News

(Portland, Ore.) February 17, 2010 — Portland State University will host two candidates for the Center for Sustainable Processes and Practices director position:
Robert Constanza, Gund Professor of Ecological Economics and director of the Gund Institute for Ecological Economics at the University of Vermont; and,
Susan Shaheen, co-director of the University of California, Berkeley’s Transportation Sustainability Research Center (TSRC) and Honda Distinguished Scholar in Transportation at the University of California, Davis Institute of Transportation Studies-Davis.

Finalists for the Center’s director position were identified following an extensive national search. While on campus, candidates will have an opportunity to meet with faculty, staff, students and community members; each will also deliver an invited presentation open to the public.

Candidate: Susan Shaheen

Friday, February 19, 2010

Location: Smith Memorial Student Union, Vanport Room (338), 1825 S.W. Broadway.
9–10:30 a.m.: Open presentation to campus and community.
10:45–11:30 a.m.: Open session with students.


Candidate: Robert Costanza
Monday, February 22, 2010

Location: Smith Memorial Student Union, Room 333, 1825 S.W. Broadway.
2–3:30 p.m.: Open presentation to campus and community.
3:45–4:30 p.m.: Open session with students.

For additional information about the search, visit http://www.pdx.edu/sustainability/director-search.

Media inquiries should be directed to David Santen at 503-725-8765 or santend@pdx.edu.


About PSU’s Center for Sustainable Processes and Practices
The Center for Sustainable Processes and Practices at PSU serves as a hub for interdisciplinary research, teaching, and engagement in sustainability at Portland State University. Established in 2006, the Center provides leadership, guidance and catalytic investment for students, faculty, and partnerships from a diverse array of academic disciplines. The Center’s core areas of focus include:
Urban and civic ecology, including ecodistricts, ecosystem services, sustainable governance, and urban-rural continua;
Sustainable urban infrastructure, including transportation, energy, water management, and social infrastructure;
Green building, including all facets of green construction, supply chain, materials, and methods;
Green business practices, including leadership, management, green accounting, and establishment of green business clusters.


The Center administers the ten-year, $25 million challenge grant for sustainability made by the James F. and Marion L. Miller Foundation to Portland State in September 2008.

The Center also manages PSU’s Graduate Certificate in Sustainability. Since October 2009, the Center has been led by interim director and managing fellow John Gordon; previously the Center was led by Jennifer Allen, now a professor of public administration at PSU and a fellow to the Center.

About Robert Constanza
Robert Costanza is the Gund Professor of Ecological Economics and director of the Gund Institute for Ecological Economics at the University of Vermont.

Costanza's research has focused on the interface between ecological and economic systems, particularly at larger temporal and spatial scales. This includes landscape-level spatial simulation modeling; analysis of energy and material flows through economic and ecological systems; valuation of ecosystem services, biodiversity, and natural capital; and analysis of dysfunctional incentive systems and ways to correct them. He is the author or co-author of over 300 scientific papers; and since 1987 his work has been cited in more than 3,000 scientific articles.

Prior to moving to Vermont in August 2002, Costanza was director of the University of Maryland Institute for Ecological Economics, and a professor in the Center for Environmental Science, at Solomons, and in the Biology Department at College Park. Costanza received his Ph.D. from the University of Florida in 1979 in systems ecology, with a minor in economics. He also has a master's degree in Architecture and Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Florida.

Costanza is co-founder and past-president of the International Society for Ecological Economics (ISEE) and was chief editor of the Society's journal: Ecological Economics from its inception until September 2002. He currently serves on the editorial board of eight other international academic journals and is past president of the International Society for Ecosystem Health. In 1982 he was selected as a Kellogg National Fellow, in 1992 he was awarded the Society for Conservation Biology Distinguished Achievement Award and in 1993 he was selected as a Pew Scholar in Conservation and the Environment. In 1998 he was awarded the Kenneth Boulding Memorial Award for Outstanding Contributions in Ecological Economics and received an honorary doctorate in natural sciences from Stockholm University in 2000.

Constanza has served on the scientific steering committee for the “Land-Ocean Interactions in the Coastal Zone” and “Analysis, Integration and Modeling of the Earth System” core projects of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme; the U.S. EPA National Advisory Council for Environmental Policy and Technology; the National Research Council Board on Sustainable Development, Committee on Global Change Research; the National Research Council, Board on Global Change; the U.S. National Committee for the Man and the Biosphere Program; and, the National Marine Fisheries Service Committee on Ecosystem Principles.

Reports on his work have appeared in various media, including Newsweek, U.S. News & World Report, The Economist, The New York Times, Science, Nature, National Geographic, and National Public Radio.

About Susan Shaheen
Susan Shaheen holds a joint research appointment at the University of California, Berkeley’s Transportation Sustainability Research Center (TSRC) and at the University of California, Davis Institute of Transportation Studies-Davis. She is co-director of the transportation track of the Energy Efficiency Center at UC Davis and was honored as the first Honda Distinguished Scholar in Transportation in 2000. In October 2007, Susan became a Research Director at TSRC (and later named TSRC Co-Director in Fall 2008). She served as the Policy & Behavioral Research Program Leader at California Partners for Advanced Transit and Highways from 2003 to 2007, and as a special assistant to the Director’s Office of the California Department of Transportation from 2001 to 2004. Since 2004, Shaheen has been a research associate with the Mineta Transportation Institute at San Jose State University.

Shaheen holds a Ph.D. in ecology, focusing on technology management and the environmental aspects of transportation, from the University of California, Davis (1999) and a master’s degree in public policy analysis from the University of Rochester (1990). She completed her post-doctoral studies on advanced public transportation systems at UC Berkeley in July 2001.

Shaheen has earned a variety of honors, including two national research awards for her contributions to a car-sharing pilot program (2001) and a smart parking field test (2005). In May 2007, she received the Berkeley Staff Assembly’s “Excellence in Management” award in recognition of her leadership and mentorship. She has co-edited one book and authored 27 journal articles and 55 reports and proceedings articles. She is the chair of the Emerging and Innovative Public Transport and Technologies (AP020) Committee of the Transportation Research Board (2004 to present) and served as the founding chair of the Carsharing/Station Car Transportation Research Board Subcommittee from 1999 to 2004.

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For Immediate Release (#10-005)

By: David Santen, Office of University Communications, Portland State University
santend@pdx.edu | 503-725-8765

Source: Barbara Sestak, Dean, School of Fine and Performing Arts, and Search Committee Chair