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Director: Patricia M. DeMarco, Ph.D.

Patricia DeMarco is the Director of the Rachel Carson Institute in the School of Sustainability and the Environment at Chatham University.  The Rachel Carson Institute, established in 1989, is an internationally focused center for research, education and outreach around the principles of systems thinking and multidisciplinary investigation that marked Rachel Carson’s work.  The Rachel Carson Institute mission is: to promote and extend the legacy of Rachel Carson; to build on her commitment to publicly accessible science; and to share her vision of people as part of a sustainable web of life. 

Patricia DeMarco became Director of the Rachel Carson Institute in January 2011, following a five year term as Executive Director of the Rachel Carson Homestead Association.  She is a native of Pittsburgh, and received a Bachelor of Science and a Doctorate in Biology from the University of Pittsburgh.

 She pursued a career in biochemical genetics research at Yale University and at Boston University School of Medicine with a focus on mutation mechanisms. Following her academic career, she turned her attention to energy and environmental policy through her work as Executive Director of the Power Facilities Evaluation Council and as staff to the Governor of Connecticut on such issues as nuclear power plant safety, energy conservation, and clean fuels technology.  She worked as the manager of resource development for the Connecticut Municipal Electric Energy Co-operative and, as a loaned executive, started up a technology development firm to commercialize declassified defense technology.  She moved to Alaska in 1998 to take the position of President of the Anchorage Economic Development Corporation.  While in Alaska, she served as a Commissioner of the Regulatory Commission of Alaska, with jurisdiction over all electric, gas, water, refuse utilities, and oil and gas pipelines.  From 2002 to 2005, she served as Associate Dean for the College of Business and Public Policy at the University of Alaska Anchorage.