Leah Nichols is the Executive Director of George Mason University’s Institute for a Sustainable Earth (ISE), where she leads the ISE team in creating connections – locally, globally, and across disciplines – to put Mason’s research and scholarship into action in support of a sustainable world. Under her leadership, ISE has launched new programs that catalyze the development of communities of research and practice, foster transdisciplinary research teams, and support the co-production of knowledge with local stakeholders.
Nichols came to Mason after 8 years at the National Science Foundation (NSF) where she contributed extensively to the design and management of several agency-wide programs that funded convergent, use-inspired, socio-environmental system science. As the Executive Secretary for NSF’s Advisory Committee for Environmental Research and Education, she supported the development of reports focused on urban sustainability, human security, and engaged research. She also co-founded and led an interagency working group to integrate the social sciences throughout the US Global Change Research Program.
Nichols has a PhD from the Energy and Resources Group at the University of California, Berkeley and a BS in environmental engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She has published articles on the production of actionable knowledge in leading sustainability journals, including Nature Sustainability and Nature Climate Change, and contributed to the US Fourth National Climate Assessment. She was also a AAAS Science and Technology Policy Fellow at the NSF and a Mirzayan Science and Technology Policy Fellow at the National Academy of Sciences.