image: Lou Leonard has been appointed the inaugural D.J.A. Spencer Dean of Clark University’s School of Climate, Environment, and Society, and will formally join Clark in May 2025.
Credit: Clark University
WORCESTER, Mass. — In a vital effort to address our planet’s most profound and urgent challenges through a distinctive lens, Clark University has announced the establishment of the School of Climate, Environment, and Society, to open in Fall 2025.
The school elevates Clark’s historic academic strengths and leading-edge research to embolden an urgently needed response to climate change and related ecological and social crises. To address these challenges, society needs a better way of understanding our world. Clark programs will advance critical systems thinking that integrates learning from across traditional disciplines like economics, political and social sciences, natural sciences, data sciences, the humanities, and business — empowering students and faculty to pursue innovative and human-focused approaches to global problems on a local, regional, and planetary scale.
“The School of Climate, Environment, and Society will harness Clark’s agile, integrative approach to research and our foundational expertise to offer something that is distinctive, compelling, and enduring,” said Clark President David Fithian. “Through the creation of this school, we will be able to leverage our small size, world-class faculty experts, and strong interdisciplinary core to be a leading contributor and critical voice in the worldwide effort to address the relentless alterations to our climate, which trace through nearly every aspect of our shared human community.”
The new school will be led by Lou Leonard, the newly appointed D.J.A. Spencer Dean of the School of Climate, Environment, and Society. Leonard comes to Clark from Chatham University, where he served as Dean of the Falk School of Sustainability and Environment. Prior to that, Leonard was Senior Vice President and leader of the Climate & Energy Program for the World Wildlife Fund, the global conservation organization. He earned his undergraduate degree from Georgetown University and his JD in environmental law from Boston College Law School.
“Threats to human society from entwined ecological and social crises are undeniable, and growing,” Leonard said. “The question is how — as individuals and institutions — we will respond. I am thrilled to join a university that is meeting this moment boldly and with the power to make a major impact.”
“As a society, we have made strong progress on technologies and policies needed to address climate and related challenges, but we have struggled in the messy work of implementing and scaling solutions. The school is working to change this by focusing on the complex intersection of natural and human systems. Our work will be radically interdisciplinary and deeply rooted in places and communities, both in Massachusetts and around the world.”
The School of Climate, Environment, and Society will generate new and expanded course offerings and degree programs related to climate science, environmental studies and policy, biodiversity, urban systems, and environmental sustainability, centered on five interconnected imperatives:
- Sustainable and climate-resilient development
- Governance, equity, and justice
- Urban systems and livelihoods
- Socioeconomic systems and sustainability transitions
- Earth systems, conservation, ecological interactions, and ecosystem services
Starting in Fall 2025, through CES, students can pursue new undergraduate and graduate degrees in climate, environment, and society that are structured around this innovative, interdisciplinary approach, allowing them to address critical and emerging issues through experience-based learning. With the combination of broad critical thinking skills, applied expertise, and hands-on, real-world experience, Clark CES graduates will be exceedingly well-prepared for careers in these critical fields and primed to develop related professional and academic paths. All students, regardless of their major, will be able to benefit from the program offerings within the school.
The school will be home for scholars and practitioners from the Graduate School of Geography, the Department of Sustainability and Social Justice, the Department of Economics, the George Perkins Marsh Institute, and the Clark Center for Geospatial Analytics, and will engage faculty from across the disciplines, leveraging the breadth and depth of their expertise. Affiliated departments and faculty from across campus, including biology and the environmental humanities, will contribute to these goals. Further, the school will create a channel for Clark — through teaching, research, and external partnerships — to expand and amplify our impact and ability to inform immediate responses to climate change and related social-ecological crises.
According to David Hayes, former Special Assistant to the President for Climate Policy in the Biden White House and now Professor of Practice at Stanford University’s Doerr School of Sustainability, Clark’s interdisciplinary and human-focused approach exemplifies how
academic institutions can drive innovation and sustainable solutions. “There is an important place for Clark’s interdisciplinary, nimble, ground-up approach in our collective response to climate change and related global challenges,” he said. Hayes also pointed to Leonard’s strong leadership in policy, governance, and building partnerships among government, the private sector, nonprofits, and academia as a major asset for Clark and CES. “Having worked personally with Lou for years, I deeply appreciate what he’s bringing to Clark and, in that way, to the world. I’m excited for him and the University and look forward to opportunities to work together.”
The initial plans for the School of Climate, Environment, and Society were developed by several faculty-led committees that were charged by President Fithian to identify ways in which Clark could make a distinctive impact. The school will build on Clark’s long legacy of work in the sciences and humanities — as they relate to ongoing climate, environmental, ecological, and social changes — to accelerate progress in developing solutions for mitigation and adaptation. A generous $10 million gift from philanthropist and former Clark trustee Vickie Riccardo and her daughters Jocelyn and Alyssa Spencer provided the seed money for the creation of the dean’s position and to develop the school’s blueprint and launch initial programs.
Clark professor and Biology Department chair Deborah Robertson led the committee that oversaw a national search to identify the School’s inaugural dean. She also has been actively involved in developing the interdisciplinary vision and programmatic approach for the School. “The establishment of the School of Climate, Environment, and Society is a significant milestone for Clark. The School catapults our determined, collaborative efforts to make a positive difference in the world and offers an exciting opportunity for our students who are passionate about studying and pursuing careers in these fields,” said Robertson. “Incoming dean Lou Leonard is the perfect leader to ensure we realize all of the promise and potential that lies ahead.”
Founded in 1887, Clark University is a liberal arts-based research university that prepares its students to meet tomorrow’s most daunting challenges and embrace its greatest opportunities. Through 33 undergraduate majors, more than 30 advanced degree programs, and nationally recognized community partnerships, Clark fuses rigorous scholarship with authentic world and workplace experiences that empower our students to pursue lives and careers of meaning and consequence.
Lou Leonard Bio: https://www.clarku.edu/schools/climate-environment-and-society/about/dean/