Breyer, a retired education administrator, and her husband, Lee, built their energy-efficient, environmentally friendly home in Ellenton after visiting the Florida House Learning Center in nearby Sarasota. The Florida House was built in 1994 as a model for how to live sustainably when scarce water conditions led county officials to consider placing a moratorium on building. The Florida House encourages its 10,000 annual visitors to adapt environmental principles, whether it’s obtaining a free copy of their architectural plans, swapping out toxic carpet for bamboo, or replacing regular light bulbs with compact fluorescents.

Unlike the Florida House, Breyer’s 2002 home is strictly residential, yet she has led more than 50 tours for curious conservationists. In fact, she’s so set up for visitors, she keeps a stack of fliers by the front door highlighting the home’s sustainable design and construction methods. Breyer says the question that worries visitors the most is the cost. And while she acknowledges that her sustainable design ran 2 to 5 percent more than a standard home might, her electricity and water bills are significantly lower than in other similarly sized South Florida homes.

Modeled after the Florida “Cracker” architectural style from the late 1800s through 1920s, the Florida House design inherently maximizes airflow and reflects sunlight. The Breyers worked with a local designer to adapt the Florida House plans to their location and lifestyle. They adjusted the placement of rooms to take full advantage of their water views, expanded the back porch, and added a loft above the garage—but the sustainable features remain consistent. A galvanized roof, together with 4-foot roof overhangs, reflects more than 95 percent of the sun’s rays; front and back porches offer protection from the heat while maximizing airflow; exterior transom windows usher the river breeze into the house while interior transoms and ceiling fans keep it moving from room to room. Natural materials such as bamboo and baked-clay tiles cover the floors and porches, while low-energy appliances, compact fluorescent lights, water-saving devices, solar tube light fixtures, and a solar panel for heating water further conserve resources.

USING HER YARD AS A CLASSROOM

In addition to offering tours of her home, Breyer hosts sessions in her yard for the Florida House master conservationist program and local Master Gardener programs. Despite the slightly scruffy look of her Florida-native, drought-tolerant plants during dry months, Breyer’s yard was named Florida Residential

Yard of the Year in 2006 by the Florida Native Plant Society; it also serves as a National Wildlife Federation Certified Wildlife Habitat.

As a volunteer with the Manatee County Extension Service of the University of Florida, Breyer teaches local residents how to plant “Florida-friendly yards” using more native species and minimizing pesticides. Fertilizers pollute the river and are even suspected of enhancing red tide flare-ups, an algal bloom that plagues Florida’s Gulf Coast, causing asthma in humans and deaths in marine life.

She says by the time summer’s rainy season rolls in, the lawn will green up. “But this yard is not going to look like Disney, ever,” she adds. “That’s just not compatible with the environment.”

Breyer’s landscape includes sea grape, a Ponderosa lemon tree, and thick mangroves that run along the riverbank. Palm trees and native brush line the shell driveway, and it’s not uncommon to see tall white egrets tiptoe along.

A WALDEN DISSERTATION OPENED DOORS

Breyer graduated from Walden University in 1977 with a Ph.D. in Educational Administration. She chose Walden because of the flexibility it gave her to continue working as an administrator at a Maryland community college. Attending a traditional university would have meant leaving her job, something Breyer wanted to avoid.

Breyer says having a Ph.D. didn’t alter her career while she was in Maryland—she already had the job she wanted. But when her husband received an appointment to Florida State University, Breyer’s degree helped her land a position with the Department of Education in Tallahassee, where she helped develop Florida’s community college planning board.

“It was 1979, and Walden wasn’t very well-known at that time,” Breyer says. “There was a lot of skepticism in Florida because of the post-World War II diploma mills.” But when she presented her dissertation—a descriptive study on nontraditional part-time students at Maryland’s community colleges—to the agency division director, she won big accolades. “My faculty mentor was a Florida State graduate, so my dissertation looked exactly like an FSU dissertation,” she recalls. “When they saw it, they said, ‘OK!’”

SOCIAL CHANGE THROUGH LEADERSHIP, MANAGEMENT, FAITH

Not only is Dr. Breyer leaving a smaller footprint on the environment, she lobbies for social change in other ways, too. As the Florida state coordinator for Pax Christi, a national Catholic peace movement, she promotes issues of peace and justice related to nonviolence and eco-spirituality. She serves as a member of the Environmental Justice Task Force of the Diocese of Venice and lobbies for change through the Southwest Florida Coalition for Peace and Justice, including a recent march and candlelight vigil at the White House as a Christian Witness for Peace in Iraq.

A plaque above Breyer’s computer reads, “Do everything with love.” And whether she’s marching in Washington, teaching the benefits of planting native species, or collecting litter along the riverbank in front of her home, Breyer’s example reminds us that kindness, peace, and mercy can be practiced everywhere, all the time.

NextHeart & Soul