Staff
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Thomas Dietz |
Biosketch:
Thomas Dietz is Assistant Vice President for Environmental Research, Director of the Environmental Science and Policy Program and Professor of Sociology and Crop and Soil Sciences at Michigan State University. He holds a Bachelor of General Studies degree from Kent State and a PhD in Ecology from the University of California at Davis. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and has been awarded the Sustainability Science Award of the Ecological Society of America, the Distinguished Contribution Award of the American Sociological Association Section on Environment, Technology and Society, and the Outstanding Publication Award, also from the American Sociological Association Section on Environment, Technology and Society. He chairs the U.S. National Research Council Panel on Public Participation in Environmental Assessment and Decision Making. His current research examines the human driving forces of environmental change (http://www.stirpat.org/), environmental values and the interplay between science and democracy in environmental issues. Dr. Dietz is an active participant in the Ecological and Cultural Change Studies Group at MSU.
- For more information on Professor Dietz's research, click here.
- For Professor Dietz's CV, click here. [pdf]
- For Professors Dietz's personal web site.
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Marcy Heberer |
Biosketch:
ESPP welcomes Marcy Heberer, who joins us as the Executive Secretary for ESPP. Heberer is the assistant to the Director, Thomas Dietz, and is in charge of ESPP's finances, including fellowships and grants, and schedules.
She comes to us from the Visiting International Professional Program (VIPP), part of International Studies and Programs at MSU, where she worked for two years. Now at ESPP, Heberer says, "I love it here." Working at ESPP meshes with her interest in environmental science and policy.
Originally from Madison, Wisconsin, Heberer has traveled extensively throughout the United States before settling down in East Lansing with her three children. Some of the places she has lived are South Carolina, Florida, Texas, and Minnesota. Before coming to MSU she worked for 14 years in East Lansing's public schools. She has strong MSU links, with her daughter having graduated from MSU in 2005 and a son who now studies economics here.
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Maya Fischhoff |
Biosketch:
As part of ESPP's new Environmental Research Initiative, Maya is working to bring together those interested in connecting business and environment issues in research and curricula at MSU. The goal is to provide settings and resources for those interested in business-environment topics to explore them further and pursue joint initiatives.
Maya recently received her Ph.D. from the School of Natural Resources and Environment at the University of Michigan; she also worked with faculty from the Business School. She examined ways that companies can be socially and environmentally - as well as economically - sustainable. Maya approaches these issues through the lens of organizational change, looking specifically at the role of employees in organizational environmental action and at factors which support and impede their efforts. Her dissertation examined the environmental role of middle managers at electricity companies.
Most recently, Maya was Ethicist-in-Residence at Eastern Michigan University's College of Business. She has also worked in business, government, and the non-profit sector. Maya received her B.A. from Harvard University in Social Studies, and spent a year studying fisheries management at University of the South Pacific in Fiji.
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Christopher S. Oliver |
Biosketch:
Christopher is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Sociology and graduate research assistant in the Environmental Science and Policy Program (ESPP) at Michigan State University. He teaches courses on the environment and society, science and technology studies, sociology of work, industrial sociology, and complex organizations. His academic advisor and mentor is Dr. Thomas Dietz, Professor of Sociology and Crop and Soil Science and the director of ESPP.
Christopher has a B.S. in geography from California Polytechnic State University at Pomona, specializing in geographic information science and environmental management. In addition, he completed graduate work at Oregon State University in geosciences and resource management prior to transferring to MSU. While at MSU, Christopher studied anthropology and geography before coming to the field of environmental sociology. During his time at MSU, Christopher also worked as a research assistant in the Center for Global Change and Earth Observation (formerly BSRSI) studying tropical forests in Brazil and Southeast Asia. Currently, his dissertation is focused on U.S. energy policy -- specifically the use of reformulated gasoline and methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE) and its effect on local environmental conditions throughout the country. His work also explores the consequences of bilateral trade agreements on federal, state, and local environmental policymaking. Dr. Dietz and Christopher recently were awarded a National Science Foundation grant to fund Christopher's dissertation research.
In addition to his work in the U.S., Christopher has worked on research projects in Mexico and Central America and Brazil exploring environmental management and policy concerning tropical forested landscapes.
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Amy Dan |
Biosketch:
Amy Dan received her Ph.D. in sociology from Case Western Reserve University in May 2004. Her research areas include sociology of aging and the life course, medical sociology, and quantitative methods. Her dissertation is entitled: "What Are People Doing to Prepare for Retirement? Structural, Personal, Work, and Family Predictors of Planning." Amy is currently working as a postdoctoral fellow on Dr. Tom Dietz's grant, which examines people's climate change policy preferences. The project utilizes both mail and web survey modalities. Half of respondents will complete a survey, and the other half will participate in a group deliberation to examine potential effects of deliberation.
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Anisa Abid |
Biosketch:
Anisa Abid is a master's student in the Environmental Journalism program at MSU. She joins ESPP as a graduate assistant news writer and editor for the program's newsletter, Green Ink. She earned a BA in Journalism from Pace University, NY where she minored in biology and concentrated in environmental studies. Some of her motivations for entering a career in environmental journalism were fostered through her experiences at Pace University, where she developed and edited the university's environmental club newsletter, cared for a variety of animals at the environmental center, and wrote for the campus newspaper.
Anisa worked for the editorial and publishing departments at Nature Publishing Group in New York for the last three and half years, before coming to MSU. During this time she volunteered for the Center for Biodiversity and Conservation at the American Museum of Natural History and did some traveling to tropical regions like the Amazon. Through her work she hopes to bring more awareness to environmental issues, both local and national.
Please contact Anisa at abidanis@msu.edu with breaking news you'd like to share with ESPP or the external community.
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Derek Moy |
Biosketch:
Derek Moy earned a M.S. in Geography from Eastern Michigan University, Ypsilanti, and a B.S. in Natural Resources and Environment from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
He holds a joint appointment with Remote Sensing & Geographic Information Science Research and Outreach Services (RS&GIS), where he specializes in web site and graphic design.
