A Message from Dean Anderson
Dear Bren Community,
Welcome to the 2025-26 academic year at the Bren School! I'm Sarah Anderson, and I'm thrilled to serve as your Interim Dean this year.
My whole career has been dedicated to understanding how human systems can be harnessed to solve pressing environmental challenges -- from how governments can better allocate wildfire resources to how transparency affects environmental pollution. Leading the Bren School means continuing this work with our entire network as we pursue our shared mission of solving environmental problems.
We begin this academic year mindful that higher education is navigating turbulent times, with concerns ranging from professional to personal, local to global. Whether you're wondering about job prospects after graduation, concerned about visa status, or worried about research funding, please know we're here to support you. This means extended career services that continue after you graduate, an open door when you need guidance, and dedicated staff to help navigate visa and funding challenges. Now more than ever, our mission remains critical.
Amplifying Our Work
This year, I want to ensure the world sees what we’re accomplishing here. Your capstones, group impact projects, and dissertations aren't just academic exercises. During your time at Bren you will create real solutions to environmental challenges. Our staff ensures you have what you need to succeed in these impactful projects and your careers. Our faculty's research shapes policy and changes lives. Together, we're not just studying environmental problems; we're solving them.
Here's how you can help share this story: Document your work! Take photos of your fieldwork, lab sessions, and project presentations. Share them with our marketing team (abgoldin@bren.ucsb.edu) so we can highlight your achievements. Consider interviewing faculty about their research and we'll publish these conversations on our website with your byline. While you're here, you have the Bren platform to establish yourselves as environmental leaders. Let's make sure the world knows who you are and what you're accomplishing.
New Staff Introductions
I am delighted to welcome a new staff member who has recently joined our team, Assistant Dean Leticia Porter. Please find her bio on our website. I encourage you all to extend a warm welcome as she settles in. Leticia is excited to start working with our Bren students, so please feel free to stop by and say hello when you come by the dean’s suite; she is in BH2424.
Upcoming Events
This term is filled with exciting opportunities to engage, learn and connect. Please mark your calendars for our upcoming events. These gatherings are excellent ways to to build lasting connections with the colleagues who will support you throughout your career. On that note, we would like to invite you to our All Bren Community Welcome Reception today from 4:30 to 6:00 pm in the central Michael J. Connell Courtyard.
Other upcoming events include:
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Mantell Symposium, Oct 17
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Dean Steve Gaines Retirement Celebration, Oct 29
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Faculty Flash Talks & Mixer, Nov 14
For more opportunities to meet others and become more acquainted with the Bren network, please join us for our weekly Bren Seminars, every Monday from 11:00 am to 12:00 pm. These Seminars feature visiting speakers nominated by students and faculty, environmental professionals sharing their insights, and faculty research talks so you can get to know the Bren School faculty. And stay tuned to our digest of Bren School events, This Week At Bren (TWAB). Use this link to add TWAB to your calendar.
Impact Bren!
As I begin this new role, my foremost priority is you, our students. I look forward to learning about your goals, celebrating your successes, and supporting you through challenges. Beyond the classroom, I hope to strengthen the bonds that connect us as a community. I remind you that the statement of our Bren Community Values ends with “We celebrate our differences and recognize and honor diversity as vital to the excellence of our community and institutions.” The Bren School is a place where collaboration, respect and shared purpose comes alive. I look forward to engaging with you not only as learners, but as citizens making an impact in the world.
If you have any questions or concerns throughout the quarter, please contact me, Dean Anderson (sanderson@bren.ucsb.edu), our Assistant Dean Leticia Porter (porter@bren.ucsb.edu), or Executive Director of Student Services Kristine Duarte (kristine@bren.ucsb.edu). I also encourage you to share feedback through our Virtual Suggestion Box or to attend one of the Dean’s Chats, currently scheduled for Monday, October 6th, 10-11am, Friday, November 7th, 1-2pm, and Tuesday, December 2nd, 12-1pm in Bren Hall 2410.
We look forward to working with you in the coming year.
Best,
--
Sarah Anderson
Interim Dean
Bren School of Environmental Science & Management
About Dr. Sarah Anderson
Sarah E. Anderson is a Professor at the Bren School of Environmental Science & Management at University of California Santa Barbara. Professor Anderson studies how politics shapes the policies that we do (or don’t) get from the political system, with work published in such journals as Nature Climate Change, Legislative Studies Quarterly and the American Journal of Political Science. She’s a particular expert on congressional politics, having worked for a member of Congress before going to graduate school. She recently published a book on Rejecting Compromise: Legislators’ Fear of Primary Voters and has a large interdisciplinary project on how salient wildfires affect distribution of government resources. She finds creative ways to use data to quantify these political phenomena – such as using the federal budget to quantify policy priorities or attending legislator summits to do interviews. Professor Anderson also serves as the Associate Dean for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at the Bren School, where she works to ensure that research, teaching, and service at the Bren School involves and empowers all communities. In all of her professional capacity, she works with students and faculty to overcome social and political barriers to solving environmental problems. In addition to a Ph.D. in Political Science from Stanford University, she holds an M.S. in Economics from Stanford University and a B.S. in Political Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.