Melody Brown Burkins, PhD, is the Director of the Institute of Arctic Studies, Senior Associate Director in the John Sloan Dickey Center for International Understanding, and Adjunct Professor of Environmental Studies at Dartmouth. In January 2022, she was also named the UArctic Chair in Science Diplomacy and Inclusion at Dartmouth and also serves on the UArctic academic advisory board, Mimir. With over 30 years of experience as a polar scientist working in academia and governance, she is an advocate for policy-engaged scholarship, experiential education, and the support of science policy and diplomacy initiatives advancing sustainability, inclusive governance, and gender equality in the Arctic and around the world.
A "science diplomat" for Arctic and global issues, Dr. Burkins currently serves as a member of the International Steering Committee for the 4th International Conference on Arctic Research Planning (ICARPIV) and the Planning Group for the 5th International Polar Year (IPY-5). She also serves on the UN Office of Disaster Risk Reduction Global Assessment Report (UNDRR-GAR) Advisory Board and is a Fellow of the International Science Council (ISC). She is a former Chair of both the U.S. National Academies' Board on International Scientific Organizations (BISO) and US National Committee for the International Union of Geological Sciences (USNC-IUGS). In 2020-2022, she was honored to serve on the 15-Member UNESCO Global Independent Expert Group on Universities and the 2030 Agenda (EGU2030) and, with her international co-authors, publish the 2022 UNESCO report: Knowledge-driven actions: transforming higher education for global sustainability.
Her work to advance science policy and diplomacy in the North and globally informs her teaching at Dartmouth (ENVS62: The Practice of Science Policy and Diplomacy), where she challenges students to consider how we ensure the most robust, inclusive & ethical knowledge systems are applied to pressing global challenges, be it climate change or the ethical development and engagement of AI. Committed to the support of next generation thought-leaders in sustainability and inclusion, she believes the work requires prioritizing and incentivizing community-engaged academic collaborations, the respect of diverse knowledge systems and Indigenous Peoples' rights in scholarship and policy, and supporting international efforts to inform and advance the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Born and raised in Fairbanks, Alaska, Dr. Burkins' strong personal and professional connections to the North also inform her work to connect Dartmouth students and faculty with opportunities for Arctic scholarship, international cooperation, and policy engagement. She leads the UArctic Institute for Arctic Policy and serves as Vice Lead of the UArctic Model Arctic Council Thematic Network (TN). In 2018, she had the honor of serving as a formal UArctic Observer to the SDWG and SAO Arctic Council meetings in Rovaniemi, Finland.
Burkins is also an advocate for US-Canada collaborations and programs in the Arctic and globally. In 2017, she worked with Alaskan and Canadian colleagues to host the first US-Canada Arctic Science Diplomacy and Leadership Workshop and, in 2018, created an innovative Arctic science diplomacy workshop with McGill's Science & Policy Exchange. She served as a science policy advisor to the first Fulbright Arctic Initiative (FAI) meeting in Iqaluit, Nunavut, in 2015 and continues to engage with FAI cohorts as they advance timely, policy-relevant Arctic knowledge for decision-makers. She enjoys sharing the experience of developing and leading effective science policy and diplomacy collaborations with colleagues and students at Dartmouth and around the world in talks, webinars, workshops, and panel discussions.
Burkins' early career as a polar geoscientist expanded to science policy and diplomacy when she was awarded the 1999-2000 AAAS Congressional Science and Technology Policy Fellowship sponsored by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and Geological Society of America (GSA). Drawn to policy-making and informed advocacy, she worked briefly as a AAAS Congressional Fellow in Washington, D.C., before accepting a formal position as the energy and environment policy advisor to U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy from Vermont. In that role, she helped advance federal policies for sustainable energy, forestry, agriculture, and conservation practices. Returning north in 2002 with a young family, she spent over a decade at the University of Vermont (UVM) in a diversity of leadership and management roles. This included serving as director of the Northeastern States Research Cooperative, executive director of the Vermont Monitoring Cooperative, associate dean in the College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences, UVM director of federal relations, interim director of the UVM supercomputing facility, and senior director for research and strategic initiatives - including the UVM Transdisciplinary Research Initiatve (TRI) - through 2014. She was the recipient of a 2013 HERS Fellowship for women leaders in higher education and co-edited a book of invited essays, Holistic Engineering Education: Beyond Technology (Springer, 2010), about the future of more inclusive engineering education and practice.
Burkins' work in both academic and policy leadership roles has led to multiple international appointments by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. In 2016, she was the first woman to chair a U.S. delegation to an International Geological Congress (34th IGC, South Africa), creating the first majority-female delegation of U.S. geoscience leaders. In 2016, she served on the global ICSU-ISSC Strategy Working Group to connect scientific organizations across the natural, physical, and social sciences and create the first International Science Council. She has also served as an scholar-delegate for Dartmouth in the advancement of Arctic scholarship and cooperation, most recently, at the 2025 UArctic Assembly in Inari, Sapmi, Finland.
Burkins also believes in the importance of service to her community and state. She served on the State of Vermont's first Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy (CEDS) committee in 2014, the Board of Vermont's Energy Action Network (EAN) from 2012 to 2015, the Board of Trustees for Vermont's oldest secondary school, Thetford Academy from 2017-2021, and the Advisory Council of Emerge Vermont, encouraging women's political leadership and voice (2015-2020).
Burkins earned her B.S. in geology at Yale and both her M.S. and Ph.D. at Dartmouth, focusing her doctoral studies on earth and ecosystem studies in the Antarctic Dry Valleys. She lives in East Thetford, Vermont, with her husband, two sons, and happy dog.