Milestone Merger

The college announced in July that the Zilkha Center for Environmental Initiatives would merge with the co-curricular portions of the Center for Environmental Studies (CES). The new Zilkha Center for the Environment (ZCE) combines and builds upon the previous centers’ respective missions of environmental innovation and education.  

Tanja Srebotnjak, who led Zilkha in its previous iteration, is now executive director of ZCE. The college’s environmental studies curriculum, meanwhile, resides within the newly-standalone Environmental Studies Program, chaired by economics professor Sarah Jacobson.

The merger streamlines practices and allows for the expansion of sustainability initiatives, a key pillar of Williams’ 2021 Strategic Plan. One project already underway is the recently founded Williams Environmental Justice Clinic, in which students, faculty and staff are working to identify and address the inequity of pollution patterns. 

In a joint letter to the community announcing the reorganization, Srebotnjak and Jacobson stated, “The new Zilkha Center for the Environment will … be able to better support and collaborate with faculty, staff and students across campus, strengthen our outreach initiatives and forge deeper connections with local communities.”

Henry “Hank” Art, who helped develop the CES more than 50 years ago, agrees. The Rosenburg Professor of Environmental Studies and Biology, emeritus, calls the merger “the outcome of a natural evolution at the interface of applying an academic program and the real-world realities of an academic institution.”