Building Sustainable Systems and Community Connections: Greta Cotraccia, ’26, Earns SBS Leadership and Community Engagement Award

Greta Cotraccia — an Honors student who is graduating with a 4.0 GPA and a major in environmental studies and a minor in sustainable built environments — is the recipient of the spring 2026 SBS Excellence in Leadership and Community Engagement Award, which recognizes a graduating senior who has demonstrated exemplary leadership skills through their involvement on and off campus and their impact on the lives of others.

Greta grew up in Ithaca, NY, surrounded by the Finger Lakes, which nurtured her love for the environment. Those early experiences shaped an approach grounded in environmental awareness, sustainability, and people. 

“Greta represents the best we hope for in our students — an asset to the community, committed to making the world a better place and excelling in the classroom,” wrote nominators Dereka Rushbrook, associate professor of practice in the School of Geography, Development and Environment, and Keith Woodward, the school’s director. “Her leadership and engagement are driven by a strong sense of ethics and a keen commitment to environmental justice that are evident in her studies and her community work.”

From her first year on campus, Greta stepped into roles that quickly grew into leadership. Through the Compost Cats and the Office of Sustainability, she joined and later led the Compost Cats maintenance team, managing a rotating group of students and helping expand composting efforts beyond campus. Through Compost Cats' partnership with the Tucson CSA and Tucson Village Farm, she also worked with the off-campus community — meeting members, coordinating weekly pickups, and educating the public. In those moments, she was not just managing a program — she was helping people access local food and understand how sustainable systems work. 

She has also built relationships between the pre-professional environmental organization Epsilon Eta and the Office of Sustainability, to help kickstart projects that supplement the University’s Strategic Action Plan — work that reflects her commitment to long-term sustainability efforts that often extend beyond a student’s time on campus.

"My rich and fulfilling experience at the University of Arizona is easily attributed to the abundant community that resides here,” Greta said. “Tucson offers endless opportunities for experiential learning and rich place-based environmental knowledge. I am incredibly grateful for the opportunities and relationships the U of A has provided me!"

Through the Liverman Undergraduate Environmental Fellows Program, Greta partnered with Tucson nonprofit Flowers & Bullets to organize a fundraising concert for local agriculture and youth programs, bringing students and community members together to support Indigenous cultural spaces.

During her junior year, Greta was selected for the Earth Grant Cohort, a selective leadership development program at the U of A focused on environmental and community resilience. The program requires a year-long commitment — a heavy lift for a student already balancing multiple roles. For Greta, that kind of sustained engagement was consistent across her work, something her nominators, Dereka Rushbrook and Keith Woodward, pointed to as a defining strength. 

“While she takes advantage of opportunities to make new connections and expand her fields of expertise, she remains committed to the work that she is already doing and to the people she is doing it with,” wrote Rushbrook and Woodward.

Thinking beyond the classroom and building community connections has shaped Greta’s efforts. In the past year, she served as an outreach assistant with the Arizona Institute for Resilience, where she co-led the Earth Grant Program. She was also a research assistant on the Restoration of the American Indian Food System Initiative and interned with Freeport-McMoRan at its Sierrita Mine, where she developed an invasive species management plan.

In the classroom, Greta stood out for the way she pushed conversations further — asking sharp questions, offering thoughtful insights, and connecting course material to real-world challenges. She brought what her nominators described as a “quiet, self-effacing, but effervescent leadership” that elevated the experience for her classmates. 

As she looks ahead, Greta will bring that same thoughtful, community-centered approach to Austin, Texas, where she plans to move to and explore a city she calls “bursting with sustainable design, development, and community.”

“I am truly honored to receive this award and am so grateful to the professors and peers who have believed in me and helped me along the way."

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