In January, Stanford launched the Center for Just Environmental Futures to promote environmental justice as a foundational component of sustainability research, education and engagement across the university.

The Center, which exists within the Doerr School of Sustainability, functions as a hub to connect faculty, researchers, students and community partners to address climate change, environmental degradation and inequality through interdisciplinary and justice-oriented approaches.

“For the first time in the history of the University, the scholarly work on environmental justice and its relevance for sustainability efforts will be recognized at the level of a major entity within the university,” wrote Rodolfo Dirzo, Bing Professor in Environmental Science and Associate Dean for Integrative Initiatives, in a statement to The Daily. “A landscape analysis of peer universities in the country showed that no other university in the country has engaged in an effort of this magnitude.”

Maxine Burkett, the Center’s director, joined the Doerr School in 2025 as an Emerson Collective Professor of Climate, Environment and Society, after serving as the Senior Director for Climate, Ocean and Equity for the Biden administration and the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Oceans, Fisheries and Polar Affairs for the State Department. 

According to Burkett, the Center’s “primary focus [and] mission is really to produce rigorous scholarship… in service of implementable and durable solutions for all.”

The Center plans to achieve this by facilitating collaboration between individuals in diverse disciplines and roles to advance environmental justice through academic research, policy and community initiatives at Stanford and beyond. 

“The center will serve as the intellectual and cultural hub for faculty, students, and staff, engaged on a multi-faceted and multi-disciplinary approach to research and education, fomenting the active participation of many scholars focused on equitable and sustainable futures,” Dirzo wrote. 

Burkett said inclusion is also essential to creating lasting environmental justice solutions. “When decision-making is inclusive, outcomes are more adaptive, locally grounded and durable,” she said. 

Burkett also highlighted the importance of partnership and shared knowledge production, particularly with communities most affected by environmental harm.

“We really see that as a partnered endeavor,” she said. “We really understand, again, knowledge and expertise to be broadly embodied.”

The Center’s operations are led in partnership with Managing Director Ayodele Thomas, whose role focuses on translating the Center’s mission into practice by coordinating research, partnerships and programming across campus.

“One of the purposes of the Center will be not only to help facilitate the research that’s already happening in the space, but also to partner with researchers who desire to have equity and justice woven into their approaches,” Thomas said.

Thomas said the center aims to bridge disciplinary divides, a goal that presents both a challenge and an opportunity.

“Getting people in the humanities [to] talk about ideas with people who may be in engineering or in the biosciences [will allow the Center to have] the greatest multiplying impact,” Thomas said. 

Additionally, Thomas anticipates that undergraduate and graduate students will play a key role in shaping the Center’s future. The Center plans to offer various opportunities for students, such as community-based learning and research opportunities, according to Thomas. 

For fourth year Ph.D. student Rwaida Gharib, whose research focuses on climate adaptation, displacement and environmental justice, the Center represents a long-awaited institutional commitment to justice-centered sustainability scholarship.

“This is an opportunity to think about how we rewrite the future. How do we design the blueprint for a just and sustainable world?” said Gharib. 

Gharib said her research is shaped by years of field experience with communities displaced due to environmental conditions. She emphasized the importance of centering community voices in environmental research.

“It’s community centering voices and allowing them to have true agency, and listening to them when they tell us what they need,” Gharib said.

Dirzo said that the Center’s long-term impact will be measured through the scholarship it produces and its influence on students and communities.

The Center plans to convene scholars and practitioners through its inaugural conference, “Preferred Futures: Climate and Environmental Justice Across Borders,” scheduled for March 23 and 24. 

The event will bring together scholars, community leaders, legal experts, scientists, policymakers and cultural practitioners to examine how equitable and just environmental futures can be actively shaped across borders, reflecting the Center’s broader goal of bridging scholarship with the lived experiences of Indigenous peoples and frontline communities.

“The center will hopefully serve as a training ground for students seeking to catapult their passion and engagement for the creation of a world that considers the well-being of all living beings,” Dirzo wrote.