Drexel University is in partnership The Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel UniversityThe Environmental Collaboratory is a new platform launched by, which focuses on climate change, human well-being, and environmental justice. Drexel and The Academy will draw on their extensive research expertise, longstanding relationships with external partners, and deep commitment to civic involvement. They will bring together faculty and staff, industry partners, and the public sector to seek transdisciplinary, community-based solutions for environmental problems.
The Environmental Collaboratory will promote integrated approaches between often-dissimilar fields of finance, engineering, law, policy and medicine.
Mathy Vathanaraj Stanislaus will be The Environmental Collaboratory’s Vice Provost and Executive director. Stanislaus was a former executive director of the World Economic Forum. Stanislaus scholarship focuses primarily on climate mitigation, adaptation, scale-up clean energy and electric mobility. It also emphasizes environmentally just transitions and multi-stakeholder-designed solutions.
Stanislaus said that the challenges of today, as well as those highlighted at the United Nations Climate Change Conference, demand that we all work together in fusing the collective knowledge, networks, and intergenerational insights to create practical equitable solutions that work on-the ground.
The Environmental Collaboratory is a strong partner in the development of climate justice, just transition, community leadership, driving solutions, and young people’s leadership. The Climate Conferences are a focus on climate justice, just transit, community leadership, and community leadership. It is an honor to work with today’s and tomorrow’s leaders, our students, our researchers and community partners.
The Environmental Collaboratory serves an important and lead role in the advancement of the Drexel 2030 Strategic Plans vision to design the future through the innovative integration of education, scholarship, diverse partnerships, and our global community. The Environmental Collaboratory’s mission centers around three key areas. These are use-inspiring, social justice-driven civic engagement, community building.
User-Inspired Research: initiates, facilitates and promotes multidisciplinary teams to help advance user-inspired research for the creation of novel solutions to real-world environmental problems. Faculty, staff, students and alumni collaborate with other groups in mutually-beneficial partnerships that are grounded and consistent with Drexel’s roles and missions.
Civic Engagement identifies research questions in reciprocal partnerships with communities; engages communities in the research process; devises, incubates and delivers implementation strategies with communities; shares outcomes with a wider audience; shapes beliefs and values through public programs and campaigns; and erodes the power-dynamic that commonly characterizes the relationship between academia and community.
Community Building builds a community at Drexel, acting as a place for interested faculty, staff and students to gather, connect and engage with these issues and our communities.
The Environmental Collaboratory’s first project, which was funded by the inaugural Glenmede Environmental Collaboratory Research Fund will assess progress and identify actions that can be taken to reduce lead poisoning in West Philadelphia. There is a decline in lead poisoning in Philadelphia, according to research. Rates remain high in the Overbrook neighborhood of West Philadelphia. Stefanie A. Kroll (assistant research professor in College of Arts and Sciences and the lead for watershed ecology section at the Academy) will collaborate with Jerome Shabazz (executive director of Overbrook Environmental Education Center) to study which practices have contributed to lower blood lead levels in other areas.
Glenmede oversees $43.5 billion in assets under management for Private Wealth, Endowment & Foundation, and Investment Management clients from its headquarters in Philadelphia as well as offices in Ohio, Delaware, Florida, New Jersey, New York, Pittsburgh, and Washington DC. Glenmede works with families, high-net-worth individuals, foundations, and institutional customers.
We are thrilled to work with Drexel to create the Glenmede Environmental Collaboratory Research Fund. The fund will help to address environmental issues in our own backyard. Mark Hays, director for Sustainable & Impact Investing, Glenmede, said, We believe that the focus of this year’s projects on reducing lead poisoning West Philadelphia will bring awareness to the issue and deliver scalable solutions to it. This issue has significant effects on our environment, and our children’s health.