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����Ӱ�� of Earth Sciences has been tapped to serve a three-year term as faculty director of the Dartmouth Climate Collaborative, beginning July 1, announced today. 

Launched on Earth Day last year, the Climate Collaborative—one of signature priorities—includes support for climate-based research, teaching, and interdisciplinary partnerships and a $500 million investment in capital infrastructure improvements that are facilitating the construction and renewal of energy-efficient housing units on campus while also addressing Dartmouth’s energy security, costs, and environmental stewardship.

Kelly’s appointment comes as ����Ӱ�� of Anthropology completes her term as special advisor to the provost on climate and sustainability, through which she led the Climate Futures Initiative, a year-long effort to understand and enhance climate scholarship on campus that has been a critical component of getting the Climate Collaborative off the ground. 

This week, outlining its major recommendations, which fall into three broad categories: building on Dartmouth’s strengths to cultivate “climate citizens” who demonstrate resilience and leadership on climate issues; transforming campus into a living laboratory for research and teaching; and amplifying opportunities for excellence in scholarship and the curriculum related to climate and sustainability. 

“One key recommendation that we are acting on right away is the need for continued faculty leadership of climate initiatives, which is why I am so pleased that Meredith Kelly has agreed to step up to help sustain this vital effort,” says Kotz, adding that senior leadership is in the process of assessing the CFI report and considering its long-term implications.

“I want to thank Laura Ogden for her outstanding leadership of CFI, which included tireless engagement of faculty, students, staff, and alumni from every corner of Dartmouth over the course of the past year,” Kotz says. “Her work has set the Climate Collaborative on a firm footing, grounded in the values and talents of our entire community, and for that I am deeply grateful.” 

As faculty director, Kelly—a paleoclimatologist and chair of the —will co-chair the collaborative’s advisory council with Director of Sustainability . The council, which reports to Kotz and , senior vice president for operations, meets quarterly to provide feedback on Dartmouth’s climate and sustainability strategies and foster connections with groups across campus, Upper Valley community members, alumni, and businesses. Members include faculty, students, alumni, and a representative from the community group Sustainable Hanover.

“Having spent my career exploring past climate and environmental change across the globe, I am excited to now focus my efforts on advancing climate and sustainability scholarship and teaching at Dartmouth,” says Kelly. “I hope to continue the groundbreaking work of ����Ӱ�� Ogden and CFI by facilitating climate-related activities and communication across campus, helping to integrate climate and sustainability into scholarship, teaching, and learning across schools and divisions.”

Over the past year, the Climate Futures Initiative has engaged with hundreds of faculty, students, staff, and alumni throughout the institution, hosting dozens of colloquia, listening sessions, site visits, and one-on-one meetings to solicit ideas about how Dartmouth can build on existing strengths to amplify climate and sustainability teaching, research, and scholarship on campus and beyond. 

“My role in CFI was to listen, learn, and develop recommendations that reflected the consensus of our faculty, students, and staff. Meredith Kelly is the perfect person to help determine priorities from those recommendations and help set Dartmouth’s course for the future,” says Ogden, a 2024 Guggenheim Fellow who is currently working on a book on the push to save the California condor from extinction in the 1980s. “It was so exciting to learn about the amazing work that is happening across campus. Dartmouth really has an opportunity to lean into its foundational commitments and become a leader in research and teaching to address our environmental challenges, including those related to climate change.”

The initiative has supported a number of projects that use the , including an undergraduate service learning course on climate resilience; an earth studies course in which students modeled underground rock formations in locations where Dartmouth is drilling geo-exchange borefields; a course in which students measured carbon emissions from the lawn of the president’s house; a senior research project that explores how to capture carbon from soil at the Organic Farm; and a course on the winter ecology of Pine Park. 

Kelly says the CFI report will be the jumping off point for continued outreach with the community to develop programs that advance Dartmouth’s academic and operational climate and sustainability goals. 

To this end, the Climate Collaborative is planning to open a new round of pilot-project funding for faculty-driven projects that seek to use the campus as a laboratory for discovery. 

“While this initiative is still relatively new, and the breadth of what we will do is a bit daunting, its importance is underscored by the full support of the president and provost,” says Kelly. “In this time of political uncertainty, I’m proud that Dartmouth sees climate and sustainability as extremely important issues that are a critical part of our academic mission.”