Suki H. Hoagland, PhD

Sara (Suki) Hoagland is a Lecturer in the Earth Systems Program of the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability at Stanford University. She completed her PhD in International Relations with a focus on sustainable development, researching food and energy insecurity with rural women in East Africa. As a young professor at American University she created the International Environment and Development Semester which brought students from across the country to D.C to study the policy-making process, intern and then experience a three week field practicum in Kenya in the fall and Costa Rica in the spring. She came to Stanford in 2001 to establish the new Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Environment and Resources and support the creation of the Woods Institute for the Environment. Currently, she directs the internship program, mentors the undergraduate Capstone Project and in 2021 launched the Sustainability in Athletics course with a team of scholar athletes. It was the first time Dr. Hoagland had combined her academic focus on sustainability with her athletic past. Dr. Hoagland was a Champion Pairs Figure Skater, National Silver Medalist in 1972—the year Title IX became law. She went on to compete in 12 straight seasons of varsity athletics at Wesleyan University, which had recently admitted women. She played field hockey, was a spring board diver and founder and co-captain of the women’s swimming and diving team after diving for the men’s team for two years and founded and was co-captain of the women’s lacrosse team—having played on the boys team senior year of high school. Wesleyan’s “Suki Hoagland Award” is presented annually for outstanding contribution to women’s athletics.

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