Dr. Melody Brown Burkins

Melody Brown Burkins is the Director of the Institute of Arctic Studies at Dartmouth, where she also serves as Senior Associate Director in the John Sloan Dickey Center for International Understanding and Adjunct Professor in the Department of Environmental Studies. Trained as a polar scientist, she focuses on issues of Arctic and global science diplomacy, climate change, sustainable development, and inclusion. She serves as Special Advisor and Assembly Member to the UArctic global network and is a founding member of the UArctic Gender in Arctic Knowledge Production Thematic Network. Dr. Burkins holds a variety of international positions to advance global science cooperation, inclusion, and sustainability as well. She is as an elected member of the Founding Governing Board of the International Science Council (ISC), Chair of the US National Academies’ Board on International Scientific Organizations (BISO), and recently served as a scientific advisor to the 2021 ISC report, Unleashing Science: Delivering Missions for Sustainability. She also serves on the Global Independent Expert Group on Universities and the 2030 Agenda (EGU2030) convened by UNESCO and the University of Bergen. In the Arctic and globally, she works to advance more inclusive and equitable science systems that meaningfully engage communities, co-create knowledge, and better inform global policy and diplomacy.