Founding Affiliates
Lisa Dilling
Lisa Dilling is Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies and a Fellow of the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) at the University of Colorado Boulder. She studies decision making, the use of information and science policies related to climate change, adaptation, and carbon management. Her current projects examine drought in urban water systems, water governance and climate change, municipal adaptation to hazards, and public lands management in the context of climate change. She has authored numerous articles and is co-editor of the book, “Creating a Climate for Change: Communicating climate change and facilitating social change” from Cambridge University Press.
Benjamin Hale
Benjamin Hale is an Assistant Professor in Environmental Studies and Philosophy at the University of Colorado Boulder. He works primarily in the area of environmental ethics and environmental policy, though his theoretical interests span much larger concerns in applied ethics, normative ethics, and even metaethics. As for applied questions, much of his work centers on ethical and environmental concerns presented by emerging technologies.
Before joining the Environmental Studies Program, Benjamin was the Director of the Center for Values and Social Policy in the Philosophy Department at CU-Boulder and earlier was the Interim Director of the Environmental Conservation Education Program at New York University. Benjamin has a Ph.D. in Philosophy from the State University of New York at Stony Brook and an M.P.A. in Natural Resource Policy from the University of Arizona.
Before joining the Environmental Studies Program, Benjamin was the Director of the Center for Values and Social Policy in the Philosophy Department at CU-Boulder and earlier was the Interim Director of the Environmental Conservation Education Program at New York University. Benjamin has a Ph.D. in Philosophy from the State University of New York at Stony Brook and an M.P.A. in Natural Resource Policy from the University of Arizona.
Roger Pielke, Jr.
Roger Pielke, Jr. is a Professor in the Environmental Studies Program at the University of Colorado Boulder and a Fellow of the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES). Roger's research focuses on science, innovation and politics and in 2011 he began to write and research on the governance of sports organizations, including FIFA and the NCAA. Roger holds degrees in mathematics, public policy and political science, all from CU-Boulder. He is author, co-author or co-editor of seven books, including The Honest Broker: Making Sense of Science in Policy and Politics published by Cambridge University Press (2007) and The Climate Fix: What Scientists and Politicians Won't Tell you About Global Warming (2010, Basic Books). He is currently working on a book on technology, innovation and economic growth.
Faculty Affiliates
Waleed Abdalati
Dr. Waleed Abdalati is Director of the Earth Science and Observation Center at the University of Colorado Boulder, a Fellow of the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES), and a professor in the Department of Geography. His research interests are in the use of satellite and airborne remote sensing techniques, integrated with in situ observations and modeling, to understand how and why the Earth's ice cover is changing and the implications for sea level rise. He holds degrees in engineering and geography, and from January 2011 through December 2012 he served as NASA Chief Scientist.
Joe Bryan
Joe Bryan is an Assistant Professor of Geography at the University of Colorado Boulder. His work focuses on indigenous politics in the Americas, human rights, and critical cartography. His most recent work addresses the role of community-based mapping in a 2001 ruling by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. The case concerned a land claim brought by the indigenous Mayangna community of Awas Tingni against the Republic of Nicaragua, and set an important legal precedent for recognizing indigenous land rights. He has also worked on issues related to indigenous land rights in Honduras, Chile, Ecuador, and the western United States. He is currently developing a new project that examines the legacy of the Contra War in Nicaragua and Honduras as it relates to contemporary concerns with security, development, and resource claims.
Deserai Anderson Crow
Deserai Anderson Crow is an Assistant Professor at the University of Colorado Boulder in the Environmental Studies Program, Associate Director of the Center for Environmental Journalism, and is on the faculty of the Center for Science & Technology Policy Research. She earned her Ph.D. in 2008 from Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences. She holds a B.A. in journalism from the University of Colorado Boulder and a Masters of Public Administration from the University of Colorado Denver. Her research interests include the role of mass media, communication strategy, and information in environmental policy, particularly in the American West. Her work has appeared in Policy Studies Journal, the Review of Policy Research, Newspaper Research Journal, and Public Organization Review.
