Brinda Sarathy

Brinda Sarathy

Dr. Brinda Sarathy, Pitzer College professor of Environmental Analysis and director of the
Robert Redford Conservancy for Southern California Sustainability, is an accomplished scholar, teacher, and administrator. Her expertise includes U.S. environmental policy, California water politics, natural resource management, and environmental justice. Her books include Partnerships for Empowerment: Participatory Research for Community-Based Natural Resource Management (2008), Pineros: Latino Labour and the Changing Face of Forestry in the Pacific Northwest (2012), and Inevitably Toxic: Historic Cases of Contamination, Exposure and Expertise (2018).  

As director of the Redford Conservancy, Professor Sarathy spearheaded a collaborative planning process that resulted in an academically rigorous and advocacy-oriented program around environmental sustainability and justice. Under her leadership, the Redford Conservancy garnered numerous accolades including Net Zero Energy certification and Los Angeles Project of the Year. She has worked in partnership with Tongva elders and community members to prioritize Indigenous knowledge and cultural revival via the Redford Conservancy, and successfully grown the financial resources of the institution for the benefit of students and wider community.

For the 2020-21 academic year, Professor Sarathy won several prestigious awards including a Fulbright-Nehru Academic and Professional Excellence Fellowship, an American Council of Learned Societies Fellowship, and a 3-month appointment as a Dibner Research Fellow in the History of Science and Technology at the Huntington Library. Sarathy’s current research examines the environmental history of the first Superfund site in California, the Stringfellow Acid Pits. Significantly, this work considers how institutions of expertise often exclude the experiences of those most exposed to harm and, despite deep and persistent uncertainties, authority figures have been called on to minimize concerns about hazardous substances, thus facilitating industrial, military, and economic expansion.

Sarathy is a consulting advisor to environmental documentary filmmakers funded by The
Redford Center, which is headquartered at The Presidio in San Francisco. She holds a Ph.D. and M.S. in environmental science, policy, and management from the University of California, Berkeley, and a B.A. from McGill University.
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