[January 29, 2015]

Pitzer College Announces New Robert Redford Conservancy Director

Pitzer College has named Professor Brinda Sarathy the new director of the Robert Redford Conservancy for Southern California Sustainability.

Sarathy is an associate professor of environmental analysis and teaches US environmental policy, California water politics and environmental justice. She is the author of Pineros: Latino Labour and the Changing Face of Forestry in the Pacific Northwest (UBC Press, 2012), the first in-depth scholarship to analyze the remarkable growth of Latino forest workers in the Pacific Northwest and in the United States. Her writings and articles have appeared in the Journal of Forestry, Society and Natural Resources and Policy Sciences, among other publications.

Her current research focuses on the social and scientific regulation of water pollution in post World War II California, and the processes leading to what would eventually become the state's first Superfund site, the Stringfellow Acid Pits in Riverside County. This project also examines the role of community advocates in organizing against toxic sites and greater participation in regulatory oversight.

Sarathy has undertaken various roles in campus leadership and beyond. In 2014, she served as a faculty adviser on Pitzer College's Climate Change Working Group that designed the Fossil Fuel Divestment-Climate Action Model. Pitzer's bold initiative made it the first college in Southern California to divest from fossil fuel stocks - the largest endowed college at the time to do so. She also serves on the Board of the Center for Community Action and Environmental Justice, one of the oldest and most well-known environmental justice organizations in the Inland Empire.

Brinda Sarathy received her PhD and MS in environmental science, policy and management from the University of California, Berkeley and BA from McGill University. In 2013, Sarathy was chosen to be part of the William R. Gianelli Water Leaders Class, a selective one-year program sponsored by the Water Education Foundation to engage community leaders in debates and policies around water management.

Established in 2012, the Robert Redford Conservancy for Southern California Sustainability at Pitzer College educates the next generation of environmental change-makers. The confluence of art, media, environmental sciences and creativity is central at the Redford Conservancy to reflect the way actual progress is made in the 21st century. Combining research with hands-on learning and applying a liberal arts perspective, the Redford Conservancy prepares students to create solutions for the most challenging and urgent sustainability problems facing the planet today. Research and studies from the Conservancy will influence regional, national and global policymaking.

About Pitzer College

Pitzer College is a nationally top-ranked undergraduate liberal arts and sciences institution. A member of The Claremont Colleges, Pitzer offers a distinctive approach to a liberal arts education by linking intellectual inquiry with interdisciplinary studies, cultural immersion, social responsibility and community involvement. For more information, please visit www.pitzer.edu.

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