Welcome to Future Generations University
From Dr. Jayne Engle, Incoming President and CEO

I am honored and excited to step into the role of President and CEO of Future Generations University. Whether you are a prospective student, program or funding partner, or community leader, I invite you to join us in creating a more regenerative and resilient world for generations yet to come.

As we step into 2025 and stand on the threshold of the second quarter of the 21st century, we find ourselves at a pivotal moment in history. The systems and structures that have shaped our societies for centuries were built for a different time, and the signs are clear: the world is changing at new levels of speed and scale. Many of the challenges we face today—from climate change to political and economic instability, from inequality to existential risks—are occurring in dimensions we have not encountered before. The stakes are high, and the call to action is urgent.

In this time, it is important to shape new futures on the ground in the communities where we live, work, and care for one another. This is a moment for bold visionaries, passionate change-makers, and committed community leaders to step forward. This is a moment for you. It is a moment for us all to consider what our communities, at home and around the world, are asking of us. It is also a time to strengthen alternative approaches to higher education.

At Future Generations University, we believe in the power of community-centered, world-circling education. We are a unique institution dedicated to transforming not just the lives of our students, but the very communities and bioregions where they live. Here, education is not a passive process, but a dynamic journey of applied research, learning, and action.

Our students are not only prepared to change their own lives; they are equipped to make lasting and systemic change in the places they call home. At Future Generations, your education will be an immersive experience—one where your community is not just the setting for your studies, but a partner in your learning and action journey. A key aim of the education is to bring meaningful change, rooted in the realities and aspirations of the communities we serve.

In this next chapter of the University’s history, we are building from our strong foundations to grow our graduate school and to grow our world-circling network of passionate change-makers who take action together across cultures and continents. From our base in the beautiful Appalachian Mountains of West Virginia, to the communities we partner with in Asia, Africa, the Americas, and beyond, we are committed to fostering a planetary network of students, alumni, partner organizations, community leaders and social enterprises who are united by a common goal: to create thriving communities for generations yet to come.

As we embark on this exciting next chapter, I invite you to join us. Whether you are a prospective student seeking a transformative education, a funder looking to invest in a different kind of higher education, or a community leader eager to collaborate on social enterprise development—there is a place here for you.

The next 25 years—2025 to 2050—are crucial in the transition to a regenerative and resilient world. Those of us alive in this moment have the power to change the course of history. Now is the time to act, to learn, and to work together toward the better futures we know are possible.

Thank you for your interest in Future Generations University. I am eager to meet you, and I look forward to embarking on this remarkable journey with you.

Together, we can create a world fit for future generations.

With warmth and great aspirations,

Dr. Jayne Engle
Incoming President and CEO
Future Generations University

ABOUT

Dr. Jayne Engle is the incoming President and CEO of Future Generations University (starting February 2025). Her background spans practice, research, and teaching in a wide range of geographic and cultural contexts, including a Peace Corps tour of duty in Eastern Europe after the fall of the Soviet Union and PhD fieldwork in Haiti after the catastrophic 2010 earthquake. She’s held multiple leadership roles in community and economic development, participatory city planning, philanthropy, and systems innovation work across Europe, the US and Canada. For nearly a decade she led the urban resilience and civic innovation portfolio for the J.W. McConnell Foundation, and more recently worked with Dark Matter Labs, co-leading work on futures of philanthropy and futures of property systems, and beyond. She co-founded Seven Generation Cities with the Mi’kmaw Native Friendship Centre, an initiative co-led with Indigenous community leaders, municipalities and other civil society partners aiming to transform civic and social infrastructure for the long term, centering principles of Truth and Reconciliation, and Indigenous ways of knowing, alongside multiple knowledge and wisdom systems.

Dr. Engle is an adjunct faculty member at McGill University School of Urban Planning; she has taught in the Max Bell School of Public Policy and is a member of the Canada Research Chair on Transsystemic Legal Systems and Sustainable Communities, part of McGill University Law School. Jayne is a Senior Fellow with the Agirre Centre, University of the Basque Country and was recently a Futures Fellow with the Future of Canada project and a Positive Deviant Fellow with Wolf Willow Institute of Systems Learning.

Jayne holds a PhD from McGill University, a Master of Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Pittsburgh, an MBA from Temple University, and a BS from Eastern University. Two publications that reveal the transdisciplinary and collaborative nature of her work are Sacred Civics: Building Seven Generation Cities (2022; Open Access), and Stories of Tragedy, Trust and Transformation? A case study of education-centered community development in post-earthquake Haiti (2018).