Four finalists named to head Nelson Institute

UW–Madison has narrowed the field of candidates to four finalists for director of the Gaylord Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies.

The list of unranked finalists has been presented to Chancellor John D. Wiley by a search and screen committee chaired by Brent McCown, professor of horticulture and environmental studies, and made up of faculty, academic and classified staff, students and a representative from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. Wiley will make the final decision.

Erhard Joeres, professor of civil and environmental engineering, professor of environmental studies and chair of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, has served as interim director of the Nelson Institute since Jan. 27 when former director Thomas Yuill retired.

The Institute for Environmental Studies was created in 1970 to promote and enhance interdisciplinary environmental instruction, research and outreach. The institute was renamed last spring in honor of former Wisconsin governor and U.S. senator Gaylord Nelson, a lifelong champion of environmental stewardship and the founder of Earth Day.

Approximately 150 professors from more than 50 UW–Madison departments are affiliated with the Nelson Institute, which administers several degree and certificate programs. The institute also houses three research centers and offers more than 100 courses in cooperation with the university’s schools and colleges.

The finalists for director are:

Kevin McSweeney, professor in the Department of Soil Science and the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies at UW–Madison, is the director of the School of Natural Resources and associate director of the Wisconsin Agricultural Experiment Station. He is the former chair of the Land Resources Graduate Program at the Nelson Institute.

Steve Rayner, professor of science in society at Oxford University, is the director of the Programme on Science in Society of the Economic and Social Research Council. Prior to joining Oxford, he served as professor of environment and public affairs at Columbia University. He has also led interdisciplinary environmental research teams at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Washington and Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee.

Filomina Steady, professor and chair of the Africana Studies Department at Wellesley College in Wellesley, Mass., is an honorary fellow and a former visiting professor and fellow at the Nelson Institute. She formerly served as director of the Women’s Studies Program and associate professor of anthropology at California State University in Sacramento. She has also held a variety of positions with the United Nations, including Special Advisor on Women, Environment and Development to the Secretary General of the 1992 Earth Summit.

Frances Westley, James McGill Professor of Strategy at McGill University in Montreal, is the executive director of the McGill-McConnell Program for Voluntary Sector Leaders; the Stewardship of Global Systems theme leader at the McGill School for the Environment; and the director of the McGill/Dupont Initiative for Social Innovation. She is also the Suncor Visiting Scholar at the Institute for Resource Industries and Sustainability at the University of Calgary.