Jan McAlpine, a leading U.S. government adviser, policy-maker, negotiator and facilitator on international issues, has assumed a role new both to her and to the School of Natural Resources and Environment (SNRE) in order to contribute to and learn about collaborative research and education on environmental sustainability.

The 17-year government-service veteran, currently on a one-year sabbatical from the U.S. Department of State, is serving as a senior research fellow with the SNRE and is the first visiting scholar at the Graham Environmental Sustainability Institute.

She assumed her dual role in September and will remain at the University through August 2007. Afterward, McAlpine plans to return to the State Department’s Office of Ecology and Terrestrial Conservation, where she is the senior adviser and negotiator on forests in the Bureau of Oceans, International Environmental and Scientific Affairs.

McAlpine says she chose to come to Michigan because the University is highly respected as a research and teaching institution.

“What I wish to learn,” she says, “is how the basic research carried out at the University can be used to develop sustainability strategies that support practical and realistic problem-solving measures for many world problems.

“In exchange, I hope to substantively contribute to Natural Resources and Environment, the Graham Institute and other schools for which 25 year’s of experience in environment, trade and international policy will be useful.”