Christopher Boone, Professor in the School of Sustainability, Arizona State University

Christopher Boone is Professor in the School of Sustainability at Arizona State University. Previously, he served as Dean of the School of Sustainability and Founding Dean of the College of Global Futures at ASU. As Dean, he created new interdisciplinary education and research programs by collaborating with other deans and directors, with the provost and president, and with external organizations and philanthropists. Fundraising as a way to invest in solutions-oriented research and innovative education that engages real-world stakeholders is one of his top priorities. Another priority is infusing diversity, equity, and inclusion principles and goals into all decisions and strategies. Boone’s research contributes to ongoing debates in sustainable urbanization, environmental justice, urban ecology, and global environmental change. During his academic career, he has been a principal or co-principal investigator on research grants totaling $40 million and as a collaborator on grants totaling $31 million. At ASU, he has taught classes on sustainable urbanization, urban and environmental health, principles and methods of sustainability, environmental justice, sustainable design and innovation, and interdisciplinary methods for socio-ecological research. He has a PhD from the University of Toronto and was a post-doctoral fellow at McGill University.

Ryan Johnson, Executive Director of Executive and Professional Education – College of Global Futures, Arizona State University

Ryan Johnson is the Executive Director of Executive and Professional Education which enables him to mash his 25+ years of diverse experience into a leadership role in Arizona State University’s pioneering School of Sustainability and College of Global Futures. The mission of this initiative is to increase the capacity of organizations and individuals to address sustainability and other future challenges. He does this by creating, brokering and delivering custom online and on-ground educational experiences. Through his leadership, his department leverages the expertise and wisdom of more than 500 scholars and scientists at ASU — a university that has been named “most innovative” by U.S. News and World Report for consecutive years.

Diane Pataki, Director, School of Sustainability, College of Global Futures, Arizona State Universityy

Dr. Diane E. Pataki is a Foundation Professor and Director of the School of Sustainability at Arizona State University. She previously served as the Associate Vice President for Research and a Professor in the School of Biological Sciences, with an adjunct appointment in the Department of City & Metropolitan Planning. She has also previously held positions as the Associate Dean for Student Affairs and the Associate Dean for Research in the College of Science at the University of Utah. Prior to 2012, she was on the faculty of the University of California, Irvine with a joint appointment in the Department of Earth System Science and the Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology. She was the founding Director of the UC Irvine Center for Environmental Biology and the Steele Burnand Anza Borrego Desert Research Center, a University of California Natural Reserve operated in collaboration with Anza Borrego Desert State Park. Dr. Pataki received a B.A. in environmental science at Barnard College and an M.S. and Ph.D. at the Duke University Nicholas School of the Environment. Her work is transdisciplinary and has spanned the impacts of climate change on ecosystems, coupled human-natural processes related to urban CO2 emissions, and the role of nature, greenspace, and forestry in urban sustainability.