February 28, 2023

Greetings Nelson staff, faculty, and grads,

This is to update you on the progress of our strategic planning efforts. In the Fall of 2022, the major units of the Nelson Institute met in separate sessions and summarized the status of their unit, their aspirations, and challenges/barriers. The results were compiled into a compendium.  I strongly urge everyone to download the document and take a close look at it. The compendium describes, in meaningful details, the breadth of our activities but also the many harmonious themes/actions that unite the Institute as a whole greater than its parts. It will, on its own, serve as a critical planning document as we go forward.

Second, we took this document into a day-long planning session where we discussed the institute's overarching goals, as well as key plans/ideas for future activities that can further focus our efforts and provide "big picture" results for the environment, in terms of scholarships, engagement, and education. That session, and its results, have been compiled into a set of notes and diverse recommendations.

The next steps will be:

1. To hold a focused session of key Institute representatives to take the recommendations and ideas already generated and render them down to a set of big-picture, 3-5 year goals, accompanied by specific action recommendations to be taken by the Institute to help meet these goals. The resulting plan will be ratified by governance and then activated in "local" units (i.e. the ones represented in the compendium) to aid in their own planning, harmonizing individual unit plans with the larger foci of the Division.
2. To review the Institute's stated mission and vision, and revise it based on our current context and our emerging goals, bringing the overarching goals of the Institute into the mid-21^st century and slaying out a path for our collective Environmental Futures. These revised statements will also receive further review and ratification.

Reporting, annual presentations, and periodic reports will all be keyed, between 2023 and 2027, to include measures of progress for all stated goals, against benchmarks established in the present. Further decisions and investments will also follow these goals, helping us set priorities and grow our impact on the planet, our students, and our diverse constituents.

Please contact me if you have questions about our process or products.

Best wishes,

Paul

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Paul Robbins

Dean, Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies