Associate​/Full Professor School Environment

Update your profile details, view your application and progress.

Keep informed about job opportunities at UMass Boston.

Apply now Job no: 529465
Position Type: Faculty Full Time
Campus: UMass Boston
Department: SFE - Dean's Office
Pay Grade: 04
Date opened: 15 Jan 2026 Eastern Standard Time
Applications close:

Job Description

The School for the Environment (SFE) at the University of Massachusetts Boston invites applications for the position of Chair of a new academic department focusing on environmental sciences and sustainability to begin September 1, 2026. We seek an outstanding leader with organizational leadership experience and demonstrated transdisciplinary expertise in topics including but not limited to environmental science and health, climate change, environmental sustainability and management.

The Chair will provide visionary leadership to co-create the new department’s mission and vision, emphasizing transdisciplinary collaboration, transparency, and excellence. We seek a candidate with experience as a department chair or other relevant academic/organizational leadership roles who can bring people together to cultivate a culture of excellence, innovation, and collaboration in support of the School’s broader goals.

The recent and future growth within SFE has driven the need for a new Department that will build on the success of SFE. Together with Faculty, the Chair will maintain the core strengths of SFE (transdisciplinary culture, high quality research, complex systems thinking, and a problem-solving approach), while leveraging new opportunities as a Department. The Chair will advance and administer the innovative teachers and researchers in the new Department who are addressing the environmental challenges facing our region and the world.

The new department contains seventeen tenured and tenure-track faculty, sixteen affiliated faculty, and offers undergraduate (B.S, B.A.) and graduate (M.S., PhD) programs serving 300 students. Our programs prepare the next generation of environmental scientists and professionals committed to advancing science-informed solutions across diverse communities and ecosystems.

The successful candidate will be expected to sustain a research agenda that is applicable to environmental science and/or sustainability. SFE is particularly interested in scholars whose work addresses climate change or environmental pollution as critical health issues and investigates the disproportionate health burdens experienced by under-invested communities. We seek candidates whose scholarship integrates environmental science, regulation, and/or policy to support more equitable and sustainable outcomes.

SFE's mission is to examine the natural world and explore diverse challenges in natural, built, and social environments, as well as the intersections among them. Using transdisciplinary and equity-informed approaches to research, teaching, and action, we expand environmental knowledge and understanding and create cutting‑edge transdisciplinary solutions to environmental and social problems in Boston and beyond. Therefore, the preferred candidate should be able to work within and complement activities and interests of the core and affiliate faculty.

We particularly welcome candidates that use methodologies for transdisciplinary problem‑solving and/or integrate community‑based participatory approaches into their research. SFE faculty support undergraduate (Environmental Science, Environmental Studies and Sustainability), master’s, and PhD programs (Environmental Science, Marine Science and Technology). SFE is also home to the Urban Planning and Community Development (UPCD) Department, and we expect the successful candidate to have strong interactions with UPCD faculty and students.

The candidate will have the opportunity to interact with programs and collaborators within the School for the Environment including Living on Earth, Mass Bays National Estuary Partnership, Nantucket Field Station, Stone Living Lab, and the Urban Harbors Institute (UHI). Additional collaborative opportunities exist with the Sustainable Solutions Lab (SSL)…