Dr. Vivek Shandas

Vivek Shandas received his Ph.D. from the University of Washington, Seattle. He pursued his doctorate to improve the quality of information that ultimately informs environmental and community health policy. During his doctoral studies, Dr. Shandas received the prestigious Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship (IGERT) fellowship from the National Science Foundation to help develop the field of urban ecology. He is a Professor at Portland State University. Early in his career, Dr. Shandas was an outdoor school teacher in Vernonia, Oregon under the camp name “Chickadee.” After joining PSU faculty in 2005, Dr. Shandas worked tirelessly with several faculty to apply and successfully win an IGERT program on Ecosystem Services for Urbanizing Regions (ESUR), which, upon its conclusion in 2017, trained over 35 PhD students. As a health and environmental policy analyst for the New York Governor’s Office, Dr. Shandas grew fascinated with the brokering of information to make policy decisions. His research interests mainly focus on urban ecosystem services, development patterns and environmental impacts, water and air quality, environmental stewardship and engagement, decision-making processes and the role of knowledge and information, and stormwater management.