Mary Pearl – Environmentalist, Educator and now - Fiction Writer

This week’s guest with Avivah Wittenberg-Cox on 4-Quarter Lives is environmentalist and educator Dr. Mary Pearl. Mary was born and raised to be a New York debutante but had other plans. Her mother wanted her to go to Wellesley College for Women, but Yale opened to women just in the nick of time (1972). She then flew the coop again, becoming a biologist and exploring the behaviours of primates in the wild. This led her to connect the dots between the health of humans, wildlife and eco systems – the concept of conservation medicine - well before this was on everyone’s agenda. As president of the Ecohealth Alliance, Mary helped build careers of local scientists and educators in 20 high-biodiversity countries around the world. She also sits on the boards of Brazil’s Institute for Ecological Research and the Center for Large Landscape Conservation and is convener of the International Biodiversity Network.

Move into Education

Mary’s 3rd Quarter saw her move into academe where she became the founding dean of Stony Brook University’s College of Sustainability. Later, she became the Dean of Macaulay Honors College, the City University of New York’s school for its top students. At 72, she decided to step back and to go to Stanford’s Distinguished Careers Institute, a move that has taken her in interesting, and surprising new directions.

This episode was recorded in 2022, when Mary was still at Stanford. Since then she has continued to write, and has recently become an advisor to the Helping Africa  Foundation for their program extending high quality education, especially in the STEM fields, to every district in Ghana.

Some useful links:

* Dr. Mary Pearl bio: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_C._Pearl

* Stanford Distinguished Careers Institute: https://dci.stanford.edu

* International Biodiversity Network: https://www.biodiversitynetwork.org

* Center for Large Landscape Conservation: https://largelandscapes.org

* Helping Africa Foundation: https://helpingafrica.org

Get full access to Elderberries at elderberries.substack.com/subscribe