Sherburne “Shere” Abbott is an internationally known expert in sustainability. Prior to joining Johns Hopkins, Shere served as vice president for sustainability initiatives and professor of sustainability science and policy at Syracuse University. She worked with faculty, staff, students, and the wider community to strengthen connections between scholarship and practice and forge new institutional collaborations to create integrated approaches to sustainability and advance the university’s commitment to leadership in sustainability in higher education. Abbott served as co-chair of SU’s steering committee for the American College & University Presidents’ Climate Commitment and provided oversight for the Center of Excellence in Environmental and Energy Systems.
Abbott also served as the director of the Center for Science and Practice of Sustainability in the Office of the Executive Vice President and Provost at the University of Texas at Austin, and as a faculty member of the College of Liberal Arts. Previously, she served as chief international officer of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Prior to that appointment, over a 17-year period at the National Academies’ National Research Council, she served as executive director of the board on sustainable development, the director of international organization programs for the Office of International Affairs, and the director of the Polar Research Board of the National Academies’ National Research Council. Abbott also served as assistant scientific program director of the U.S. Marine Mammal Commission.
Abbott received her AB in biology from Goucher College and her MFS from Yale University’s School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, where she was a Dodge Fellow in human-animal ecology.