A Message from NSS Chairman Dan Brown

Dan Brown, University of Washington; NSS Board Chair

Whether working in universities, other research organizations, companies, government agencies, or non-profits, our work on researching and advancing sustainability transformations has gotten a lot more challenging. This is in no small part due to rapid disinvestment by federal agencies from scientific research, sustainable technologies, regulatory enforcement, and environmental justice, among other things. These disinvestments have created significant uncertainty and, I believe, undermine the future health, prosperity, and sustainability of our nation. As an organization, NSS aims to support our members in redoubling our efforts at leading transformative change toward a just, resilient, and sustainable world in this more challenging environment.

In addition to hosting a national conference for sharing the best research and practice in sustainability, we heard from our membership a desire for more frequent and timely connection, especially in light of the rapidly changing environment in which we do our work. We offered a start at such a venue at our first Member Town Hall in April. There, we heard about the importance of NSS in leading continued networking and cross-sectoral conversations, celebrating wins and identifying new funding and transformation opportunities, and communicating the importance and impact of our work in ways that resonate with diverse publics. None of us does this work alone, and together this strong community of scholarship and practice will persist in spite of the highly politicized environment in which we find ourselves. We are planning our second Town Hall for July 23 and hope you will join the conversation.

Our next opportunity to gather in person is at our 2nd Annual Conference, October 20-22 at the University of Notre Dame, Indiana. We have received almost 400 contributions and are finalizing an exciting lineup of keynote speakers and workshops. See more details below and at our website. Registration is now open. We have responded to members facing funding challenges by making every effort to keep the registration fees down, providing some additional relief for community-based non-governmental organizations and students, and including some funds for carbon offsets in the registration fee. The agenda will include an opportunity to engage member expertise in devising a plan to allocate these offset funds. 

I was recently reminded of the truism that “change begins with individuals, but thrives in communities,” echoed in a recent blog post by Dawn Wright, a fellow geographer and chief scientist at ESRI. NSS aims to be that community for changemakers in sustainability scholarship and practice and we are grateful for your contributions to this endeavor.