UNH Today

Miriam “Mim” Nelson, deputy chief sustainability officer at UNH and director of its Sustainability Institute since 2016, has been named president of Hampshire College.

Nelson is a prominent public health and nutrition scholar, educator and government policy advisor, earning national recognition for her expertise as a scientist and the author of groundbreaking studies on public health, nutrition and civic engagement. Nelson succeeds Jonathan Lash, who will retire in June after completing his seventh year as Hampshire College president. She will begin her tenure at Hampshire July 1, 2018.

During her time at the University of New Hampshire, Nelson led the Pathway to Platinum effort, engaging with the entire campus to successfully reach the highest level of sustainability for any university or college in the country.

“Mim’s contribution to the STARS effort built upon more than a decade of focused, collaborative effort on STARS that set the stage to make the pathway to platinum reachable,” says Tom Kelly, founding director of the UNH Sustainability Institute and the chief sustainability officer. “Mim’s ability to spearhead the final push to Platinum was both a sprint and an endurance race, and she turned in a gold medal performance. We congratulate her and Hampshire College on what will be a great step for them both, and while we will miss her, we hope to find collaborative ways to stay connected.”