Date:
March 16, 2013
Contact person:
Hari Osofsky, associate professor at the University of Minnesota Law School and interim director of the Consortium on Law and Values in Health, Environment, and the Life Sciences, has been named the 2013–2014 Fesler-Lampert Chair in Urban and Regional Affairs.
For the past two years, Osofsky’s research has focused on voluntary strategies among Twin Cities metropolitan area suburbs to address climate change. Specifically, Osofsky has examined twelve suburban communities and how they have learned from other localities to find cost-effective approaches to reducing carbon emissions, as well as how these initiatives have influenced national and international efforts to address climate change. According to Osofsky, multi-level climate change networks could be more effective in encouraging suburban participation in mitigation efforts by tailoring their strategies to different types of suburbs and by interlinking their initiatives and outreach.
Osofsky plans to use the resources provided by her appointment as Fesler-Lampert Chair to expand her analysis to all Twin Cities metro area suburbs, collecting data and developing a framework for comparatively analyzing what each type of suburb within the region is doing to address climate change. In addition, Osofsky will compare the Twin Cities context to other metropolitan regions, allowing the Twin Cities to learn from what other regions are doing, and for those regions to learn from the Twin Cities. Both efforts can inform local, state, national, and international climate change mitigation strategies.
The Fesler-Lampert Chair in Urban and Regional Affairs is one of four endowed chairs made possible through the generosity and vision of David and Elizabeth Fesler. The endowment is intended to stimulate interdisciplinary research and teaching through the appointment of distinguished, broadly learned scholars to endowed faculty positions at the University of Minnesota. The Fesler-Lampert Chair in Urban and Regional Affairs is appointed for a one-year period and receives approximately $40,000 for research, salary, and logistical support. The funds are jointly administered by the University of Minnesota Foundation and the University of Minnesota.
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