Master Faculty List

Faculty & Staff

Maria Ivanova, PhD

Associate Professor of Global Governance and Graduate Program Director, Department of Conflict Resolution, Human Security, and Global Governance, McCormack Graduate School
Director of Center for Governance and Sustainability

Areas of Expertise

Global governance, environmental law and policy, multilateral environmental agreements, climate change, Sustainable Development Goals, US foreign environmental policy, international organizations, science-policy interface, United Nations reform, sustainability on campuses and in organizations.

Degrees

PhD, Yale University (with distinction)
Master’s in Environmental Management, Yale University
Master’s in International Relations, Yale University
BA, Mount Holyoke College (summa cum laude)

Professional Publications & Contributions

• Ivanova, Maria. The Untold Story of the World’s Leading Environmental Institution: UNEP at Fifty. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2021.
• Ivanova, Maria. “Coloring the UN Environmental”, Global Governance: A Review of Multilateralism and International Organizations 26, 2 (2020): 307-324, doi: https://doi.org/10.1163/19426720-02602007
• Esty, Daniel and Maria Ivanova, eds. Global Environmental Governance: Options & Opportunities. New Haven, CT: Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, 2002.
• For complete list of publications, visit Prof. Ivanova’s website

Additional Information

Maria Ivanova is international relations and environmental policy scholar. She is Associate Professor of Global Governance, Director of the Center for Governance and Sustainability at the University of Massachusetts Boston and Director of the PhD and MA programs in global governance and human security. She is also a visiting scholar at the Center for Collective Intelligence at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Prof. Ivanova was appointed for a four-year term to the World Climate Research Program (WCRP) Joint Scientific Committee (JSC) in 2021.  

Ivanova’s work focuses on the performance of international institutions, implementation of international environmental agreements, and sustainability. Her career, marked by teaching excellence and policy leadership, has bridged academia and policy. Her academic work has been recognized for bringing analytical rigor and innovative input to the international negotiations on reforming the UN system for environment. She works closely with national governments, UN agencies, and convention secretariats in providing an academic perspective into their international environmental governance work. She has studied the United Nations Environment Programme and the international efforts on climate change. Currently, she studies national performance on global environmental conventions.  

Prof. Ivanova’s book, The Untold Story of the World's Leading Environmental Institution: UNEP at Fifty, was published by MIT Press in 2021. The Untold Story was included in “12 new books with fresh approaches to act on climate change” by Yale Climate Communications in January 2021, in “7 must-read books” list on environment by the World Economic Forum in March 2021, and was #1 in new releases on environmental and natural resource law on Amazon for 1 week upon release in February 2021. The Review of International Organizations published a review of the book in June 2021. 

In May, 2021, Prof. Ivanova launched the UNEP at 50 Dialogue Series, which commemorates UNEP’s 50th anniversary in conversation with prominent leaders. The first two dialogues featured UNEP Executive Director Inger Andersen and former UNEP Executive Director and current UNDP Administrator Achim Steiner. In September 2021, the dialogues continue with Kenyan activist Wanjira Mathai of the World Resource Institute.  

From 2014 to 2018, Ivanova served as a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon. She is also an Andrew Carnegie Fellow and the Chair of the Board of the UN University Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability (UNU-IAS) and serves on the Yale Sustainability Advisory Council, and on the Carnegie Climate Governance Initiative (C2G2) Advisory Group. In 2018, Ivanova chaired the jury for the $5 million New Shape Prize for global governance by the Global Challenges Foundation. 

Prof. Ivanova served as a coordinating lead author of the Global Environmental Outlook (GEO-5), the flagship UN environmental assessment. She is also the editor of the Governance and Sustainability Issue Brief Series and of the Global Leadership Dialogues and serves on the editorial board of the Global Environmental Politics journal and the Sustainability Science journal. 

Maria Ivanova was a Co-PI of a $3.1mln National Science Foundation program on Coasts and Communities training doctoral students as environmental problem solvers and focusing on the complex interactions of natural and human systems in urban and urbanizing coastal areas across Massachusetts Bay and in Eastern Africa. 

From 2005 to 2010, Maria Ivanova was on the faculty at the College of William and Mary in Virginia. Previously, she worked at the Environment Directorate of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in Paris and at the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency in Stockholm. She is the recipient of the 2007 Professor of the Year Award from Member 13 at the College of William and Mary, the 2010 Mary Lyon Award from Mount Holyoke College, and the 2010 Goddess Artemis Award from the Euro-American Women’s Council. 

Talks: 

UNEP Book launch events – with Inger Andersen and the President of UNEA Minister Sveinung Rotevatn of Norway

Dr. Ivanova joined a panel of experts, governments, business leaders, scientists and civil society at the closing session of the Third Global Session of the UN Science-Policy-Business-Forum on 20 February 2021 

Dr. Ivanova set the scene for the Turning the Tide on Marine Plastic: How UNEA 5 can be a turning point discussion for Act #ForNature Global Online Forum on World Oceans Day 8 June 2020 

Dr. Ivanova hosted Christiana Figueres, former Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and architect of the Paris Agreement as the Robert C. Wood Professorship Fellow, 16 April 2020 

Dr. Ivanova delivered “Student and Scholars as Diplomats: How Academia Matters for the Global Environment” Campus on the Common Tent Talk, October 2014, Boston, MA. 

Interviews: 

Interviewed in World Insight with Tian Wei: United Nations Environment Programme convenes 5th session of United Nations Environment Assembly. CGTN, 23 February 2021. 

Interviewed at Living on Earth with Steve Curwood. PRX, 21 April 2021. 

Interviewed for Earth Day: The Earth, Governance and UNEP with Maria Ivanova, PhD. Wide Field with Vivian Birchall, Acton TV, 13 April, 2021. 

Interviewed at Forum Network: A Spotlight On The Impact Of The Wildlife Trade along with PhD student Candace Famiglietti), WGBH, 14 July, 2020. 

Interviewed for Earth Day: On Earth Day at 50. The Watchdog, 98.1 FM 97.7, April 22, 2020. 

Interviewed for Earth Day: Earth Day at 50 Special. The Attitude with Arnie Arnesen, WNHN 94.7, April 22, 2020.