As you may have heard, Christopher Boone, founding dean of the College of Global Futures, is stepping down from his role at the end of this year to work on other exciting projects. Vice Provost and Director of the Global Futures Laboratory Peter Schlosser will lead the college in his place.
This is an exciting transition for Dean Boone, and we wanted to recognize and celebrate his leadership as the founding dean of the college, as well as his leadership as the former dean of the School of Sustainability.
Dean Boone has been on the cutting edge of institutional change since first joining ASU in 2005 and as the first graduate director for the School of Sustainability. Chris served as associate dean from 2010-2013 and then dean from 2013 until 2020. From 2013-2019, he served on the Directorate of the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Institute of Sustainability.
During his tenure as dean of this first-of-its-kind college and the director of the School of Sustainability, it launched six new graduate degrees, three graduate and two undergraduate concurrent degrees, the sustainability minor, a 4+1 accelerated degree program, and undergraduate research and global mentoring programs funded through philanthropy.
A dedicated team player and leader, Chris is a skilled collaborator. Working with colleagues, he helped launch an executive education program, secured scholarships for students, and created global experiential learning and research opportunities. With the launch of the College of Global Futures in July 2020, Chris took the helm as founding dean while continuing to serve on the leadership team of the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Futures Laboratory and as director of SOS until October of this year.
While stepping down as dean, Chris will remain with ASU and continue his work with two major research projects planned. The first will investigate questions he and colleagues identified in a National Academies consensus study on strengthening sustainability education. The second is a book project with colleagues in the U.S. Long Term Ecological Research network that examines the ecology of segregation and strategies for anti-racist urbanism. Chris will also develop a new Humanities Lab course focused on designing the future university.
The entire leadership of the college and its schools, staff and faculty, are fully committed to the present and future success in what we believe continues to be one of the most exciting and forward-looking colleges at ASU and beyond! As we grow and evolve as a college, we will be continuing to develop new opportunities for our students, alumni and community to thrive here and pursue possibilities that would be hard to find elsewhere. We will continue to support and work closely with everyone in the college community as we collectively strive to build a just, equitable, diverse, and inclusive future for everyone.
We are tremendously proud of our students and the ways they are changing the communities you’re a part of and the world we live in — you are all quite amazing, and our hope for a better future for the world.
