Prof. Dr. Sabine O'hara
Dean of CAUSES and Landgrant Programs and Professor of Agricultural and Environmental Economics
Dr. Sabine O'Hara is the founding Dean of CAUSES and Landgrant Programs, of the College of Agriculture, Urban Sustainability and Environmental Sciences (CAUSES) at the University of the District of Columbia (UDC). UDC is the only public university in Washington DC, and the only exclusively urban landgrant university in the United States. As Dean of CAUSES, Dr. O’Hara is responsible for academic, research and community outreach programs in the tradition of landgrant universities, and is leading the University’s efforts to build a cutting edge model for urban agriculture and urban sustainability that improves the quality of life and economic opportunity for urban populations, and the resilience of urban communities.
Dr. O’Hara is a respected author, researcher, and higher education executive, and is well known for her expertise in sustainable economic development, community based assessment, urban agriculture, and global education. She has experience in virtually every aspect of university administration including curriculum development, strategic planning, program accreditation, participatory research, and international partnerships.
Dr. O'Hara is a strong advocate of higher education who believes that education cannot merely provide answers to our questions, but must also question our answers. She is the founder and principal of Global Ecology LLC, the 10th President of Roanoke College in Salem, Virginia, and held faculty and administrative positions at Green Mountain College in Vermont, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, in Troy New York, and as Executive Director of the Council for International Exchange of Scholars, a preeminent international exchange organization that administers the Fulbright Scholar Program.
A native of Germany, O'Hara earned doctoral and Master’s degrees in environmental and agricultural economics from the University of Göttingen, Germany. She serves on the board of several national and international organizations including as past president of the International Society for Ecological Economics and the US Society of Ecological Economics, Advisory Board member of King Abdulaziz University in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, and as editorial board member of several academic journals.
Selected publications
- O’Hara, S. 2017. „The Urban Food Hubs Solution: Building Capacity in Urban Communities“. MetropolitanUniversities Journal. Vol. 28 No. 1 (Winter 2017), DOI: 10.18060/21477
- O’Hara, S. 2016.“Production in Context: The Concept of Sustaining Production”. in: Farley, J., Malghan, D. (eds.). Beyond Uneconomic Growth, Vol. 2: Festschrift in Honor of Herman Daly. UVM, Burlington, VT
- O’Hara, S. 2014. “Everything Needs Care: Toward a Relevant Contextual View of the Economy” in: M. Bjørnholt and A. McKay (editors) Counting on Marilyn Waring: New Advances in Feminist Economics. Demeter Press. UK and Canada.
- O’Hara, S. 2001. “The Challenges of Valuation: Ecological Economics between Matter and Meaning.” in: C. Cleveland, R. Costanza, and D. Stern (eds.) The Nature of Economics and the Economics of Nature. Edward Elgar, Northampton, MA. p. 89-108.
- O’Hara, S. 1999. “Economics, Ecology and Quality of Life: Who Evaluates”. Feminist Economics. Vol.5(2):83-89.