are keeping that going. With the help of the Stewards, I also maintain all the pollinator gardens across campus as well as a learning garden.
We also do different education and outreach events like in the past I have held make your own DIY recycled paper workshops. We have also done waste-wise Wednesday, which is having people come up and try to sort the different types of waste into different types of bins.
You studied music and religion for your undergraduate degree from Catawba. What inspired you to make the shift from music to sustainability, and how did you begin that career?
It was a whirlwind experience. I did not listen to my advisors when I was in my first year at Catawba. They advised you to go into your general education requirements to experience different disciplines and you might change your mind. And was thinking “I will never change my mind. I am going to be a musician.” And so, once I started taking my Gen. Eds my junior and senior years, I realized maybe they were on to something. What triggered that change was when I took Ornithology with Dr. Joe Poston. I did not want to change gears, but after taking Ornithology I realized maybe I should have been an environmental or biology major. I figured it was a little too late, but that is okay, I will figure it out. I had always loved birds and nature and the outdoors, but that class just solidified that I want to do something in that world.
After I graduated, I did not know what I wanted to do, so I did the Disney College Program. I worked at Disney World, for like 9 months in Orlando and then moved back to Salisbury and I nannied for a long time because I have always worked with kids. Then I started working at a plant nursery, which I was excited about because again, I love being outside and being around plants. That was a ton of fun, but one day, they called everyone to a meeting and said they sold the company. That company had a landscaping business, so I just joined the landscaping side of the business and did landscaping for a while, but it just was not the best environment. Then, I started working at South Main Book Company. That was 2021 and I was working there for a long time. I also worked as a legal assistant for a lawyer in town.
I was jumping around a lot and gaining lots of different random experiences, but I was consistently very involved in my local Audobon chapter. Through the chapter, I had a lot of experience advocating for birds and for the environment. I was doing all of that while working as a legal assistant when Dr. Poston emailed me one day sending me the sustainability specialist position at Catawba College. I felt like I had zero requirements, but he encouraged me to apply because he knew that I loved to learn and that this is the realm where my passions lie. So, I applied, and one thing led to another and here I am. That was in 2023. I started in January 2023. And I have been learning so much ever since and really making some positive changes on campus.
In your time here, what would you say is your favorite project that you have worked on so far?
Of all the projects, my favorite has been the creation of all our native pollinator gardens, we have 7 on campus. I love being able to work with the students and get different ideas from them about what kind of plants they want to see. It gives them the ability to design a space they can feel confident in and that we know will bring more biodiversity to campus and create that habitat that is important for our local pollinators.
I think that there is still a lot more education to be done around the native gardens. But whenever we do our annual great Southeastern Pollinator Census, that is a great time for people to enjoy the space. They get to look at all the different pollinators that we have been able to bring to campus that in the past were just not here due to all the traditional landscaping.
In the vein of working with students and community engagement, what would you say your experience has been working with the Environmental Stewards Program and how do you work with students to help them become advocates for sustainability?
The environmental Stewards program has been a great joy and just a huge help to Noah and I and all the work that we do on campus. The stewards have helped a ton with peer education, outreach, and educational tabling events across campus. It started in ---- as a scholarship program where the students worked on one main project throughout the school year. The program died down during COVID, but Noah and I brought it back so that the stewards could help with our different initiatives. They help with zero waste game days, our largest group effort that we work on in the fall.
We started with 10 stewards in 2023, the 2024-2025 school year we had 20, and this year we have 15. So, as with everything in life, there has been a lot of trial and error within the steward program, both figuring out what mine and Noah's capacity is to work with them and their capacity. It is a lot to be a student and to be in extracurriculars, maybe be an athlete, and have this paid position, so it is a lot of balancing and figuring out what does and does not work. But I think that is just a good lesson for life, sometimes things work out, sometimes they do not.
And then as far as my interaction with other students, every year I do RA training to talk about the new sustainability projects on campus. So, in this past training, I talked about the new residence hall, The Smokestack and Stanback Hall, and all these certifications that we are going after. I also discussed the compost program coming back, and the new recycling bags that all students who live on campus received.
I give them those updates and let them know that I am a resource to come whenever they have their hall meetings to come and talk to the residents. I have been invited to some first-year seminar classes by professors, and I always appreciate being plugged in wherever I can.
Is there anything else you want people to know about work you do on campus or in the community?
I am hoping to start an Audubon campus chapter, so that would be fun. I first got into birding because of my dad. He always loved birds and growing up we had chickens, guineas, peacocks, quail, and just a lot of birds. I have always had an affinity for birds, and I just love them so much, they are so cute. I would like to educate students more about birds. I feel like a lot of people are either scared of birds because they do not know anything about birds, or they are just unaware of how birds are everywhere all the time. And it is just so cool to just take a second to look up and see the cool birds flying around.
On campus I always want to be a resource for educating people on what is and is not recyclable, what is and is not composable, and different ideas for gardening.
I encourage people to think outside of the box and just to get out of their comfort zone. So much of this job for me is putting myself out there and getting out of my comfort zone, since I do not have the traditional educational background for this work. Pursue what you are passionate about, even if you are not traditionally “qualified for it.” Do not be afraid to go against the grain and shake things up, because I think our regenerative landscaping master plan is going to do that. It is all things to be excited about and ask questions about. So just be curious and ask questions.
