Eric Wilburn

Eric Wilburn is MS candidate in the Environmental Engineering & Science program of the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department and MA candidate in Public Policy, finishing both in June of 2018. At Stanford, he works with an interdisciplinary team within the Natural Capital Project to develop policy strategies to foster the strengthening of societal infrastructure, investing in social capital, to encourage citizens to take collective action to protect the environmental commons. Additionally, he is forming an initiative to develop strategies and tools to encourage Americans to reconnect with their intrinsic values of empathy, compassion and gratitude that are key to individual purpose, meaning and happiness and hopefully will lead to collective action to decrease consumption and encourage just and sustainable lifestyles. At the Hoover Institute, Eric contributes as a research associate within the Climate and Security Working Group.

Eric was born and grew up in Washington state, spending most of his time being forced to hike by his parents in the Cascade and Olympic mountain ranges. He received a BS in Environmental Engineering from Tufts University and then spent 2 years serving in the Peace Corps in Mozambique, where he taught physics at a rural secondary school and planned and helped realize nationwide projects that focused on science education and HIV prevention. Eric is currently Director of Programs at an American-based NGO leading a nature conservation and rural development initiative to establish a community managed conservation area for Mount Namuli, Mozambique's second tallest mountain. Eric is grateful for the support during his time at Stanford from a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, a Center for African Studies Summer Fellowship and a Stanford Haas Center Graduate Public Service Fellowship.