David W. Orr is the Paul Sears Distinguished Professor, Environmental Studies and Politics Emeritus and world-renowned environmentalist.

David is widely sought-after speaker and the author of eight books, including Dangerous Years: Climate Change, the Long Emergency, and the Way Forward (2016) and Hope is an Imperative (2010). He has a long track record of working tirelessly to create a sustainable, just and prosperous world. David helped launch the green campus movement in the 1980’s, and then came to Oberlin where he led the effort to design, fund, and build the Adam Joseph Lewis Center at Oberlin College, which was named one of “52 game-changing buildings of the past 170 years” by the editors of Building Design +Construction. More recently he helped to launch “The President’s Climate Action Project” to develop a one-hundred day climate plan for President Obama and spearheaded the effort that lead to the City of Oberlin’s carbon neutrality commitment and Climate Action Plan. David is a long-time member of the UCC First Church of Oberlin.