Shirley Vincent, Ph.D.

Dr. Vincent serves as the Director of Educational Research at the National Council for Science and the Environment, a nonpartisan organization of scientists, environmentalists, entrepreneurs and policymakers dedicated to improving the scientific basis of environmental decision making.

She is leading a landmark longitudinal study of U.S. interdisciplinary environmental and sustainability degree programs and consults with higher education institutions to provide customized comparative and strategic analyses that inform the development of new educational programs, the review of existing programs, and strategic planning and other types of decision making processes.

Dr. Vincent is the author of 2010 NCSE report Interdisciplinary Environmental Education on the Nation’s Campuses: Elements of Field Identity and Curriculum Design as well as a number of other reports and scholarly articles on interdisciplinary environmental and sustainability education, and is a frequent speaker on environmental and sustainability education topics. 

She serves as an advisor to the Executive Committee of the Council of Environmental Deans and Directors, an associate editor for the Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences. She has held leadership positions in the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education, the Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences, the Society for Human Ecology, and led the ASTM International Worldwide Standards Subcommittee on Environmental Risk Assessment, Communication and Management task group that successfully published the international standard titled Standard Guide for a Framework for a Consensus-based Environmental Decision-making Process.  She also participated in the initial development of the education and research indictors for the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education’s Sustainability, Tracking, Assessment and Rating System (STARS).

Dr. Vincent earned her Ph.D. in environmental science at Oklahoma State University and holds a B.S. and M.S. in Biological Science from the University of Tulsa.  Her professional experience spans entrepreneurial business development and management, clinical and university research, and higher education teaching, administration and consulting.