Karen J. McGlathery is the recipient of the 2024 Elizabeth Zintl Leadership Award. The Zintl Leadership Award is given to a woman who has exhibited an unusually high degree of service to the university. The winner receives a $1,000 prize for her personal or professional development.

McGlathery is the Sherrell J. Aston Endowed Chair of Environmental Sciences, the director and a founding member of the Environmental Institute (EI), and the Lead Principal Investigator at the Virginia Coast Reserve Long Term Ecological Research Project. Throughout her distinguished career, she has amassed over $65 million in research funding and been cited in research over 14,000 times.

The EI supports interdisciplinary research to find solutions for climate challenges. Since its inception it has funded and/or supported over 70 interdisciplinary projects, including research on the psychological consequences of environmental change and AI equity and transparency in climate science. The EI maintains external partnerships to bring findings from research into policy and practice. The EI leads a state-wide climate restoration initiative providing vital information to the state as they seek to limit climate pollution. As a founding member, McGlathery has been indispensable to the institute’s success. She helped create the EI’s climate collaboratives program, which establishes UVA as a leader in place-based and community-engaged research.

“The successful investment of these seed funds and the conceptualization and implementation of these programs was only possible because of Karen’s leadership,” wrote Andres Clarens, professor and Associate Director of the EI in a letter about McGlathery. “Karen’s greatest strength as a leader is her ability to focus attention on both strategic planning decisions and day-to-day details that are necessary for the success of the EI.”

McGlathery works with state and national advisory boards and task forces on climate challenges and makes a point to involve local community members in the process. She has researchers engage with members of the community to ensure that the research is addressing real issues, and proposed solutions are sustainable and realistic.

“Karen’s leadership made it possible for ERI/EI to go farther than anyone (except maybe her) might have imagined, and she did it in a way that embraced diversity in discipline and perspective amongst all EI participants,” wrote Lisa M. Colosi, civil & environmental engineering professor. “The same skill set and approach have made her uniquely good at environment-related community-engaged research, an area which UVA now leads – thanks to Karen!”

Along with her multitudinous professional accomplishments, McGlathery has also been described as a beloved mentor and person in the UVA community. McGlathery has poured time and energy into ensuring the EI can reach and exceed its potential in the future, serving as a mentor and coach for countless staff members, students, and researchers.

“Karen has not only affected real change through her own research, she has also generously planted the seeds for others’ work to flourish as well, for many generations to come,” wrote Megan A. Barnett, Vice Provost for Pan-University Initiatives.

We are proud to present the 2024 Elizabeth Zintl Leadership Award to Karen J. McGlathery.