The Purdue Challenge: Caring for Our Common Home in a Time of Great Abundance
-
Monday, April 24, 2023, 7:00 PM - 8:30 PMLocation: Newman Hall (downstairs)Boilermakers! You (We) can all be a difference maker for our environment. Join us Monday, April 24, at 7:00 p.m. in Newman Hall for a discussion about “Laudato Si,” Pope Francis' letter to us (and the world) about our global ecosystem and the urgency of caring for it. Leading the discussion will be Boiler Catholics alumnus John Mundell, appointed by Pope Francis last summer as director of the Laudato Si Action Platform.
About Our Speaker John Mundell:
John A. Mundell, P.E., L.P.G., P.G.
President/Senior Consultant, Mundell & Associates, Inc.
Director, Vatican's Laudato Si' Action PlatformB.S. in Civil Engineering, Purdue University, 1979
M.S. in Civil Engineering, Purdue University, 1980 (Geotechnical Engineering)
Doctoral Studies (ABD) in Civil Engineering, University of Notre Dame, 1984-1988
Appointed by Pope Francis in the summer of 2022 as director of the Church’s “Laudato Si Action Platform,” John is a professional engineer, licensed geologist, and social entrepreneur with more than 43 years of consulting experience on thousands of environmental projects worldwide. He is president/CEO and senior environmental consultant for Mundell & Associates, Inc. (MUNDELL), an earth science, environmental and water resources consulting firm based in Indianapolis.
John has been heavily involved in global ecumenical and interreligious dialogue as part of his involvement in the Focolare Movement, which he and his wife Julie met as students while at Purdue. In 2015, he participated in the Vatican's first meeting to implement Pope Francis' environmental encyclical Laudato Si: On Care for Our Common Home. Shortly after, he coordinated an interreligious climate change 'teach-in' for young people. Since 2020, he has served as one of the senior mentors for the Economy of Francesco initiative encouraged by Pope Francis to change the world's economy to a more just and sustainable one.
John has provided consulting support to the United States Catholic Conference of Bishops, the Vatican's Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), supporting activities and developing guidance for green entrepreneurship based on the principles of Pope Francis' encyclical Laudato Si. In July 2022, John was appointed by Pope Francis to be the Global Director of the Vatican's Laudato Si' Action Platform, which supports all efforts to implement Laudato Si' worldwide.
