Shalanda Baker, vice provost for sustainability and climate action and professor of environment and sustainability in the School of Environment and Sustainability, began her tenure on Sept. 1, 2024. In this role, she will lead interdisciplinary engagement on environmental topics, explore opportunities to integrate sustainability within core curricula and support critical research that addresses the climate crisis.

The VPSCA also will advance U-M’s role as a living-learning lab toward climate solutions, in collaboration with Business & Finance, the Office of Campus Sustainability, Student Life Sustainability, the Graham Sustainability Institute, Michigan Medicine, and schools, colleges and units.

What drew you to this role?

SB: I’ve just had the privilege of serving in the Biden-Harris Administration, first as the country’s first-ever Deputy Director for Energy Justice in the Department of Energy, and then as the Senate-confirmed director of the Office of Energy Justice and Equity. My job was to ensure that the nation’s energy transition was just and equitable by rewiring the entire architecture of grantmaking and program design within the department. Throughout the course of my time in the department, I realized that the only pathway to a just and equitable energy transition was to actually contend with the various interlocking systems that produce inequity and injustice. In essence, the problem of an unjust energy system connects to multiple systems, and those systems have to communicate with each other in an interdisciplinary manner.

Universities are amazing places to create paradigm shifts, and everything I knew about the University of Michigan led me to believe that the University of Michigan was better positioned than any university in the country to accelerate just and equitable climate action at scale. Its history of environmental and racial justice, as well as the hundreds of researchers and students already looking at issues of climate and sustainability through various disciplinary lenses make it an excellent springboard from which to think about structural change across our systems of health, energy, food, water, built environment, and economy. The exciting part of this job will be to create platforms and pathways for all of these elements to connect. 

How are universities uniquely positioned to move the needle on climate change?

SB: Universities are idea incubators. As a law professor, I got to witness students trying on and experimenting with new ideas. Nearly every day, I saw the proverbial “light bulb” turn on for students synthesizing information. Once that happened, our classroom became a site for collaboration and pushing the envelope. Students are ready to innovate on climate change and, more importantly, they’re ready to act on climate, which makes universities a great place to do this work. Universities are also excellent conveners and can establish relationships at the local, state, regional, and international levels. Of course, universities also house some of the best scholars and researchers across multiple disciplines who can be brought together to grapple with thorny, system-level problems, like climate change. 

Why was your role created and how is it positioned within the broader climate and sustainability leadership structure at the university? 

SB: The University has made climate change, sustainability, environmental justice and issues of the environment central to its vision and goals. You can see that through actual documents and commitments, such as the Vision 2034. You can also see that in places like SEAS, the School for Environment and Sustainability, which has served as a national leader in sustainability for years. About a year ago, the University further demonstrated its commitment to sustainability by hiring an inaugural Associate Vice President for Campus Sustainability within the Office of the Chief Financial Officer, Shana Weber. Last year Tony Denton assumed the role of Senior Vice President and Chief Environmental, Social and Governance Officer at Michigan Medicine.  My role was created to accelerate activity in the curricular and research spaces and to collaborate closely with Shana and Tony to advance our shared goals. It’s an exciting structure that allows us to touch upon every aspect of the university enterprise. My role will also help to amplify the excellent work already happening across campus and to help weave together the various threads of scholarship, teaching, and community-facing efforts into a beautiful tapestry of sustainability, climate action, and justice. It’s such an exciting time to be at UMich doing this work!

What is your strategy to get the university’s colleges, schools, institutes, and centers to collaborate on climate action and sustainability research and teaching?

SB: This is the hardest question! But it’s always top of mind. There’s already so much amazing collaboration already happening across the diverse research portfolios. I’m excited to roll up my sleeves to create a platform and structure within my new office to facilitate greater ease of access to teaching resources, curricular offerings for students, and research opportunities. I’m also thinking through ways to incentivize collaboration on teaching, research, and place-based community efforts, so stay tuned! To start, this year I’m leaning into the convening opportunities within the office, hosting town hall sessions with students, faculty, directors, and deans to really understand the barriers to collaboration, and get their best ideas on the ways this office can facilitate high-impact, transformative teaching, research, and community engagement. I also have the great fortune of working with the excellent Graham Institute for Sustainability, Matthaei Botanical Gardens, and Campus Farms teams as a part of my portfolio, and I’ll be leaning into their expertise as I launch a campus-wide effort. Finally, I’m really excited about the Capital Campaign! I think it will serve as a forcing mechanism to unify our sustainability community around shared principles and values to accelerate sustainability and climate action on campus.

To close out, what’s one fun fact about you?

SB: I’m not sure how fun this is, but not many people know that I was a four-year All American rugby player at the Air Force Academy and a member of the US Women’s National Team for about a decade. That was a long time ago, but it pops up here and there when people Google me to find my bio. It always catches me off guard at professional events or before a speaking engagement when someone asks me, “You played rugby?!” I still get a kick out of it. My current hobbies are more tame. On rainy days I’m likely to be found reading a book cover to cover or cooking something for friends from my collection of cookbooks!