Three Facility Professionals Earn IFMA Foundation Scholarships

The IFMA Foundation has announced the recipients of the newly-established 2021 Eric Teicholz Sustainability Facility Professional® (SFP®) Scholarship Program. Teicholz created the scholarship along with the IFMA Foundation to support young professionals with a demonstrated financial need who are currently practicing facility management or a related field and are interested in earning a specialty credential in sustainability.

This year’s awardees include:

Eric Teicholz Sustainability Facility Professional Scholarship
Lekia Nwildo, Operations/Facility Manager, Novare Real Estate Africa, Gaborone, Botswana
Eric Teicholz Sustainability Facility Professional Scholarship
Julia Gourley, Engineering Manager, Montgomery County, Dayton, OH
Eric Teicholz Sustainability Facility Professional Scholarship
Martin Vaclavik, Sustainability Consultant, Prague, Czech Republic

“There is a growing sense of urgency about climate change and its impact on all aspects of our lives and the environment,” said Teicholz. “Unlike the COVID-19 pandemic, there will be no vaccine to mitigate its impact. With this in mind, the Eric Teicholz Sustainability Scholarship program has been established to provide financial support for a future generation of facility managers in their study of climate science as it relates to the built environment.”

IFMA’s SFP is an assessment-based certificate program that teaches facility managers to take a comprehensive approach to sustainability, focusing on data-driven analytics in managing the built environment. Skill sets taught in the SFP program lead to a better understanding of climate change and how buildings can be managed to reduce negative environmental impact.

“The sustainability skills that the scholarship awardees will learn will remain essential for their careers now and in the foreseeable future,” said Bob Dills, IFMA Foundation Chair. “The SFP will increase their knowledge and allow them to demonstrate and apply their expertise in sustainable facility management practices to ultimately impact their organization’s economic, environmental and social bottom lines.”

Those interested in applying for the 2022 Eric Teicholz Sustainability Facility Professional Scholarship can learn more here.

Teicholz, IFMA Fellow graduated with a master’s degree in architecture from the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University, where he later became an Associate Professor and the Associate Director of the university’s largest R+D facility, the Laboratory for Computer Graphics and Spatial Analysis. He also is the author/editor of 17 books related to facility management, CAFM/IWMS and GIS technology. Teicholz was awarded the U.S. Navy’s Superior Public Service Award by the Secretary of the Navy under President George W. Bush for his participation on a blue-ribbon facility management panel defining the future strategy for naval shore facilities.

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