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Cumbrian professor heads to the US

A Cumbrian professor has been chosen as the first UK academic to be part of a Harvard leadership programme in America.

Professor Jem Bendell has been selected for showing global leadership for the common good.

He has devoted his academic life to sustainability in the Lake District. From his Ambleside campus, Cumbria University students learn about the National Park and its heritage sites.

He will share the experience he has learned in Cumbria on Monday with world leaders such as Kumi Naidoo (the CEO of Greenpeace), Hannah Jones (Head of Sustainability at Nike), and the MP Chuka Umunna at the forum of young global leaders in Switzerland.

"I am delighted to be accepted on to this Harvard programme, which gives me the chance to experience the latest approaches to leadership education, and also to share our own approaches in the Lake District.

"Harvard provides elite education to some of the world's most influential people, in a class-based setting.

"In Cumbria we have a tradition of experiential learning, and a liking for taking our executive students into nature and to local heritage sites, to stimulate their reflection. I think in future we will see more combinations of such approaches."

– Professor Jem Bendell