Faculty Spotlight: Dan Mathis
Dan Mathis is an adjunct professor at Columbia University’s Sustainability Management Program. In his “Equity, Policy and Sustainability” course, he looks forward to teaching students how to integrate equity into their sustainability efforts.
Dan Mathis is currently an adjunct professor at Columbia University Sustainability Management Plan and a policy researcher at Next100, a think tank supported by the Century Foundation. At Next100, his work focuses on the intersection of housing and climate policy, particularly federal and state climate adaptation policy and disaster recovery efforts.
Mathis has extensive experience working in communities across the country as a housing and community development advocate. Before joining Next100, he helped found the Center for Racial Equity at the Florida Housing Coalition, a statewide initiative to address the legacy of housing discrimination and close the state’s homeownership gap.
He is a graduate of Florida A&M University, the University of Florida Hough School of Business, and the University of Michigan Law School. He is an avid amateur photographer who enjoys uncharted walks in the city.
What initially motivated you to pursue the field of sustainability?
I grew up in a Florida community that was almost 90% black (88.7% according to the most recent census). I have fresh memories of the aftermath of Hurricane Andrew in the ’90s, and I wonder if my hometown is ready for another climate-related disaster of the same magnitude. I became interested in sustainability when I started thinking about policies, programs and funding mechanisms designed to support communities like my own. We have an opportunity to use sustainability efforts to not only adapt to our changing environment, but also address the legacy of discrimination and segregation that make communities of color more physically and socially vulnerable to the effects of climate change.
What drew you to the Columbia School of Climate and Professional Studies?
Columbia has a strong community of researchers, scholars, practitioners and advocates deeply involved in addressing the global climate crisis from one of the most dynamic cities on the planet. What more can I ask for?
What courses will you be teaching this fall, and what excites you the most?
I will teach equity, policy and sustainability. I am excited because this course will focus on equity, reflecting the global quest to create a more livable planet, just and equitable, regardless of race/ethnicity, gender or socioeconomic identity. The course is designed to help students learn more about how to incorporate equity into their sustainability efforts and will introduce them to the equity framework and its application in public policy. I look forward to helping develop a group of sustainability practitioners who are well versed in this critical area of practice – capable of identifying and addressing today’s challenges, and ready to work towards a more equitable and sustainable future.
What changes do you hope to see in the future of sustainability?
It’s hard for me to imagine a sustainable future without us fighting climate change together. Our climate crisis will require continued efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to a changing planet. Whether we like it or not, we have to contend with the increasing frequency and severity of extreme weather events, the expanding scale of climate-related displacement, and exacerbating potential inequalities in the impact on specific populations. The opportunity here is to use the climate crisis as an entry point to think more critically about how we can right the wrongs of the past and envision alternative futures. It is my hope that, in the area of sustainable development, we continue to explore differences in climate vulnerability, raise awareness of the inequities in how we prepare for and respond to climate disasters, and develop policies and programs that better address these inequities — especially about black people and other communities of color.
What advice do you have for students pursuing sustainable careers?
Each of us brings knowledge, experience and skills to the field. Sustainability is about people and we need different perspectives and ideas to contribute to developing more thoughtful solutions. In the policy sector, more effective policies are developed due to the recognition and promotion of reality. I think the same principles of engagement apply more broadly to sustainable development: we will learn better when we begin to consider the intersection of issues, critically questioning how we engage, what we value, and where we align our resources coexist – with the planet and with each other.
