David B. Sandalow, Environment Expert and Former Assistant Secretary of State, to Join Brookings

David B. Sandalow, a former assistant secretary of state for oceans, environment, and science, will join the Brookings Institution September 22 as a guest scholar in the Foreign Policy Studies program. While at Brookings, Sandalow will research and write about conservation and global environment issues.

“I’m very pleased that David has chosen to join Brookings,” said James B. Steinberg, vice president and director of Foreign Policy Studies. “He’s been a leader on such challenging topics as global warming, biotechnology, marine conservation, and the role of sustainable development in foreign policy and will be a great addition to our program.”

Sandalow is currently executive vice president of World Wildlife Fund (WWF), where he helps manage field-based conservation, advocacy, and research programs around the world. Prior to joining WWF, Sandalow served as assistant secretary of state for oceans, environment, and science in the Clinton administration, where he helped shape and implement U.S. diplomacy on a wide range of environment, science, and technology topics, including global warming, biotechnology, and the environmental standards of export credit agencies.

Before joining the State Department, Sandalow served jointly as senior director for environmental affairs at the National Security Council and associate director for the global environment at the White House Council on Environmental Quality. In those roles, he helped advise the president and vice president on global environment issues.

Sandalow has been a member of the Sustainable Development Roundtable at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in Paris, France, a member of the American Bar Association (ABA) Standing Committee on Environmental Law, and co-chair of the ABA’s Annual Conference on Environmental Law. He has been a volunteer election observer in the Philippines and instructor on election observing in Nepal.

Sandalow was a Stimson Fellow at Yale University. Earlier this year, he delivered the commencement address at the University of Michigan School of Natural Resources and the Environment. He received his J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School in 1982 and a B.A. in Philosophy from Yale College in 1978.