HISTORY The Center’s Graduate Program is the evolutionary outgrowth of Bard College’s Graduate School of Environmental Studies, a program of summer course work begun in 1988 that led to the master of science degree in environmental studies. The founding director of the Bard Center for Environmental Policy, Joanne Fox-Przeworski, developed the Center in order to raise awareness of the environment and engage the public through programs such as the Open Forum lecture series. Fox-Przeworski brought to Bard her deep commitment to interdisciplinary environmental education, and in particular to international studies, as well as her experience as former director of the United Nations Environment Programme. Since joining Bard CEP as director in 2009, Eban Goodstein has built on the success of the Center’s interdisciplinary educational model, adding a focus on leadership development within the MS program. In 2010, Goodstein launched a new degree in climate science and policy and a year later he added a January term to the core curriculum. At that time, and building on previous national efforts to raise awareness and encourage action on climate change issues, Goodstein expanded the Center’s public programs to offer the National Climate Seminar and the C2C Fellows Network. Bard CEP, the C2C Fellows Network, and the newly developed Bard MBA in Sustainability (launched by Goodstein in 2012) all have as their core mission the imperative to train future leaders in policy and business to achieve sustainability.
Jessie Mee ’09 (Pretoria, South Africa) Results/Knowledge Specialist for Ecosystems and Biodiversity, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Bard CEP gave me the knowledge and opportunities to build a career in the field of international development. In fact, my internship led directly to my current position with UNDP as a technical adviser in its global Ecosystems and Biodiversity team. Every day in my work I apply the skills that I gained from CEP. Reflecting back on my unique multidisciplinary education at Bard, I realize that I am truly indebted to the passionate and dedicated CEP team.
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