Melissa Brown Goodall Appointed Deputy Director of the MacMillan Center at Yale

Dr. Melissa Brown Goodall has joined the Whitney and Betty MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies at Yale as Deputy Director. In this role, she will help guide the Center’s overall strategy and oversee its academic programs, grant programs, fellowship and visiting scholar programs, and communications.

“I am delighted that Melissa is returning to Yale in this senior management role,” said Steven I. Wilkinson, Henry R. Luce Director of the MacMillan Center and Vice Provost for Global Strategy. “Her broad experience in managing complex initiatives in environmental studies, her deep international networks, and her knowledge of Yale make for a great combination of skills for this important leadership role.”

Brown Goodall joins MacMillan from the University of Pennsylvania, where she served as the inaugural Senior Director of the Environmental Innovations Initiative. Formed in 2020, the mission of the initiative is to “catalyze solutions to significant real-world environmental challenges” by fostering collaboration across disciplines, leading inclusive and dynamic programming on- and off-campus and forming strategic partnerships. Before joining Penn in 2021, Brown Goodall was at Yale University for nearly 20 years—first with the School of the Environment, then with the Center for Environmental Law and Policy, and finally with the Office of Sustainability.

The MacMillan Center was a constant resource for Brown Goodall throughout her time at Yale. “Now, as we grapple globally with conflict, COVID recovery, economic uncertainty, and climate change, the MacMillan Center’s commitment to promoting understanding of the world and the role of the United States in the world is vital,” she said. “I am thrilled to be joining such a dynamic team at such a critical time.”  

Prior to her career in academia, Brown Goodall worked for the United Nations Development Programme, managing projects focused on addressing climate change in the Global South. She is a member of the external advisory board of the United Nations University Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability and a member of the Intellectual Community of the Global Climate Innovation Centre. She is also a senior fellow with the International Sustainable Campus Network, where she oversees the Global University Climate Forum, represents the Network in global negotiations, and is helping to create a Latin American Chapter. She earned her PhD and MS degrees from Antioch University and her BFA from New York University.