The House Professor is the Dean and leader of the House community and provides intellectual and social direction for the House. The House Professor-Dean works in close partnership with the Assistant Dean and the House Council (the student run house-governance structure) in maintaining the welfare of the House community and the well- being of its individual members.
Lori Leonard
Global Development
126 Carl Becker House
Lori Leonard is professor and chair of the Department of Global Development in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS). For more than a decade, her research has focused on sustainable development and environmental themes, motivated in part by her work in Chad, one of the countries most impacted by climate change and extreme heat. She conducted a 12-year field study of oil and gas extraction in Chad, based on following families living in the oilfields, and has written books on its impacts on social and economic life and on Chad’s development prospects. Currently, she is preoccupied with waste and is working on a number of projects to promote more circular societies. These include a research project on used car markets and the regulation and repair of ‘junkers’ in West Africa; a project that explores possibilities for diverting food waste to animal feed in upstate New York in the wake of legislation banning food from landfills; and a circular economy initiative at Cornell (CE@CU) that includes new courses and engaged learning opportunities for students. She has lots of other interests, including rehabbing old houses, gardening, cooking, watching true crime shows, reading great novels, hiking, and learning how to repair just about anything.