Brenda L. Shears

Associate Director Operations and Research Support, Global Institute of Sustainability

Brenda Shears heads the Global Institute of Sustainability's Outreach and Operations areas, which include community engagement, special events, K-12 education, and office and building management. She also works closely with the research development team, spearheading research and proposal support efforts.

From 1997-2004, Shears was Research Coordinator for the Center for Environmental Studies and Administrative Project Manager for the National Science Foundation-sponsored Central Arizona - Phoenix Long-Term Ecological Research Project. She has served as co-principal investigator on several multi-year research awards. Shears is active in the local community through service on the Board of Directors of the Downtown Tempe Community Association and formerly as a member of Tempe Community Council for six years.

From 1987-1997, Shears was project manager and production editor for ASU's Office of Cultural Resource Management in the Department of Anthropology and project manager for the Roosevelt Platform Mound Study, a multi-year archaeological research project conducted in the Tonto Basin of Arizona, through support from the Bureau of Reclamation. Earlier, she was Manager of the Interpretive Services Division of the Museum of the American Indian in New York City, heading up the exhibition and education departments, as well as serving as assistant curator. Shears has been an exhibition advisor to the Ashiwi A:wan Museum and Heritage Center, Pueblo of Zuni, and a consultant to the Gila River Indian Community Cultural Resources Program. She has taught graduate seminars in museum interpretation at ASU and undergraduate courses in museum studies at Hunter College. She has directed a National Endowment for the Humanities-funded computer indexing project for research collections of the Museum of the American Indian, and a Federal Highway Administration-funded ISTEA grant to electronically archive 32 reports on the archaeology of central Phoenix.

Shears' interests include public outreach and education, project management, research administration, sustainability studies, southwestern archaeology, museum administration and curation, and report and proposal production. Shears received her M.A degree in anthropology from Hunter College, and her B.A. in business education from Arizona State University.