Our Director

 

Dr. Kenneth Broad is Director of the Leonard and Jayne Abess Center for Ecosystem Science and Policy and Professor in the Department of Environmental Science and Policy at UM's Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science. Additionally, he holds a joint appointment at Columbia University, where he serves as Co-Director of the Center for Research on Environmental Decisions.

Kenny received his Ph.D.in anthropology from Columbia University in 1999. Dr. Broad has directed major interdisciplinary efforts to study diverse aspects of human and environmental interaction, including climate impacts and human perception, the use and misuse of scientific information, and decision making under uncertainty. He has participated in extreme scientific and filmmaking expeditions on every continent - from studying cocaine distribution patterns to venomous snakes to the deepest caves on the planet - to gather information and samples that shed light on little known environmental and cultural subjects. He regularly collaborates with ecologists, climatologists, hydrologists, psychologists, and a host of other strange -ologists.

Kenny, along with the late Wes Skiles, was awarded the 2011 National Geographic Explorer of the Year for their work in the underwater caves of The Bahamas, which appeared as a cover story in National Geographic Magazine. Broad also received the National Geographic 2006 Emerging Explorer Award and was elected a Fellow National of the Explorers Club in 2009. Kenny is a member of the National Geographic Society Expedition Council Advisory Board and is on the board of advisors for several nonprofit organizations.

Dr. Broad CV