Mara J. Goldman
Mara J. Goldman is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Geography and a research associate in the Environment and Society Program at the Institute of Behavioral Science at the University of Colorado Boulder. Mara's research lies at the interface of human-environment relations and critical geographies of conservation and development, with a regional focus in East Africa, primarily with Maasai communities in Tanzania and Kenya. Her work addresses the politics of knowledge and participation related to wildlife conservation interventions and rangeland management, changing pastoral livelihood and communication practices, adaptation to climate change, the relationship between conflict and climate change, and women’s empowerment and governance issues within Maasai communities.
Jill Lindsey Harrison
Jill Lindsey Harrison is Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Colorado Boulder. Her research areas of focus are environmental sociology, sociology of agriculture and food systems, environmental justice, political theories of justice, and immigration politics, with a regional emphasis on the United States. She has used her research politics on political conflict over agricultural pesticide poisonings in California and recent escalations in immigration enforcement in rural Wisconsin to identify and explain the persistence of environmental inequalities and workplace inequalities facing Latino immigrants in the United States today. Jill holds a Ph.D. from the University of California at Santa Cruz.
Paul Komor
Paul Komor is the Energy Education Director at the Renewable and Sustainable Energy Institute (RASEI) and a lecturer in the
Environmental Studies Program at the University of Colorado Boulder. Prior to joining the University of Colorado faculty, Paul was a Project Director at the U.S. Congress’ Office of Technology Assessment (OTA). Before joining OTA, he taught at the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University. He holds a B.S. from Cornell University, and an M.S. and Ph.D. from Stanford University. His research interests are in electricity planning and policy, with a focus on renewables and energy
efficiency.
Environmental Studies Program at the University of Colorado Boulder. Prior to joining the University of Colorado faculty, Paul was a Project Director at the U.S. Congress’ Office of Technology Assessment (OTA). Before joining OTA, he taught at the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University. He holds a B.S. from Cornell University, and an M.S. and Ph.D. from Stanford University. His research interests are in electricity planning and policy, with a focus on renewables and energy
efficiency.
Paul Sutter
Paul Sutter is an Associate Professor of History and Core Faculty in Environmental Studies at the University of Colorado Boulder. Paul holds a Ph.D. from the University of Kansas, and he has also taught at the University of Virginia and the University of Georgia. Within the field of environmental history, Paul's specific interests are in the history of conservation, the history of environmental ideas, and the historical ecologies of disease and public health. Most of Paul's research is in U.S. environmental history, though he has also published on Latin American and South Asian environmental history topics.
James W.C. White
Jim White is a Professor in the Department of Geological Sciences and also the Environmental Studies Program at the University of Colorado Boulder. He is the Director of the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research. He is the past Director of Environmental Studies Program at CU. His two main research areas are paleo- environmental reconstructions from ice cores and past and modern controls on the carbon cycle. He is actively engaged in new paradigms of education in environmental studies, and has worked to break down disciplinary barriers between disciplines to better train students in the area of environmental change.
Emily Yeh
Emily Yeh is an Associate Professor of Geography at the University of Colorado Boulder. She conducts research on environment, development, and nature-society relations, primarily in Tibetan parts of the PRC, including projects on conflicts over access to natural resources, environmental history, the relationship between ideologies of nature and nation, the political ecology of pastoral environment and development policies, vulnerability of Tibetan herders to climate change, and emerging environmental subjectivities. She is particularly interested in the intersection of political economy and cultural politics of environment and development. She teaches classes on Environment and Culture, the Geography of China, development, and political ecology.
Michael Zimmerman
Michael E. Zimmerman, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Colorado Boulder, has published dozens of articles and book chapters on environmental philosophy. He is also the author of Contesting Earth's Future: Radical Ecology and Postmodernity (1994), Integral Ecology: Uniting Multiple Perspective on Nature (2009), and is general editor of an anthology, Environmental Philosophy: From Animal Rights to Radical Environmentalism, now in its fourth edition. He is particularly interested in how culture and world view shape our understanding of the significance of anthropogenic climate change.