ISSE Staff
Mary English
Research Leader
Office Phone: (865) 974-3825
Email: menglish@utk.edu
Ph.D., Sociology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville
M.S., Regional Planning, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
B.A., American Literature, Brown University
Dr. English is an adjunct to the Department of Philosophy and an Associate of the Center for Applied and Professional Ethics at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. She also teaches a graduate course in architectural ethics.
Her current research interests include land use, transportation, and growth management planning at the local and state levels, and participatory processes for environmental decision making.
Over the past 20 years, Dr. English's work has focused on the social and political aspects of various environmental management issues—e.g., problems with siting controversial projects and with cleaning up Superfund sites, policies to promote the restoration and reuse of brownfield sites, the effectiveness and acceptability of institutional controls as part of contaminated site cleanups, and the nature of collaborative interactions between electric utilities and nonutility parties. As a parallel, her research has focused on ways in which environmental decision making processes can be improved—e.g., alternative mechanisms for involving stakeholders in environmental decisions, how "the community" should be defined within the context of community-based environmental efforts, information-gathering and analytic tools to improve environmental decision making, and guidance on conducting socioeconomic impact assessments.
Dr. English is a member of the Tennessee Air Pollution Control Board and the Board on Environmental Studies and Toxicology of the National Research Council (NRC). She has served on the NRC’s Board on Radioactive Waste Management and several NRC study committees, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s National Environmental Justice Advisory Council, and the National League of Women Voters’ Advisory Committee to the Nuclear Waste Education Project.
Her hobbies include rowing, bicycling, and hiking.
Selected Publications
- M. R. English. 2007. The Resource Team in a Context Sensitive Solutions Process. A "lessons learned" report based on observations of two CSS processes conducted for the Tennessee Department of Transportation.
- M.R. English, C. Blad, and S.T. Huss. 2006. Growth Plans and Infrastructure Needs in Tennessee: A Nine-County Analysis. Report prepared for the Tennessee Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations.
- M.R. English and S.T. Huss. 2005. Population and Urbanization. In J. Nolt, A Land Imperiled: The Declining Health of the Southern Appalachian Bioregion. Knoxville, TN: University of Tennessee Press.
- M.R. English. 2004. Environmental Risk and Justice. In T.L. McDaniels and M.J. Small, eds., Risk Analysis and Society: Interdisciplinary Perspectives, Cambridge University Press. Initially presented at “Risk and Governance: An International Symposium,” Airlie Conference Center, Warrenton, VA, June 21-25, 2000 (commissioned paper).
- M.R. English, J.H. Peretz, and M.J. Manderschied. 2004. Building Communities While Building Plans: A Review of Techniques for Participatory Planning Processes. Public Administration Quarterly, vol. 28, no. 2.
- M.R. English. Growth Patterns in Tennessee. 2003. Summary report prepared for the Tennessee Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations by the Energy, Environment and Resources Center, University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
- S. Richards, D. Middendorf, F. Wegmann, G. Reed, T. Urbanik, M. English, A. Chatterjee, and J. Tidwell. 2003. Tennessee Department of Transportation 15 Project Case Study. Prepared for the Commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Transportation by the Center for Transportation Research, University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
- M.R. English and J.D. Burris. 2003. Linking Transportation and Land Use Planning: Evaluating and Improving Linkages. Report to the Tennessee Delegation of the National Governors Association Policy Academy by the Energy, Environment and Resources Center, University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
- M.R. English and J.R. Hoffman. 2001. Planning for Rural Areas in Tennessee under PC 1101. White Paper prepared for the Tennessee Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations by the Energy, Environment and Resources Center, University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
- M.R. English. 2000. Who Are the Stakeholders in Environmental Risk Decisions? How Should They Be Involved? Risk: Health, Safety & Environment, vol. 11, no. 3. Initially presented at VALDOR: Values in Decisions on Risk, A Symposium in the RISCOM Programme Addressing Transparency in Risk Assessment and Decision Making, Stockholm, Sweden, June 13-17, 1999 (invited paper).
- B. Tonn, M. English, and C. Travis. 2000. A Framework for Understanding and Improving Environmental Decision Making. Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, vol. 43, no. 2.
- M.R. English and R.B. Inerfeld. 1999. Institutional Controls for Contaminated Sites: Help or Hazard? Risk: Health, Safety & Environment, vol. 10, no. 2.
- J.D. Peine, R.E. Jones, M.R. English, and S.E. Wallace. 1999. Contributions of Sociology to Ecosystem Management. In H. K. Cordell, ed., Integrating Social Science and Ecosystem Management. Champaign, IL: Sagamore Press.
- V.H. Dale and M.R. English, eds. 1999. Tools to Aid Environmental Decision Making. New York: Springer-Verlag.