Office Staff

Thomas Dietz
Director, Environmental Science and Policy Program
Assistant Vice President for Environmental Research
E-mail: tdietz@msu.edu

Biosketch:
Thomas Dietz is Assistant Vice President for Environmental Research, Director of the Environmental Science and Policy Program, and Professor of Sociology and Crop and Soil Sciences at Michigan State University. His publications include 11 books and over 100 research papers and book chapters, including co-authorship of the framework and synthesis documents of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment. He is a National Associate of the National Academy of Sciences, a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and has been awarded the Sustainability Science Award of the Ecological Society of America, the Distinguished Contribution Award of the American Sociological Association Section on Environment, Technology and Society, and the Outstanding Publication Award, also from the American Sociological Association Section on Environment, Technology and Society. Dietz has served on numerous National Academies panels and chaired the Committee on the Human Dimensions of Global Change and the Panel on Public Participation in Environmental Assessment and Decision Making. He holds a Bachelor of General Studies degree from Kent State and a PhD in Ecology from the University of California at Davis.

He chairs the U.S. National Research Council Panel on Public Participation in Environmental Assessment and Decision Making. His current research examines the human driving forces of environmental change, environmental values and the interplay between science and democracy in environmental issues. Dr. Dietz is an active participant in the Ecological and Cultural Change Studies Group at MSU.

For more information on Professor Dietz's research, click here.
For Professor Dietz's CV, click here. [pdf]
For Professors Dietz's personal web site.

Joe Arvai
Associate Director
E-mail: arvai@msu.edu

Biosketch:
Joe Arvai is an Associate Professor of Judgment and Decision Making within the Department of Community, Agriculture, Recreation, and Resource Studies and the Environmental Science and Policy Program at Michigan State University. He is also a faculty member in MSU's Cognitive Science Program. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree, a Master's Degree in Oceanography, and a PhD in Risk and Decision Science from The University of British Columbia. He is a recipient of the highly prestigious Chauncey Starr Award, which each year honors the individual aged 40 or younger who has made exceptional contributions to the discipline of risk analysis. He has also served on a series of advisory panels, most notably for the EPA Science Advisory Board and the National Academy of Science. He conducts an active research program that focuses on advancing and testing theories in the decision sciences that deal with how people make decisions (both as individuals and in groups) largely in the absence of formalized decision support. Informed by this work, a second objective of his research is to develop and test decision aids that can be used by people to improve decision quality across a variety of contexts.

For more information on Professor Arvai's research, click here.

Maya Fischhoff
Assistant Director
E-mail: mayaef@msu.edu

Biosketch:
Maya Fischhoff helps coordinate ESPP programs and activities. In particular, she helps connect those interested in environmental issues to collaborators, opportunities, and other resources. Maya has a particular interest in corporate environmental functioning and environmental attitudes and behaviors

Maya received her Ph.D. from the School of Natural Resources and Environment at the University of Michigan, where she also worked with faculty from the Business School. She examined ways that companies can be socially and environmentally - as well as economically - sustainable. Maya approaches these issues through the lens of organizational change, looking specifically at the role of employees in organizational environmental action and at factors which support and impede their efforts.

Most recently, Maya was Ethicist-in-Residence at Eastern Michigan University's College of Business. She has also worked in business, government, and the non-profit sector. Maya received her B.A. from Harvard University in Social Studies, and spent a year studying fisheries management at University of the South Pacific in Fiji.

Marcy Heberer
Assistant to the Director
E-mail: espp@msu.edu

Biosketch:
ESPP welcomes Marcy Heberer, who joins us as the Executive Secretary for ESPP. Heberer is the assistant to the Director, Thomas Dietz, and is in charge of ESPP's finances, including fellowships and grants, and schedules.

She comes to us from the Visiting International Professional Program (VIPP), part of International Studies and Programs at MSU, where she worked for two years. Now at ESPP, Heberer says, "I love it here." Working at ESPP meshes with her interest in environmental science and policy.

Originally from Madison, Wisconsin, Heberer has traveled extensively throughout the United States before settling down in East Lansing with her three children. Some of the places she has lived are South Carolina, Florida, Texas, and Minnesota. Before coming to MSU she worked for 14 years in East Lansing's public schools. She has strong MSU links, with her daughter having graduated from MSU in 2005 and a son who now studies economics here.

Derek Moy
Webmaster
E-mail: moy@msu.edu

Biosketch:
Derek Moy earned a M.S. in Geography from Eastern Michigan University, Ypsilanti, and a B.S. in Natural Resources and Environment from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He holds a joint appointment with Remote Sensing & Geographic Information Science Research and Outreach Services (RS&GIS), where he specializes in web site and graphic design.

Andy McGlashen
Graduate Assistant News Writer
E-mail: mcglash3@msu.edu

Biosketch:
Andy McGlashen, the graduate assistant news writer for ESPP, is a master's student at the Knight Center for Environmental Journalism. He holds a B.A. in English from MSU, with cognates in environmental studies and anthropology. Andy has written for EJ, the Knight Center's semiannual magazine and was awarded the Edward A. Augenstein Memorial Scholarship for his coverage of environmental issues and public affairs for the journalism school's Capital News Service. He has also interned with the Michigan Nature Association, where he wrote and edited for the organization's various publications and expanded its network of media contacts.

Andy Balaskovitz
Assistant Web Editor
E-mail: balasko1@msu.edu

Biosketch:
Andy Balaskovitz is a journalism undergraduate entering his fourth year at MSU. With a cognate in anthropology, he participates in courses within the Knight Center for Environmental Journalism and has received awards for his work on the Great Lakes Wiki. After studying English literature in Dublin during the Spring 2008 semester, Andy took on an internship at the Ann Arbor Ecology Center where he helped design and contributed to monthly newsletters and their Web site. Other work experience includes reading, writing and designing for the Red Cedar Review, Spartanedge.com and The State News, respectively.

Christopher S. Oliver
Visiting Assistant Professor
E-mail: oliverc1@msu.edu

Biosketch:
Christopher is Visiting Assistant Professor in the Environmental Science and Policy Program (ESPP) and Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology at Michigan State University (MSU). He teaches courses on the environment and society, science and technology studies, sociology of work, industrial sociology, economic and political sociology, and complex organizations. Christopher received his Ph.D. in sociology from Michigan State University in August 2008.

Christopher has a B.S. in geography from California Polytechnic State University at Pomona, specializing in geographic information science and environmental management. In addition, he completed graduate work at Oregon State University in geosciences and resource management prior to transferring to MSU. While at MSU, Christopher studied anthropology and geography before coming to the field of environmental sociology. During his time at MSU, Christopher also worked as a research assistant in the Center for Global Change and Earth Observation (formerly BSRSI) studying tropical forests in Brazil and Southeast Asia.

Currently, his work focuses on U.S. energy policy -- specifically the use of reformulated gasoline and methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE) and its effect on local environmental conditions throughout the country. His work also explores the consequences of bilateral trade agreements on federal, state, and local environmental policymaking. Dr. Tom Dietz and Dr. Oliver recently were awarded a National Science Foundation grant to fund their continuing research on MTBE pollution as well as work on the potential pollution issues surrounding the use of biofuels in the US.

In addition to his fieldwork in the U.S., Christopher has worked on research projects in Mexico and Central America and Brazil exploring environmental management and policy concerning tropical forested landscapes.