Education:

  • Ph.D. Genetics, University of California, Davis 1996
  • Post-baccalaureate study, Biology, Humboldt State University, Arcata, CA 1983-1986
  • B.A. Economics, Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA, 1982

Before COA

Doreen worked as science advisor and campaigner for Greenpeace US and Greenpeace International from 2000-2010.

Scholarly and Creative Interests

Doreen’s professional work beyond teaching and COA straddles intersections between biodiversity and climate policy and politics. She is advisor and consultant to international climate justice organizations and social movements on issues related to land, livelihoods, and climate change, in particular against carbon markets and carbon offsetting. In UN Framework Convention on Climate Change negotiations, she serves as advisor to a group of developing country governments on the issue of loss and damage.

Doreen is a member of the Commission on Accelerating Climate Action of the American Academy for Arts and Sciences. She serves as a member of the Expert Advisory Group of the Science-Based Targets Initiative towards the development of a net-zero standard. She chairs the Spinning Climate Change working group of the Climate Social Science Network and the Offsets-Net Zero-Nature-based Solutions working group of the Climate Land Ambition and Rights Alliance (CLARA). She is active in a number of other national and international alliances of climate justice organizations working against carbon offsetting and the commodification and financialization of nature. 

More Information about my Courses

Doreen teaches courses on climate justice, land and climate change, comparative climate change and biodiversity politics, and French and European political institutions. Her courses span theory and practice, with theoretical groundings in political ecology and practical political engagement in real-world struggles for climate justice and social change.

More About Me

Doreen speaks French and Spanish. She loves biking, hiking, gardening, and kayaking. In 2021, she completed a 200-hour yoga teacher training program with the Kula Yoga Project.

Community Engagement and Advocacy

Doreen is an active member of the Northeast Climate Change Education Collaborative. She is a member of the Equity and Ambition Group and the Climate Land Ambition Rights Alliance.

Honors and Awards

Doreen held the inaugural Zennström professorship in climate change leadership at Uppsala University, Sweden, in 2015-2016.

She is a Switzer Fellow, class of 1991.

Publications

Doreen’s most recent publication is Chasing Carbon Unicorns: the deception of carbon markets and “net zero”, published by a group of climate justice organizations and social movements including Friends of the Earth International and La Via Campesina. She is a co-author of Missing Pathways to 1.5 °C: the role of the land sector in ambitious climate action, published by CLARA. Doreen is a collaborator with and contributor to the Existential Toolkit for Climate Justice Educators project. She is the co-author, with Ronnie Lipschutz, of Environmental Politics in a Changing World: power, perspectives, and practice, and co-editor, with Stephen Brush, of Valuing Local Knowledge: indigenous people and intellectual property rights. She is a contributing author to the sixth assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Presentations

Doreen presents widely on topics related to climate justice, land and climate change, carbon markets, and the financialization of nature.