$1.5 Million Moore Foundation Grant Offers Full Scholarships to Build Environmental Leadership in Amazon

New Haven, Conn., September 12, 2005—The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation has awarded the Yale Environment Management Center a $1.5 million grant to support the joint masters degree program between the Yale School of Management (SOM) and the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies (FES).

The joint masters degree is a three-year program through which students earn both an MBA and a Masters in Environmental Management. The program prepares students to be adept at working in the increasingly interconnected realms of business and environment by combining training in environmental science with traditional leadership and management skills. Established in 1982, it is the oldest program of its kind in the country.

The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation funds organizations whose work supports global environmental conservation, science, and the San Francisco Bay area. The grant received by the Yale Environment Management Center is part of the Foundation’s Andes-Amazon Initiative within its environment program. The Initiative finances and coordinates activities that contribute to biodiversity conservation in the Andes-Amazon region.

The grant will fund tuition, fees, stipends, and summer fellowships for six joint-degree students. Students who receive these scholarships will commit to working in the biodiversity conservation field in South America for at least three years following graduation. The grant will also support visiting scholars or practitioners from the Andes-Amazon region who are engaged in environment or biodiversity conservation issues. Their work at Yale will help them develop short courses and joint-degree programs in environmental management when they return to the region.

“The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation grant will have an enduring impact,” said Professor Garry Brewer, director of the Yale Environment Management Center. “The students and faculty who benefit from this grant will create an even greater benefit in the biodiversity conservation efforts in the Andes-Amazon. They will leave Yale with the skills to make a difference in a region that contains some of the most critical eco-systems in the world. Whether they conduct scientific research in protected habitats, manage an area non-governmental organization, or create a local education program, their efforts will have a global impact.”

The grant will be administered over five years beginning in the 2006-2007 academic year.

Interested applicants should contact the admissions office at mba.admissions@yale.edu or 203.432.5635

For more information on the joint masters degree program, visit: http://emc.som.yale.edu/.

For information about the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation and their Andes-Amazon Initiative, visit: http://www.moore.org.