Hadly awarded a Leopold Leadership Fellowship

LIZ HADLY, professor of biology, is one of 20 environmental researchers from across North America to be awarded Leopold Leadership Fellowships for 2011. Hadly’s research focuses on the evolution and ecology of mammals and their response to climate change over time.

Based at Stanford’s Woods Institute for the Environment, the Leopold Leadership Program was founded in 1998 to help academic scientists make their knowledge accessible to decision makers. Each year the program selects up to 20 mid-career environmental researchers as fellows. They receive intensive leadership and communications training to help them engage effectively with policymakers, journalists, business leaders and communities confronting complex decisions about sustainability and the environment.

“Academic scientists work hard to understand environmental problems and to develop potential solutions, but to actually solve problems requires communication and a two-way flow of information between scientists and decision makers,” said PAMELA MATSON, dean of Stanford’s School of Earth Sciences and scientific director of the program. “The Leopold Leadership Program trains academics to close the gap between knowledge and action,” Matson added.