Dean's Forum: Karin Shepardson
The School of Engineering hosted a Dean's Forum with Karin Shepardson, EG88, on April 11, 2025. Shepardson is a Lead Environmental Specialist in the World Bank’s Middle East and North Africa Region, currently focused on air pollution management, climate change, and the green economic transition in Egypt. Her talk, "Charting a Path from the Classroom to Global Environmental Sustainability" was open to students, faculty, and staff.
Charting a Path from the Classroom to Global Environmental Sustainability
Sustainability can be an amorphous term, as it is more about a practice of analysis or methods of thinking to help make better decisions while considering or trying to avert factors that could have negative consequences in the long term. Sustainability is therefore typically better understood within a specific context or challenge, objective, or goal. And to make things even more complex, what is short-, medium-, and long-term will fluctuate depending on the nature of the issue, its challenge, and its relative importance. Sustainable approaches also need to consider trade-offs and how decisions and policies impact both finite and renewable resources.
As the nature of environmental challenges are constantly evolving and increasingly global – there is a need for a strong pipeline of new practitioners to commit to work in careers and future jobs to help solve environmental sustainability challenges spanning a wide range of issues - some known, and many others still yet to unfold in the next decades ahead. Tufts can provide an ideal place to spend formative years to train for a future career focused on environmental sustainability because of Tufts’ high-level commitment to interdisciplinary teaching, unmatched flexibility offered to students at both undergraduate and graduate levels to mix and match courses, and simply by immersing in an understanding academic environment.
Shepardson will speak about how some of her early training, including at Tufts (EG88), influenced her path to a long career focused on global environmental issues. She will also reflect on some of the many largely positive environmental successes she has had the privilege to be part of firsthand, but also give some examples of trade-offs and uncertainties in the short term that underscore the importance of continuing to press on science and innovation for next generation solutions.
Why interdisciplinary thinking is key
Alumna Karin Shepardson, EG88, explored complex environmental challenges and the need for a new generation of innovative problem solvers. She credited her Tufts education for fostering the kind of intellectual flexibility needed to succeed in the field.
“It is tremendously useful to be cross-trained,” she said, “to be able to go up and down, far and wide.”
About Karin Shepardson
Karin Shepardson is a Lead Environmental Specialist in the World Bank’s Middle East and North Africa Region, currently focused on air pollution management, climate change, and the green economic transition in Egypt. Prior to this role, she was responsible for leading the India Air Quality Management program, a solid waste management project in the Maldives, and analytic work on plastic waste management in the rivers and seas of South Asia.
She has held several corporate positions at the World Bank, including leading borrower capacity development for the roll-out of the Bank’s Environmental and Social Framework, and serving as the Executive Coordinator and Program Manager for the Montreal Protocol, the Global Environment Facility, and several Climate Adaptation Fund Programs. She has also been a Sustainable Development Program Leader for the West Balkans and Southeast Europe region and has led a wide range of operational work across Latin America, East Asia, and Europe and Central Asia. She joined the World Bank in 1994 through the Young Professional Program and has been based in the Washington, D.C., Singapore, and Zagreb, Croatia, World Bank offices.
Prior to joining the World Bank, she worked as a consulting engineer with Metcalf & Eddy on large environmental and infrastructure programs, including the Boston Harbor Cleanup and the Central Artery/Third Harbor Tunnel. She holds a master’s degree from Tufts University in Urban and Environmental Policy and Civil Engineering, and a bachelor’s degree from Macalester College with majors in Economics and Business and Environmental Studies.