Clark Names Climate Expert Carr New Department Director

Saturday, August 22, 2015

GoLocalWorcester News Team

Professor Edward R. Carr

On Friday, Clark University announced the appointment of Professor Edward R. Carr as the school's new director of the International Development, Community and Environment Department.

Carr joins Clark after leaving the University of South Carolina's Department of Geography, where he served as director of the Humanitarian Response and Development Lab (HURDL)

HURDL currently has projects in Mali, Senegal, Zambia and Ghana, and policy and implementation projects with a global remit. Professor Carr brings HURDL with him to Clark and the HURDL lab will reside in the George Perkins Marsh Institute.

“It is an honor to be asked to lead a program with such a rich history, at such an exciting time for both IDCE and the larger Clark community,” wrote Professor Carr. “The program uniquely links the various aspects of my research identity within a single department, and further supports those interests through the work of the Graduate School of Geography, the George Perkins Marsh Institute, and the Graduate School of Management.”

Professor Carr holds a bachelor’s degree with high distinction from the University of Virginia; a master’s and Ph.D. in anthropology from Syracuse University, and a Ph.D. in geography from the University of Kentucky.

Professor Carr has also served as an American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) fellow, and worked at the U.S. Agency for International Development. Notably, Carr was the first climate change coordinator for the Bureau for Democracy, Conflict and Humanitarian Assistance, and later served as an adviser on the Climate Change Team in the Bureau for Economic Growth, Education and the Environment. Professor Carr has also served as a consultant to the World Bank on issues of adaptation and development.

For more than 15 years, Professor Carr has worked in rural sub-Saharan Africa on issues of globalization, development and environmental change, living among and working with various rural communities. He is the author of more than 30 publications on issues of development, adaptation to climate change, and the changing global environment. He served as the lead author of two global environmental assessments (the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment and The) and was the review editor for a chapter of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Fifth Assessment Report. Professor Carr’s research has been supported by the National Science Foundation, the National Geographic Society, the Red Cross/Red Crescent Climate Centre, and others.