Dr. Janelle Knox-Hayes (she/her) is the Lister Brothers Professor of Economic Geography and Planning in the Department of Urban Studies & Planning (DUSP) and leads the RCL as its Director. She holds a visiting research fellowship at the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment at Oxford University. Her research focuses on how social and environmental systems are governed under changing temporal and spatial scales as a consequence of globalization. She has studied the political and economic interface of financial markets and environmental systems and how individuals and organizations plan and make decisions under conditions of socio-economic uncertainty. Her recent projects examine how social values shape sustainable development. Janelle has received an SSRC Abe Fellowship for studying environmental finance in the Asia-Pacific and a Fulbright Fellowship for studying sustainable decision-making in Iceland. As Head of the Environmental Policy & Planning Group at MIT, she integrates environmental and sustainability concerns—including new pedagogical programs on Cities and Climate Change and a new research and teaching cluster on Indigenous Community Planning—into teaching, research, and practice that connects DUSP with Institute-wide initiatives and programs. She also leads the MIT Climate Consortium Climate Policy Working Group. Concerning diversity, equity, and inclusion, she serves as the Co-Director of the School of Architecture & Planning Faculty Diversity Committee, the SA+P representative for the Institute’s Ad Hoc Indigenous Working Group, and as an advisory board member to the SOLVE Indigenous Fellowship. She is the author of a number of peer-reviewed works in prestigious journals and presses. She serves as an editor of the Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy, and Society. Janelle has a PhD in Geography & Environment, MS in Nature, Society, & Environmental Policy from Oxford University, and a BA in Ecology & Evolutionary Biology from the University of Colorado Boulder.