The Center for Integral Ecology at Benedictine College exists to meet the unprecedented ecological crisis facing our world today. The Center’s vision is consistent with Catholic social teaching’s emphasis that both the created world and the most vulnerable of society are a gift from God to be cherished and cared for.
Conscious of papal teaching that we cannot hear the cry of nature when we fail to acknowledge the dignity of persons, this holistic approach advanced by recent popes brings together concern for conservation and understanding of the natural world (environmental ecology) with an emphasis on the unique place and responsibility of the human person within creation (human ecology).
Following the Transforming Culture in America Strategic Plan, the Center for Integral Ecology provides for the following key areas of Formation, Extension and Profession.
Dr. Patrisha Bugayong, Associate Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry, and Dr. Matthew Ramage, Professor of Theology, serve as the founding directors of the Center for Integral Ecology.