Pam Matson announced that she will step down as faculty co-director after more than 15 years of contributing her vision, fund-raising savvy, and input on program design. Beginning in January she will be on leave from the Board in order to enjoy a well-deserved sabbatical year, having completed one of Stanford's longest standing deanships.
Her new role is the faculty director of Stanford Earth's new interdisciplinary master's program, Leadership for Sustainability. In a recent interview, Matson described her vision for making knowledge-to-action a reality in the sustainability space: "(...) If we really want our knowledge to be seen as useful by decision-makers, I think we have to be in a conversation with them. We have to understand the world from their perspective and then make sure the research we’re doing is helpful to them. This requires a different kind of dialogue that goes beyond scientists simply doing research and then handing it off to decision-makers with the expectation that they’ll use it. It has to be more of a partnership, an ongoing conversation."
In addition to launching a new program, Matson has also published an excellent teaching guide with case studies entitled Pursuing Sustainability with co-authors William C. Clark and Krister Andersson.
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